post novel discussion

I am really happy, eventually I finish this novel. The author divided all the story into three parts. First two parts for me is a little bit boring, he described all the detail about life between animals and human at sea. However, when I continue to the last part, I start to pleasure it. In addition, today I discuss “Life of Pi” with my partners, it was surprising me that we got different opinions about outcome.
Question 1:
I was not very impressed by the novel, “Life of Pi.” Although it was a good book to read for somebody learning English, as it is quite easy, it is at the same time a little boring. Its plot is very flat and fairly uninteresting and after finishing I had the same feeling as the two Japanese officials who appear at the end of the novel: this story is too amazing and unbelievable. In addition, there were a number of threads that I did not understand. For example, the appearance of the blind Frenchmen seemed out of place for me. Nevertheless, despite these criticisms, “Life of Pi” is still a decent adventure novel.
Question 2
One major theme of “Life of Pi,” that re-occurs throughout the novel, is that conventional knowledge and conventional ways of looking at the world are often be chanllenged. For example, when Pi describes the way visitors to his father’s zoo misinterpret the preferences of animals the author for the first the misunderstandings of humans. Also, when Pi explains his story to the Japanese officials, they are unmoved and closed in their thinking also. With these two examples we see how Yann Martel’s novel shows the how difficult it is to change people’s conceptions.

Question 3

Although I understand how Pi thinks and can empathize with him; I couldn’t really identify with him personally. I am a Taiwanese girl from a large city and have never lived around animals. A zoo-keeper’s son from India who spent 227 days at sea with a tiger is simply too foreign for me. However, as a I said above, I can understand the characters, but generally I felt that some of characters were only there to express the story the author wished to tell.

Question 4

The dramatic plot is extremely important in this novel. It is through the plot that the author is able to express the ideas he wished to communicate in the novel. Without Pi’s 227 days hard floating at sea, described in detail by the author, the main ideas of the novel would be lost. The plot also served to keep me interested in the novel until the end and it also helped give me a better understanding of the psychology of the main characters.