What are a couple of ways the island is empirically impossible? Why do you think this island is in the book? (Remember that everything in this book is, more or less, supossed to be a true account of Pi's experiences.)
The island does seem unreal in a way because of the pond and trees turned acidic. Another way that the island seems made-up is how the meerkats had gotten to this island, and how they survived on this dangerous island. I believe that this island is in the book in order to show how far Pi's mind was being imaginative and how he got hope to finish the trip.
There are some parts of the island story that are very unreal, such as the acidic pond and trees. This island is in the book, though, to show the imagination that Pi developed and how his hallucinations have brought him far enough to actually believe that there was a real island with meerkats, algae, and water.
The island is not empirically possible. It is made up entirely of algae and the only inhabitants are meerkats. The island floats in the ocean and fish that swim into the ponds of the island are instantly dead because salt water fish cannot survive in fresh water. At night, the island becomes acidic and can eat a human alive. This is impossible, first of all, because there is no way that there are no flies, flowers, normal trees, and only meerkats on an entire island. Islands also can't float around in the ocean, they are rooted to the ocean floor. I think that this might be another hallucination because it is so far-fetched. It might be in the book in order to show what was in Pi's mind during this ordeal and to show how unstable he really was.
The island in the book is empirically impossible due to the fact that there is no way an island can just float around the ocean aimlessly because islands are attached to the ocean floor. Furthermore, there is no way that can island can only be made up of algae and meerkats. They would need much more to survive, not just the algae. Lastly i would have to agree with all the previous posters in that the fact that Pi was being very imaginative to help finish his journey as soon as possible and also to maybe show how insane he was starting to go at this point in the story.
I agree with 18maniacalmongooses and Cap'n Crunch when they say that the island seems very unreal. First of all, how could something grow out of nothing. Trees and plants must have some sort of soil to grow (I think) and to prosper in the ocean. The meerkats, although seem somewhat unbelievable, could have gotten there. Pi says that he finds a tooth of a person, who may have had meerkats with him. Maybe he brought them there and they were immune to the acidic plants. Although the island does seem to have some unrealistic characteristics, it is in the novel which according to Pi, is real. Therefor, I do belive that he found this island and that he was on it.
Several parts of this island seem very unrealistic. The island is made of algae, not true land, that floats all around. It gets very acidy at night, which is the reason he said it would burn his feet at night. The fact that Pi and Richard Parker were able to walk on a floating island made of algae also seems impossible; how could algae hold a person and a tiger, without them falling through? The meercats also do not make sense because they live on land, not on algae and it does not seem logical for them to have gotten there. I think this island is included in the book to show how Pi and Richard Parker's relationship and trust in one another has grown. Pi also becomes used to Richard Parker and not the island, and he decides that they should leave after realizing it is acidic at night. -Forest Gump
This island is definitely empirically impossible. It is possible for algae to gather in such a large proportion that it might seem to be an island, however it would not be able to sustain constant inhabitant, such as the meerkats. Then there is the fact that the meerkats are living on an “island” in the middle of the ocean. The meerkats living in such an environment makes no sense, since they are burrowing animals; if they tried to burrow through the algae they would end up in the ocean. I agree with everyone else’s comments on what this island represents. It is supposed to represent Pi’s longing for land and how much his imagination influenced the things that were really there.
The island has a few ridiculous qualities to it. The fruit has human teeth in it, the sand burns at night and everything about it deems it "a maneating island". The island is probably more of a metaphor than actual island, Pi's hopelessness in the ocean results in him thinking that he will be swallowed up. Thusly, when he leaves the island it shows that there is still some optimism left in him.
I believe that the island, though very far-fetched, could be real, somewhat. The algae could have grown in a bloom. The fresh water is probably a combination of both the secreted water from the algae and rain. As Cheesenibla13 has stated, The meerkats could have been brought by the human whose tooth Pi found. Over time they have built up an immunity to the acid produced, so they are the only animals that can survive on the island. All these facts prove that even though it seems highly unlikely, there could have been that type of island. There are, however, some things that do not seem true. Mainly, the fact that there are trees on the island. They would need some type of soil to be able to grow, so they seem impossible. I believe the trees are there because they show how Pi can reach his goals if he keeps trying. He keeps trying to walk to the tree, and he eventually makes it. This is just like how Pi keeps trying to survive and find land, which he ends up doing. --Spiderman
The island in the book seems real to Pi but I think that everything about the island is not true. The reason being is because how is it possible for the people to survive on an island that can burn or kill a person due to the heat. Pi seems to develop more of an imagination to its readers but it becomes very unrealistic. He may, as cheerio stated, that he wanted to add some insane idea to it and just finish the book. Some parts of the island seem real but the part of finding it in a place of “nowhere” seems very unrealistic. This is why I believe that the island is unreal.
I think that the island is impossible due to the weight of the island. Algae may be a light organism, light enough to float, but as a whole the island would mass out to be far too heavy to float on water. The combined weight of an army of meerkats, algae-trees, and algae would simply be too great. Yet another impossibility would be the acid levels of the island. Acid eating away at a living organism is a chemical reaction. Chemical reactions progress at a certain pace when at normal temperatures, but if you were to increase the temperature the acidic reaction would progress at a faster rate. The opposite is also true, if the temperature were to decrease than the reaction would slow down. This is, however, reversed in the novel. At night the island is acidic but during the day the island is neutral. Considering the condition of Pi, the island is most likely an illusion. He is starving, dehydrated, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, paranoid, and near death. His mind is probably creating some false illusion in order to take his mind off of his problems.
I personally believe that there are some aspects of the island that are both possible and impossible. Our world and oceans are enourmous and constantly changing. Our oceanic floor is always shifting and forming new land masses. I do not think that it is completely impossible for a small island of algae and trees to exist in the ocean. It could have broken off of a much larger land mass and drifted away. The meerkat population could have began as just two meerkats that continued to reproduce and form an entire community of meerkats. The meerkats are also adapted to the island and therefore are able to survive there. Our world had to begin somewhere billions of years ago and the question of the island's existence should not be dismissed. In regards to the acidity of the island, I believe that this is somewhat farfetched, as my peers mentioned earlier. I do not think that the island eats humans and this statement of Pi only shows how mentally unstable he has become. Pi even considers, "The thought of leaving the island had not crossed my mind once since I had arrived" (Martel 279). I think that the fact that Pi found a place to explore that was not his boat or the water was too overwhelming for his condition. The island in the book stands for the struggle and instablity Pi is experiencing with his will to continue living. Pi most likely began to hallucinate and therefore some of his accounts of the island do not seem plausable to the readers.
Well, I agree with the other comments that the island does seem pretty far fetched. From one point of view the fact the island contains only meerkats and the island turns only acidic at night seems highly unlikely. However, when looking at nature, there are many things that seem unrealistic. Many plants and animals, such as angler fish and platypus. Go to http://oddanimals.com/unusualanimals.html to see what I mean. When one looks at the big picture, it is still a stretch, but not that much when compared to others. The island was included to either be a allegory of how man is uncomfortable in his environment at certain times or how Pi was trippin' on algae.
The island of which Pi comes across in the novel is empirically impossible in many ways. This island that is described is an island of acidic algae and meerkats. This island is also unrealistic due to its many fresh water ponds and randomly dead fish. It is quite unbelievable that a saltwater fish would randomly turn up in a freshwater pond that has no direct outlet to the saltwater ocean. Eventhough this island is very unrealistic, I feel that it is important to the book. It not only gives the novel an interesting aspect but also shows Pi regaining life and excitement for a moment.
I think the island is not empirically impossible. Like Pi said later in the book when convincing the two men of his accounts, "Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?"(297). i guess it goes back to the old quote that 'nothing is impossible'. -TRIX
A couple of ways that the island is impossible are:it turns acidic at night, dead fish randomly turn up in the ponds, carnivorous meerkats survive on the small supply of fish that is left to them, and lastly, that the island disintegrated and ate a whole human body. I guess this island represents the ocean, since it could very well decompose human bodies, and he did survive on the ocean for all that time. -misbehavin
Impossible, the island is most definitely empirically impossible. Just the idea of an island that is carnivorous and luckily provides fresh water and dead fish is a stretch of the imagination. It was included to show information about religion and its two-sided perspective. While religion provides comfort and can strengthen a person, it is also not always perfect and can have "bad" aspects. Pi claimed the story would make anyone believe in God and therefore, Martel included the passage about the island to show Pi's insight of religions and his own path to finding God.
I have to agree with Jennay. Everything about the island is not empircally possible. The island represents how far Pi's imagination can travel. Furthermore, I believe that the island is a way to help Pi survive his desertion in the ocean. While on the island, Pi feels as if he has returned to life. Therefore, this island was his salvation; it helped him survive the rest of the way.
Although the island is empirically possible, I don't rule it out as an impossibility (Contradictory, but oh well). Looking at the end of the novel, we see that Pi has actually experienced quite a number of things that could severly disturb any sane human being. To say that he believes, on top of believing that he's been living on a boat with a full grown tiger for 227 days, that there is an acidic carniverous island is not peculiar at all. And the teeth inside of the fruit? Well, we know he did eat the cook...maybe he was just recalling the feeling of getting a few teeth stuck in his...teeth.
19 comments:
The island does seem unreal in a way because of the pond and trees turned acidic. Another way that the island seems made-up is how the meerkats had gotten to this island, and how they survived on this dangerous island. I believe that this island is in the book in order to show how far Pi's mind was being imaginative and how he got hope to finish the trip.
There are some parts of the island story that are very unreal, such as the acidic pond and trees. This island is in the book, though, to show the imagination that Pi developed and how his hallucinations have brought him far enough to actually believe that there was a real island with meerkats, algae, and water.
-Cap'n Crunch
The island is not empirically possible. It is made up entirely of algae and the only inhabitants are meerkats. The island floats in the ocean and fish that swim into the ponds of the island are instantly dead because salt water fish cannot survive in fresh water. At night, the island becomes acidic and can eat a human alive. This is impossible, first of all, because there is no way that there are no flies, flowers, normal trees, and only meerkats on an entire island. Islands also can't float around in the ocean, they are rooted to the ocean floor. I think that this might be another hallucination because it is so far-fetched. It might be in the book in order to show what was in Pi's mind during this ordeal and to show how unstable he really was.
The island in the book is empirically impossible due to the fact that there is no way an island can just float around the ocean aimlessly because islands are attached to the ocean floor. Furthermore, there is no way that can island can only be made up of algae and meerkats. They would need much more to survive, not just the algae. Lastly i would have to agree with all the previous posters in that the fact that Pi was being very imaginative to help finish his journey as soon as possible and also to maybe show how insane he was starting to go at this point in the story.
-cheerio
I agree with 18maniacalmongooses and Cap'n Crunch when they say that the island seems very unreal. First of all, how could something grow out of nothing. Trees and plants must have some sort of soil to grow (I think) and to prosper in the ocean. The meerkats, although seem somewhat unbelievable, could have gotten there. Pi says that he finds a tooth of a person, who may have had meerkats with him. Maybe he brought them there and they were immune to the acidic plants. Although the island does seem to have some unrealistic characteristics, it is in the novel which according to Pi, is real. Therefor, I do belive that he found this island and that he was on it.
Several parts of this island seem very unrealistic. The island is made of algae, not true land, that floats all around. It gets very acidy at night, which is the reason he said it would burn his feet at night. The fact that Pi and Richard Parker were able to walk on a floating island made of algae also seems impossible; how could algae hold a person and a tiger, without them falling through? The meercats also do not make sense because they live on land, not on algae and it does not seem logical for them to have gotten there. I think this island is included in the book to show how Pi and Richard Parker's relationship and trust in one another has grown. Pi also becomes used to Richard Parker and not the island, and he decides that they should leave after realizing it is acidic at night.
-Forest Gump
This island is definitely empirically impossible. It is possible for algae to gather in such a large proportion that it might seem to be an island, however it would not be able to sustain constant inhabitant, such as the meerkats. Then there is the fact that the meerkats are living on an “island” in the middle of the ocean. The meerkats living in such an environment makes no sense, since they are burrowing animals; if they tried to burrow through the algae they would end up in the ocean. I agree with everyone else’s comments on what this island represents. It is supposed to represent Pi’s longing for land and how much his imagination influenced the things that were really there.
The island has a few ridiculous qualities to it. The fruit has human teeth in it, the sand burns at night and everything about it deems it "a maneating island". The island is probably more of a metaphor than actual island, Pi's hopelessness in the ocean results in him thinking that he will be swallowed up. Thusly, when he leaves the island it shows that there is still some optimism left in him.
I believe that the island, though very far-fetched, could be real, somewhat. The algae could have grown in a bloom. The fresh water is probably a combination of both the secreted water from the algae and rain. As Cheesenibla13 has stated, The meerkats could have been brought by the human whose tooth Pi found. Over time they have built up an immunity to the acid produced, so they are the only animals that can survive on the island. All these facts prove that even though it seems highly unlikely, there could have been that type of island. There are, however, some things that do not seem true. Mainly, the fact that there are trees on the island. They would need some type of soil to be able to grow, so they seem impossible. I believe the trees are there because they show how Pi can reach his goals if he keeps trying. He keeps trying to walk to the tree, and he eventually makes it. This is just like how Pi keeps trying to survive and find land, which he ends up doing.
--Spiderman
The island in the book seems real to Pi but I think that everything about the island is not true. The reason being is because how is it possible for the people to survive on an island that can burn or kill a person due to the heat. Pi seems to develop more of an imagination to its readers but it becomes very unrealistic. He may, as cheerio stated, that he wanted to add some insane idea to it and just finish the book. Some parts of the island seem real but the part of finding it in a place of “nowhere” seems very unrealistic. This is why I believe that the island is unreal.
-Ddolly
I think that the island is impossible due to the weight of the island. Algae may be a light organism, light enough to float, but as a whole the island would mass out to be far too heavy to float on water. The combined weight of an army of meerkats, algae-trees, and algae would simply be too great. Yet another impossibility would be the acid levels of the island.
Acid eating away at a living organism is a chemical reaction. Chemical reactions progress at a certain pace when at normal temperatures, but if you were to increase the temperature the acidic reaction would progress at a faster rate. The opposite is also true, if the temperature were to decrease than the reaction would slow down. This is, however, reversed in the novel. At night the island is acidic but during the day the island is neutral.
Considering the condition of Pi, the island is most likely an illusion. He is starving, dehydrated, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, paranoid, and near death. His mind is probably creating some false illusion in order to take his mind off of his problems.
I personally believe that there are some aspects of the island that are both possible and impossible. Our world and oceans are enourmous and constantly changing. Our oceanic floor is always shifting and forming new land masses. I do not think that it is completely impossible for a small island of algae and trees to exist in the ocean. It could have broken off of a much larger land mass and drifted away. The meerkat population could have began as just two meerkats that continued to reproduce and form an entire community of meerkats. The meerkats are also adapted to the island and therefore are able to survive there. Our world had to begin somewhere billions of years ago and the question of the island's existence should not be dismissed. In regards to the acidity of the island, I believe that this is somewhat farfetched, as my peers mentioned earlier. I do not think that the island eats humans and this statement of Pi only shows how mentally unstable he has become. Pi even considers, "The thought of leaving the island had not crossed my mind once since I had arrived" (Martel 279). I think that the fact that Pi found a place to explore that was not his boat or the water was too overwhelming for his condition. The island in the book stands for the struggle and instablity Pi is experiencing with his will to continue living. Pi most likely began to hallucinate and therefore some of his accounts of the island do not seem plausable to the readers.
Well, I agree with the other comments that the island does seem pretty far fetched. From one point of view the fact the island contains only meerkats and the island turns only acidic at night seems highly unlikely. However, when looking at nature, there are many things that seem unrealistic. Many plants and animals, such as angler fish and platypus. Go to http://oddanimals.com/unusualanimals.html to see what I mean. When one looks at the big picture, it is still a stretch, but not that much when compared to others. The island was included to either be a allegory of how man is uncomfortable in his environment at certain times or how Pi was trippin' on algae.
The island of which Pi comes across in the novel is empirically impossible in many ways. This island that is described is an island of acidic algae and meerkats. This island is also unrealistic due to its many fresh water ponds and randomly dead fish. It is quite unbelievable that a saltwater fish would randomly turn up in a freshwater pond that has no direct outlet to the saltwater ocean. Eventhough this island is very unrealistic, I feel that it is important to the book. It not only gives the novel an interesting aspect but also shows Pi regaining life and excitement for a moment.
I think the island is not empirically impossible. Like Pi said later in the book when convincing the two men of his accounts, "Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?"(297). i guess it goes back to the old quote that 'nothing is impossible'.
-TRIX
A couple of ways that the island is impossible are:it turns acidic at night, dead fish randomly turn up in the ponds, carnivorous meerkats survive on the small supply of fish that is left to them, and lastly, that the island disintegrated and ate a whole human body. I guess this island represents the ocean, since it could very well decompose human bodies, and he did survive on the ocean for all that time.
-misbehavin
Impossible, the island is most definitely empirically impossible. Just the idea of an island that is carnivorous and luckily provides fresh water and dead fish is a stretch of the imagination. It was included to show information about religion and its two-sided perspective. While religion provides comfort and can strengthen a person, it is also not always perfect and can have "bad" aspects. Pi claimed the story would make anyone believe in God and therefore, Martel included the passage about the island to show Pi's insight of religions and his own path to finding God.
I have to agree with Jennay. Everything about the island is not empircally possible. The island represents how far Pi's imagination can travel. Furthermore, I believe that the island is a way to help Pi survive his desertion in the ocean. While on the island, Pi feels as if he has returned to life. Therefore, this island was his salvation; it helped him survive the rest of the way.
Although the island is empirically possible, I don't rule it out as an impossibility (Contradictory, but oh well). Looking at the end of the novel, we see that Pi has actually experienced quite a number of things that could severly disturb any sane human being. To say that he believes, on top of believing that he's been living on a boat with a full grown tiger for 227 days, that there is an acidic carniverous island is not peculiar at all. And the teeth inside of the fruit? Well, we know he did eat the cook...maybe he was just recalling the feeling of getting a few teeth stuck in his...teeth.
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