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Duc Tran INDV 150 10/03/2009

Why they survived
The novel “Life of Pi” by Yann Mantel is one of the most interesting ones I have ever read. The protagonist Pi Patel really impressed me with his amazing story. He survived 227 days after a shipwreck, while stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger in the Pacific Ocean. After reading the novel, I was pushed strongly to find more information about survivors like Pi. And I was so surprised when I found out that all these survivors shared the same traits.

First, a survivor must have saved his precious energy and not wasted time confronting the others who were on the same boat. That means he must have stood calm in the difficult situation. Pi did that when he tried not to fight against dangerous animals such as a hyena, an orangutan and a tiger. He kept away from them and let them fight against the other. Then Richard Parker killed the hyena and Pi tried to tame the tiger. In addition to Pi, Kiley, whose story was mentioned in the article “Miraculous survivors: Why they live while others die” by John Blake of CNN, also kept away from her two male companions in the boat who bickered and cursed with the others. Because the two men wasted much energy on fighting so they died shortly after the shipwreck. And due to her ruthless decision, Kiley survived.

Second, all these survivors were able to control themselves and hope for the best. What helped them most was the act of prayer. Both Kiley and Pi always prayed all the time they were stuck on the boat. Actually, according to Kiley, her prayer helped her avoid the loss of control that doomed some of her companions in the boat. And as for Pi, his belief in God sustained him. In his first days on the lifeboat, he almost gives up because he was shocked by the loss of his

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family and he was not strong enough to face the reality. However, he realized that the fact he was still alive meant the God was with him. This thought gave him strength and he decided to fight to remain alive. And that he prayed every day was a way to pass the time. In addition to Kiley and Pi, Hawkin and Tresse, survivors mentioned in the article “Missing boaters clung to the thread of hope” from CNN, also told that they survived because they kept praying and kept hope alive. Hawkin said: “Even though hope had managed to thread down to a little bitty string, I mean, that little bitty string could be just as strong as the rope you hung on to the first time you got started”.

What is more, their knowledge about the sea, survival skills, intuition and essential characters such as humility played an extremely important role in helping them survive. Laurence Gonzales, author of the book “Deep Survival”, emphasized the effects of humility on survivors. He asserted that because of humility, small children and inexperienced climbers, for example, often survived emergencies in the wilderness far better than their stronger or adult counterparts. Humility kept them out of trouble and enabled them to know when to rest and when they should have not tried something beyond their capabilities. “Sometimes it's wise to be afraid”, Gonzales said. In fact, humility helped Pi survived. Pi knew he needed to keep away from dangerous animals during the first days and to protect himself carefully when he tried to tame the tiger Richard Parker. Obviously, Pi learned a lot of lessons about the danger of animals during the time he was at the zoo but his humility really affected him a lot. In addition to humility, tuition was another major factor. “Knowing what to do is enough for him”, Gonzales said. In fact, when Pi was waiting for the ship, an oil tanker, to come and pick him up (Chapter 86 - novel “Life of Pi” by Martel), he was so happy that he nearly did not realize that the danger was coming. But his sensitive intuition immediately enabled him to know that the ship was going to run over his boat. Pi tried to row and got his boat out of the ship’s way in time. His intuition

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saved him and Richard Parker. Moreover, survival skills and the knowledge about the sea were indispensable. Fortunately, Pi learned a lot from the survival manual placed in his lifeboat so he could quickly apply them to find food and water. And Pi also knew what he needed to do in certain circumstances.

Last but not least, in my opinion, the most important factor was luck. All survivors could not survive without luck. All Kiley, Hawken, Tresse and Pi were very lucky. The first three people were rescued right before they used up their food and became exhausted. If no ship had seen them, they would have definitely died. And in the case of Pi, actually his luck helped him survive. Pi was the only passenger of the ship Tsimtsum. How can he sill live now if at the time the ship sank he was not thrown to the lifeboat? Although the officers of the ship threw him overboard to the lifeboat, they only intended to let the hyena eat him so there would be less dangerous for them. However, their decision saved Pi. Pi was so lucky because the officers saw him when the ship was going to sink. Moreover, as Pi said, he survived because Richard Parker did not want to attack him. If only once during hundreds of days Pi and Parker lived together, the tiger had got angry and attacked him, his death would have been inevitable.

All in all, these people survived because they all had necessary knowledge, skills, characters, intuition and luck. Although in my opinion, luck was the most important, they could not survive without other above-mentioned factors. And maybe Pi was the best and luckiest survivor in history.