movie analysis*

Title: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Genre: Fiction (Realistic)

Characters:

• Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. He was named after a swimming pool in Paris, despite the fact that neither his father nor his mother particularly liked swimming. The story is told as a narrative from the perspective of a middle-aged Pi, now married and with his own family, and living in Canada. At the time of main events of the story, he is sixteen years old. He recounts the story of his life and his 227-day journey on a lifeboat when his ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during a voyage to North America.
• Richard Parker is a tiger that is stranded on the lifeboat with Pi when the ship sinks. The tiger lives on the lifeboat with Pi and is kept alive with the food and water Pi delivers. Richard Parker develops a relationship with Pi that allows them to coexist in their struggle.
• Pi's Mother/Orange Juice - Pi's mother is named Gita, but she's mostly just referred to as "Mother." She's an incredibly warm presence for Pi. She's sympathetic when his father tries to teach him a lesson about the danger of animals with the zoo's tiger. When Pi was stating the true story to the Japanese people who interviewed him, they didn't believe him. Instead, Pi told them another story in which the orangutan was assumed to be his mother.
• The Hyena/The Cook - If there's anything like pure evil in Life of Pi, it comes in the form of the hyena, who, in Pi's second version of his experiences at sea, is the cook. In a way, it's much more understandable in the form of the hyena. It's a vicious animal and so it shouldn't surprise us that the hyena would eat a zebra and kill an orangutan.
• The Zebra/The Taiwanese Sailor - The Taiwanese sailor simply suffers. In the second (animal-less) story told by Pi, the cook needlessly amputates the sailor's broken leg to use as fishing bait. The zebra, in the story with animals, breaks his leg jumping onto the lifeboat only for the hyena to tear off the limb. Really, the hyena eats the zebra alive, and Richard Parker finishes the job. The sailor is on the receiving end of grave injustice.
• Pi's father, Santosh, is a lovable guy: devoted to his business and family, intelligent, and though impatient with Pi's religious experimentation, ultimately kind. Pi's father is also pretty wise. He's practical, pragmatic, and a successful zookeeper.
• Pi's brother, Ravi has such a lively and lighthearted spirit. He's irreverent.
• Francis Adirumbasamy – also known as Mamaji is the guru of all gurus. He's the guy who tells the author about Pi. Not only does he direct the author to Pi, he also teaches Pi how to swim. The ability to swim turns into a pretty practical gift when Pi ends up in the middle of the ocean.
• Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba - They're hapless. They disagree and lose focus. They're the agnostics of the book and perhaps mirror the response of the critical, secular reader. It's telling that these two want to know the "straight facts" of the story that will explain the mechanical failure of the Tsimstum. They have no interest in a surprising, beautiful, messy story.

Setting: 1960-1976. Pondicherry, India; the Pacific Ocean; Mexico; Canada

Plot:
     In the first part of the movie, the adult Pi reminisces about his childhood. He was named Piscine Molitor Patel after a swimming pool in France. When he begun secondary school, he decided to have his nickname changed to "Pi" because he was always bullied by his classmates and friends and was called "Pissing Patel".  Therefore, he explains to each of his class where he got his nickname "Pi" by discussing the value of Pi in mathematics. His father, being a zoo-keeper in Pondicherry, provides the family a comfortable lifestyle and a little knowledge about animals.

     Pi was raised in India and they practice Hinduism. One day, Ravi challenged Pi to drink the holy water. After which, Pi was able to go to Church and it seems he wants to love God after the priest has discussed to him God's love to the people. He tries to understand every religion and ended believing three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Hindu.

      Eventually, Pi's father decides to sell the zoo and the animals, as well, to various zoos before they move to Canada. In the second part of the movie, Pi's family together with their animals embark on Tsimstum to Canada. Unfortunately, the freighter meets a storm and it sank, together with his mother, father, brother, other animals and passengers of the ship. Luckily, Pi was able to escape with a lifeboat together with the zebra, the hyena, and the orangutan.

       Striving for survival, the hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan. At this point, Pi discovered that eventually, the tiger named Richard Parker had been with him in the lifeboat after it kills the hyena. Afraid of the tiger, Pi constructs a floating raft and decides to separate from the tiger. What Pi gets to satisfy his hunger and thirst, he also deliver some to Richard Parker to keep him satisfied, and trains him to overcome seasickness through whistles. After all of their struggle, the tiger now managed to tolerate Pi's presence and they both lived together in the boat.

      There was one time when Pi and Richard Parker was drifted to an algae island with a lot of meerkats, in which they later discovered to be carnivorous, they decided to leave. After 227 days, the lifeboat washes up onto the coast of Mexico and Richard Parker was so delighted to finally see a nearby jungle. He immediately escaped and left his friend, Pi, without even saying goodbye. This made Pi so sad to finally let go of his friend whom he considered to be one of the reason that he was alive.

       In the last part of the movie, two Japanese people spoke to Pi to ask why the ship sank. Pi told them the true story but they did not believe him. Left without a choice, Pi tells an alternative story. The officials didn't get any reason of why the ship sank. Now, Pi asks the writer which of the two stories he prefer, and he believed in the story with the animals.

Theme:

• The Will to Live. This movie is all about the struggle to survive. This will to live is proven by Pi's eating of fish to sustain himself, even though he is a vegetarian. Even the animals in the boat struggled to survive, like the hyena eating the zebra and the orangutan, yet the two managed to fight because they also want to live. Richard Parker, after eating the hyena, and after jumping to the water for him to feed himself is a signal of every creature's will to survive.
• Faith in God. Throughout the movie, Pi clearly shows to the viewers that indeed, his belief in God can never be taken away from him. Pi's devotion has been tested several times through a lot of hardships he encountered along his journey, yet he never seemed to doubt God. He leaves it all to God, and he never did blamed God for his situation.

Symbolism:

• The color Orange. The color seems to symbolize survival and security because the life jacket, the whistle, the life buoy, the tiger and even the notebook which he considered his greatest treasure in the boat is orange in color. These things I've mentioned aided Pi throughout his journey. Imagining Pi without these things, is an impossible survival. Richard Parker was the only creature that Pi can talk to while at sea. And this is a big help for Pi to never lose hope because he believes he and the tiger deserves to live. Even the monkey was named Orange Juice, and the orangutan helped Pi through giving him emotional support to surpass the tragedy. Orange Juice once surprised Pi when he hit the hyena, yet she died later on.
• The Carnivorous Island. The island was so beautiful at day, an ideal comfortable life, with all the seaweeds, the meerkats, and the freshwater ponds it contain, yet it seemed to transform at night while it kills fishes and disappears again at day. For me, the island symbolizes us and our faith because if we satisfy ourselves with whatever we want to eat and drink, whatever we want to do, and all the things that can gratify us of physical comfort, we might not be conscious that what we maybe doing is wrong, and this may kill us. If Pi settled on that island, he must have been dead. Yet, he preferred to brave the seas, and there he had his reward of survival. This may symbolize our life. That challenges may be encountered, but God will always give us rest.

1. What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole?

      -"Life of Pi" simply narrates the life of Pi itself as it struggles to survive and live life. This tells the viewers how life is so important to other people, so we better value it and we are so lucky to have it.

2. Among the characters, to whom can you relate to?

   -Among the characters, I can say I'm more like Pi. Even though I couldn't imagine myself surviving after 227 days at sea, I can say I'm willing to struggle for my life. I know how to handle my fears, and I know how to adjust in certain situations in which some people are strangers. I'm a curious person and I'm fund of asking. Like Pi, I also value my life, and I have a strong grip in my faith in God.

3. Which part of the presentation struck you the most? Why?

       -"I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye." In this scene, Richard Parker left Pi and Pi seems to expect that the tiger would be turning back to him and to bid goodbye, yet he was disappointed. This struck me most because at a certain point in our lives, we will also be leaving or we will be left behind by the people we love. May it be death or not, I know it's painful when you know you still want to be with them, yet your chances are over. What's left of you is your choice of letting go and moving on. Nothing will ever be permanent in our life, except for the fact that God will always be with us and he will never abandon us.

4. What is the movie’s message?
     -After the movie, viewers will eventually have a lot of interpretations. But for me, the movies' message is: "Life will always be a matter of choice". At the finale of the movie, the Japanese interviewers were asked what story do they believe and this movie seems to make us think deeper what we should believe in and why. May it be with faith, with life, with love, decisions will always rely on us. We still have this free will to choose, on where we are happy and for what is right.

5. Did I like this in general? Why?

    -At that moment I saw the trailer, I thought this would be nice because Indian movies are meaningful movies like that of Aamir Khan. So, I was really eager to watch and I never had regrets with how much I paid for the movie. It was all worth it because you will be able to appreciate life in this movie. Our subject's film-viewing was my fourth time to watch "Life of Pi" yet I never get tired of it. This movie means a lot and this could have different reactions from the viewers which makes this so interesting. Except for the fact that it is indeed a great movie, from the actors, to the actresses, and to the effects, it is really intended for the whole family and kids would definitely enjoy the pictures. You won't think that the animals were computerized.This makes the viewers appreciate animals and nature as well.

6. Did I agree with the main theme/purpose? Why or why not?

     -Yes I agree with the theme of "Life of Pi" because supporting scenes were clearly shown in the movie.

7. What specifically did I like/dislike? Why?

    -I praise Yann Martel for this book and Ang Lee for this movie because it was indeed a great work of art. I like everything in the movie. Omitting a single scene may not make the whole story wonderful. Everything was of purpose to other scenes in the movie. I learned a lot from it, even up to the basic characteristics of animals. Only after watching the movie I was able to know that jellyfish do glow in the dark, and that bananas float in seawater. One thing I've noticed, was that some of the scenes were exaggerated and impossible. Like the lifeboat which was never affected by great floods, the overpopulation of meerkats, the glow of jellyfishes, the stability of Pi's family's room despite the waves of the storm, of how did the tiger got the deer from outside of his cage with small holes on bars, and of why the light was still on after the ship has sunk. I suppose, it is really fiction.

8. Are there any aspects of theme which are left ambiguous at the end? Why?

      -Everything in the movie was clear. Nothing was left doubtful except for whatever we may think of the story of Pi, of what is more believable; the story with the animals, or the one without :)

9. How does this film relate to the things that are happening in your life?
     -The film values the gift of life, family, friendship and faith, which I can say are the essentials of living a happy life. This gift from God were only borrowed by us, it is never permanent, and we are not the owner. I believe that only God can take away my life. Not my family, not my friends, not other people, not even me. As a human being, we are meant to socialize in order for us to survive. Thus, my family and friends are mainly one of the reason of my existence and purpose here on earth. Life can never be this pleasurable without them. Faith, in this instance, will always be tested. It is up to me, how strong I am and how firmly I believe in God' presence, and that I will forever instill in my mind, that whatever life gives me, may it be happiness or sorrows, challenges or opportunities, defeats or triumphs, at the end of the day, I know I am loved, and that God will never ever leave me even when it seems the world will turn its back on me ;)

"Above all: don't lose hope." 

my life and my heart ♥

The Life Of A Teenage Girl

© Elise

Look how she's changed,

Look how she's grown,

The personality changes

I should have known

The make up she wears,

Each day it gets thicker

Why is she doing this?

To grow up quicker?

The days she comes in

She runs to her room

Is it really possible,

Too feel so much gloom?

The tears in her eyes,

Her heart as it breaks

She will learn to realize

Her minor mistakes

I cuddle her in

I miss times like this

The young girl that smiled

My gorgeous 'Little miss'

Now her dancing, and prancing

The games we did play

Her sorrow, it drifts memories

So many miles away

I call her down

As I do each time

To ask her to share with me

The troubles of her prime

The response was different

To the one I used to know

She stared up at me

She was beginning to let go

The stories she told

The rumors she'd heard

No wonder my princess

Had not said a word

The thing she said next

Opened my eyes

To a world I’d never known

A world of hurt and hatred and lies

‘Mum’ she said

As the tales unfurled

‘This is the life,

Of a Teenage Girl’

************************************************************************

        This poem merely speaks about my life and in every teenager's life because as we age, we often forget we have our parents who will be there for us at any point in our life. Not only our age changes, but even our personality and behavior changes over time. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally, I can say I've changed a lot compared to the girl my mother used to know. Furthermore, we cannot deny the fact that problems and circumstances will surely arise especially at this point when the word "teen" enters our age. Problems at school, about love, life, friends and teachers: these are just but a few of the possible issues usual teenagers will encounter at the duration of education, and we often forget who will be the first person we could run to at times like this, it's our mother :)) But what usually happens? We run to our friends instead, or even keep it to ourselves and lock ourselves up in our rooms without even remembering that our mothers know when we're okay or not, and they really care to listen because they love us.

"Why is she doing this? To grow up quicker?"

       -I can relate to this lines in a way that oftentimes, I also forget to have quality time with my mother. Lately, I have had a lot of problems and neither of this I shared with her. Anyways, I learned how to be independent and I think I did, but I forgot that I was still young to be so confident that I can do everything without my parent's advisory.

"The days she comes in, She runs to her room"

       -Busy schedule, eh? Sometimes, I even forget even to say "Hi", or give my mother a kiss before I leave for school and as I come home. I oftentimes go directly to my room, grab my phone, and text my friends (even if I was with my friends before I left school).

"I call her down, As I do each time, To ask her to share with me, The troubles of her prime"

   -My mother would often ask if I have problems, but I choose to refuse. Even after she says I should tell her if I have any, I still manage to deny. Well, because oftentimes, it's all about love, and I don't want to stress her and make her think that at an early age, I can be so affected with a relationship.

             We don't have the control of time whether when will our lives end, and the least thing we could do is to treasure everything that surrounds us, especially those people who molded us to be what we are today, our parents :) Appreciating their presence as our parents would mean so much to them. I am 18 years old now, turning 19, and it's my last year of being a "teen" I guess. Yet, I will never have regrets with regards to what I've acted upon my parents throughout my teenage years. All I have are lessons learned and those bad attitudes I need to change, for my children to inherit from me in the future. Problematic it seems, but for me, teenage life will always be the most challenging life of a person. Nevertheless, we always have to remember to keep our feet on the ground, and never risk on big decisions without our parent's guidance. We may regret later on what we missed about them.

Truly yours, a teenage girl ♥ :))

lezz do thizz 2013 ;)

I ended up the year 2012 by leaving behind all the bad memories I had during the past years. 2011 was the worst yet the most challenging year I ever had since I was able to surpass all the problems I've encountered and remained strong after all. Although the remaining days of 2012 became controversial because of the so called Doom's Day last December 21, I remained faithful in the Bible rather than believing in such rumors. Like most Filipinos usually do, I attended a lot of Christmas parties from time to time. So far, this was the first Christmas in which I have received several gifts from my godparents. Our family spent Christmas Day at home since my brother was here; but sadly, my father isn't  We did the same with December 31 though, we went to Church together with my family and in fact, we didn't have those 12 fruits or 12 kinds of food yet it was still a good one. At the end of last year, I was thankful to look back and see how far I've become today. I can say I've accomplished many things that I never thought I could, and I'm happy how my parents are proud of me. I've learned a lot this 2012, and I know I will change for the better. At the end of this year, I hope everyone will see a changed woman. Not absolutely at this moment, but I know someday, I can grow up for good. Now, all I have are the countless opportunities to make each day of this year a memorable one.

This year, I came to realize that indeed, the best things in life are free. I realized that material wealth is never a guarantee to happiness because if it is, wealthy people would've danced in the streets; yet poor kids do. That power isn't an assurance of safety because if it is, government officials would have walked on the streets unguarded; yet simple people can sleep safe and sound at night. And that beauty and fame isn't the key to an ideal relationship, because if it is, celebrities would have successful marriages; yet, they haven’t. These three thoughts I came to realize when I attended the fist Sunday Mass for this year. I came to realize that by lingering in the past or pondering over the future, I cannot make the present any better. I realized I am too young to stress on thinking what will happen to me 20 years from now. This will be a hindrance for me to enjoy my present life and be contented of it. Life will never be perfect, and what made it beautiful are its imperfections. Irony, it is, but we can eventually learn from it. 2012 has been a whirlwind of life-changing events and I didn't have any regrets because those were the times were my personality was molded and it made me a better person.

        I've learned a lot from my experiences, and I know that life will forever be a learning experience from womb to tomb. We can hear a lot from our family, friends, classmates, neighbors, teachers, and even from strangers; yet, we should know what to go after, and what not to go after. I've learned from last year that my family’s choice is not always the best choice for me. I know myself a lot better and I should know what is really for me. Our family must always be there for us, despite every decision we make, whether they agree on it or not. They are there to lead us in the right direction but it is actually us who decides which path to take. School days taught me to be expressive of everything. I became keener in deciding who to side and I became wiser with which side to take from different thoughts. All we have to do is just to accept those lessons, apply it to our everyday lives, and share it to others who experiences similar struggles. Who knows we might be of help to them.

           First of all, as a Catholic, I want to be more active in Church and I will try my very best to attend all Sunday Masses the entire year. As a student, I will try my best to avoid tardiness because it actually became my routine last year. I guarantee myself to give it all this time because I know I lack effort during Prelim. I assure myself to submit all requirements, projects, and assignments earlier than the deadline. This time, I’ll be a more responsible student. A student determined enough to graduate with an award (fingers crossed). As a girlfriend and a friend, I’ll try to be the best that I can be and be more supportive in any endeavor these special people will take. As a daughter and as a sister to my two brothers, I swear to change all my bad habits and to avoid further arguments with them and I would like to spend more time with them. I will stay lovable as ever :) Personally, I would like to have a higher self-esteem because I’m used to degrading myself. I had a lot of insecurities but this time, I’ll be proud of what I only have because not all of us can have what I have, and not all that others have, I can have. I also would like to slow down my life because it seems too busy these past few days. Considering this semester as the last with school instructions, I will surely miss my college days, and I would like to treasure starting today, every single second of my remaining days in La Consolacion College. This year, I’ll be stronger, tougher, and I’ll be mature enough to face all endeavors life has planned to give to me. I know I can do this because He is with me, always. May all of us have a prosperous New Year and may we prove everyone else that Resolutions are not a waste of time, not only promises of “shoulds” and “shalls”, but an assurance to oneself that we can do anything if we are determined enough to succeed.

first picture for 2013 :)

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”

– Don Williams Jr.