Category Books

What is the purpose of Yann Martel in writing the story of ‘Life of Pi’?

“One of the reasons I started writing Life of Pi is, I was struck how in the 2000s there could still be gods around. After all the triumphs of science and technology, how could people still believe in gods… Hence, I wrote Life of Pi, to try to understand that phenomenon called faith, where you believe despite having no proof. So Life of Pi was just defending the act of love that is the more positive manifestation of religion.” ….. Yann Martel..

Canadian author Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel that explores how faith can help one cope with tragedy. Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage adaptation of this Booker Prize-winning novel is said to open on Broadway next year. Let’s revisit this story and see what makes it a modern classic.

About the Author

Yann Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain on June 25, 1963, to Canadian parents. Growing up, his family moved a lot and lived in various countries such as Spain, Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and the U.S. Martel completed his secondary education in Canada at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, and went on to study at Trent University and Concordia. University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy.

Although he has written and published many books, including The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Other Stories (1993) and Self (1996), he is best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi. It was directed and produced by Ang Lee for the big screen in 2012 and won four academy awards. Best Director and Best Visual Effects in 2013.

It was recently revealed that a stage version of Martel’s fantasy adventure novel is under way to grace the Broadway stage next year, beginning preview performances in March 2023, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre ahead of opening night on March 30, 2023.

Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a curious mix of zoology and theology that explores the matters of the soul. The author says that the idea for the novel dawned on him while he was backpacking in India in 1997.

Life of Pi is the story of a multi-religious Indian teenager called Piscine Molitor Patel (which he shortens to Pi Patel), who was born and raised in Pondicherry, in a family that owns and operates a zoo. This novel narrates Pi’s recollection of the 227 days he was shipwrecked with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker in the Pacific Ocean.

What makes it a modern classic?

The meaning of Pi

Pi’s name serves a dual-purpose in the book. For our protagonist it is a symbol of home – a safe haven that shields one from the unchartered territory that is the outside world. But at the same time, the mathematical value of Pi is an irrational number, which no one can completely decipher. It also stands in as a metaphor for life in general which is a blend of the rational (such as science and reason) and the (such as our faiths and beliefs).

“In that illusive irrational number with which scientists try to understand the truth of the universe, I found refuge.” – Pi says in the book about the mathematical symbol.

A novel of questions

This book is full of spiritual references, poetic visual imagery, and questions no one seems to have definite answers for even though they are an inseparable part of the human experience. Questions about faith and the relativity of truth are at the core of Pi’s story.

Even though Life of Pi starts off as a story that “will make you believe in God”, it challenges the idea of blind faith. It is a testament to the fact that faith that is rooted in love is never threatened by doubt sprouted by seemingly insurmountable challenges one faces while riding the wave of life. Pi’s journey endorses that religion is a personalised spiritual extension of oneself that is flexible,ever-evolving, and seasoned with one’s experiences in the world.

This is further clarified by this statement Pi makes in the book “Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested.”

The power of storytelling

The value of compelling storytelling is engrained in Pi’s story from the very beginning of the novel with the author’s note that makes it seem as if we are about to read an actual interview documented by the writer, blurring the line between fact and fiction.

Pi is an excellent storyteller who defines fiction as “selective transformation of reality” that allows one to bring forth the essence of an experience to communicate a deeper meaning. He uses story telling as a means of survival while presenting his account of the sea voyage to the Japanese officials who visit him in the hospital. They expect to hear the factual account of how the ship sank but are presented a fantastical tale with animals. When the novel’s end discloses a transcript from the same interrogation revealing an alternate version of Pi’s account where the animals are replaced by other human survivors, it reiterates how our protagonist is using storytelling as a means to make sense of and deal with the trauma of the horrible things he witnessed and partook in to survive on that lifeboat.

Picture Credit :Google

What was Charles Dickens purpose for writing Great Expectations?

Great Expectations is a literary masterpiece by Charles Dickens that presents a caricature of the unjust socio-economic conditions of 19th Century England from the point of view of its seven-year-old protagonist Pip. Let’s us look at what makes this novel relevant today.

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in February 1812. His father was a clerk in the Navy office: because of this, they had to constantly move about and follow his different appointments. The looming money troubles caused the ten-year-old Dickens to leave school to take up work so he could contribute to the family’s income. He was sent to work at a blacking factory in London that made polish for metal surfaces. His experience at the factory was scarring and traumatic. These childhood experiences became an intangible part of all of his narratives and made him sensitive to the precariousness of life. Research suggests that this is one of the main reasons why the protagonists of some of his most iconic books like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Great Expectations, are children bound by unfortunate circumstances.

Great Expectations

Great Expectations begins with a young boy named Pip encountering an escaped convict in a churchyard. The child is terrified and intrigued and he brings the convict some food. This act of kindness, then, set up ripples that will work their way through his life and that of the convict for many years to come. This novel is a bildungsroman (a coming-of-age story) on the experience of childhood and great expectations of the future that help one move forward. Robert Douglas. Fairhurst, an author and professor at Oxford University, calls it the best novel about growing up and the strains and scars it leaves behind.

What makes it a classic?

 The narration

Dicken’s mastery of storytelling is reflected in his ability to capture the voices of people from different social classes without being biased. By writing Great Expectations in the first person, he crafts a narrative that puts the reader in the shoes of the poor, orphan Pip on a journey to fulfil his ambition to rise above his social standing and take his place in society as a gentleman. As a story told in three parts, at three different stages of Pip’s life, the novel focusses on the role of life experiences in shaping the personality of an individual.

Literature: A catalyst for change

As one of the most famous novelists writing in the English language in the 19th Century, Dicken’s ambition in life was to prove that stories and literature could help fix the problems of the world. Even from the early days of his childhood, he displayed all the signs of a great showman. Public readings held by the author displayed his genius of getting the audience interested in serious topics like the evils of industrialising society, the sordid working conditions in factories, child labour and the inefficiencies of the government through stories with interesting plots, clownish characters and happy endings. Through his stories, Dickens set out on a mission to educate society.

One of the main reasons why Great Expectations has managed to stay relevant in the 21st Century is because we still live in a time of extreme inequality and indifference.

Picture Credit : Google

Carving a legacy

Since it was first written in the early 1880s, Italian author Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio has remained one of the most universally recognisable works of Italian literature. Let’s look at what has made this classic endure the test of time.

Between the Covers is a weekly column that introduces young readers to the world of literary classics. It focusses on one celebrated book each week and finds out what makes.

About the Author

Carlo Lorenzini was born November 24, 1826, in Florence, Tuscany. Both of his parents worked for the marchese (Italian nobleman) Ginori Lisci His mother Angiolina Orzali Lorenzini was a seamstress and his father Domenico Lorenzini was a cook. Carlo was the eldest of his 10 siblings and spent most of his childhood with his maternal grandmother in Collodi. At the age of 30, the Italian author and journalist adopted the pseudonym Carlo Collodi, after his beloved mothers hometown near Pistoia in Tuscany.

Today he is best known as the creative mind behind The Adventures of Pinocchio, a classic tale of a marionette child brought to life. This puppet is known for his long nose, which (only) on one occasion in the novel although more frequently in other adaptations) grows when he lies.

Pinocchio’s story was first published in 1881 in a serialised format in Giornale Dei Bambini (Italian for children’s magazine) before it was published as a novel in 1883. Collodi’s masterpiece is held as one of Italy’s literary national treasures and is credited with being one of the most iconic works of children’s literature of all time, inspiring plays, movies, and hundreds of new editions making the titular puppet one of the most reprinted characters in the pantheon of children’s literature. With its slapstick humour and instructive themes, The Adventures of Pinocchio was a turning point in Italian literature and commented on the pathetic conditions of the lower working class at the time, through the character of Geppetto. However, Disney’s 1940 adaptation of the Italian classic, critics say, censors, sugar coats, and trivialises Collodi’s original tale to present a very Americanised and domesticated version of Pinocchio’s story as “a paean to impossibly idealised childhood”.

Once upon a time…

A marionette called Pinocchio comes to life because it was carved out of a piece of enchanted wood by a carpenter named Geppetto. The life-affirming story chronicles the adventures of the titular character and elaborates how our hero rises above different kinds of temptations (such as leading a life of leisure in the land of toys) to become human.

What makes it a classic?

Transformation

This story shows how things can very quickly go from bad to worse, but also from terrible to wonderful through acts of kindness and how sometimes this much-needed kindness can come from strangers. In the story, we witness how Pinocchio (like most kids) suffers and learns from the compulsive habit or the insatiable need to do something he had been told not to do over and over again. The protagonists’ behaviour and inspiring journey from ignorance to knowledge is very relatable and helps us as readers redefine how we perceive the pitfalls of life.

The lure of temptations

The story has an eerie quality and a folklore-like nature. The authors use of the ideas of rebirth, ghosts, and fairies along with manipulative characters such as the fox, the cat, and the giant serpent demonstrates the power of temptations. Crafting a children’s story while talking about the base reality of existence through complex themes such as poverty, the difference between good and evil, child abuse, and the role of one’s conscience, Collodi emphasises how the difference between adult and children’s literature was quite an alien idea in Italian literary tradition at the time.

What is it to be human?

Pinocchio’s story brilliantly exemplifies the multiplicity of meaning in the written word as it tries to answer the intriguing question: What is it to be human?

Through this straightforward narrative, which is deceptively simple but truly complex, Collodi seems to suggest that being human is to expose oneself to the good, bad, and ugly realities of the world and gain wisdom through experience. Pinocchio becomes human when he is able to think freely and also weigh the consequences of his actions.

The relationship with the conscience

Clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan B Peterson says that the learning relationship that Pinocchio shares with the cricket (which stands in as a personification of the puppet’s conscience) demystifies the widely accepted idea of an omniscient or all-knowing conscience that can guide one to redemption, to suggest that in life, you and your conscience mature together through critically thinking and learning from the ebb and flow of life. This kind of growth is an indispensable part of our journey on this planet.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is the essence of Dr. Kalam’s book ‘Target 3 Billion’?

In this book Dr. Kalam focuses on the rural areas. He highlights the problems in rural India and talks on how to improve living standards there.

Dr. Kalam sites the examples of Palmeres and Magarpatta. Palmeres, a rural district in Brazil became prosperous through rural electrification. A person called Fabio Rosa was behind this. Another case is that of Magarpatta, Pune. It is the first project in India in which farmers pooled their land and created a township. The city is home to over 35,000 people and even has an IT park. He also suggests a rural development programme called PURA in this book.

This book was jointly written by Dr. Kalam and Srijan Pal Singh.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is Dr. Kalam’s book ‘India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium’ all about?

‘India 2020’ was written in 1998 before Dr. Kalam became the President of India. Here we can read his ideas for India’s future and development. After analysing India’s strengths and weaknesses, he gives a vision of how we could be among the top four economic powers by 2020.

The importance Dr. Kalam gave to the ideas of school children is obvious. The book is dedicated to a ten-year-old girl whom he met during one of his talks. When asked about her ambitions, the young girl replied, “I want to live in a developed India.”

For Dr. Kalam, India was already a knowledge super power and a nation awaiting its time. He then describes his vision of India, its future and those of other developed countries.

He even compares the statistical data to show how India can progress. Dr. Kalam never forgets to say how his field -science and technology- is crucial for this.

The book is co-authored by Dr. Kalam and Y.S Rajan and has been translated into many languages.

Picture Credit : Google

What do the third and final parts of ‘Wings of Fire’ narrate?

Here we see Dr. Kalam on his journey to becoming the “Missile Man of India.” What an excellent leader he was is evident when he takes up the responsibility for shaping the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. And as a result we see the development of five missiles – Prithvi, Trishul, Akash, Nag and Agni. This is how he got his nickname “Missile Man of India.”

Dr. Kalam pays his respect to the great minds in Indian space research with mixed feelings of joy and nostalgia. There are many black and white snapshots where we can see his real-life work.

The last part starts with Dr. Kalam becoming the Scientific Advisor to India’s Minister of Defence in 1992. How much he contributed to making India a nuclear power is detailed here. We also see the extent of his involvement in the successful nuclear tests at Pokhran, Rajasthan, in 1998.

Vision of India 2020 was charted out by him as ex-officio chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SACC). Here we get the list of his ideas and advice for the future of India.

Thus, we see a middle-class boy hailing from a village, rocketing on to space and success. We realize the truth in his words that dreams are that which prevent us from sleeping.

Picture Credit : Google