Last week in the library you wrote about Pi’s goals as well as the ways in which different items he finds in chapter 52 might or might not be helpful.
I asked you to reflect on the survival game we played the day before, in which you imagined being the survivor of a plane crash and had to evaluate different items you salvaged in terms of their usefulness. At the end of the game we realized these things:
- Groups named different goals. Some focused on items that would help them walk to town and find help, others focused on warmth and building a fire, others focused on food or shelter, and some groups focused on signaling a rescue party.
- The uses of some items were immediate and clear (ax for chopping wood, canvas for shelter)
- The uses of some items were misleading (whiskey would freeze a person from the inside, compass would encourage people to walk)
- The uses of some items were known only to experts (steel wool to catch a flame, can of Crisco as a signaling device or tool to melt water)
For Pi, you named different goals for him:
- Survive - food and water
- Survive - shelter
- Signal rescue ships
- Protection from animals
- Prayer and hope
- Warding off boredom
This led you to name different items as most / least valuable.
- Most named water and food as most valuable, some included the solar stills
- Some named God as most valuable
- Some named the notebook and pen as most valuable
But is there only one set use or purpose for each item? Can its value change? Can we see Pi’s goal as evolving, or happening in steps? Once he settles into a routine in chapter 63, what can we now say about him? Are there other thoughts or actions we’ve seen from Pi in Part 2 that do not appear in this look at his routine?
