Pi experiences a confrontation with another being as the reader enters the crest of rising action in chapters 90-91. Delighted, Pi invites his French brother into his lifeboat. Explain the details of this event as well as the ensuing details of their encounter.
Consider the symbolic implications of this particular event. Explain in an additional paragraph the various symbolic implications of these details relative to Pi’s conflict of survival. Support your theory with paraphrased evidence from the novel.
Here is what one student composed during an earlier and similar assignment:
The mirror at the zoo provides the reader with a seemingly important symbol: “Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror.” ( Martel 31). Martel further explains during this narrative about the dangers that animals provide. Of course, the mirror underscores that humans provide the greatest threat. The violence and danger of the animal kingdom is detailed throughout this chapter. The reader experiences through Pi’s observation the threat that the animals potentially possess, but through Martel’s clever narration, the reader is also aware that the real threat to Pi is human rather than beast or at least they are one-in-the-same. Consequently the mirror provides the reader with a device to examine perspectives especially the reader’s own reflection if the reader has the mind to.