Personal Reflection

In the process of compiling this entire independent study I have definitely grown as a student. To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive at first about picking a Canadian author. I thought that no matter what novel I chose I would be reading a 500 page recount of leaves, snow, and beavers. I don't quite know why that was though - perhaps my low expectations for Canadian produced films translated into Canadian produced books.

I chose the book based on its weird name - I think I was lucky. When I first chose the Life of Pi as my novel, most of my friends that have read it went on endlessly about how confusing it was. Looking back at their comments I can see what they mean; most people I know who have read this book did so somewhere between grade 8 - grade 10. This book may be written with a cute and colourful story about a boy and some zoo animals, but it is the type of novel that needs to be re-read, and though about. You need to have the intellectual maturity to put something in the novel in order to experience what it has to offer. This is not saying that a person in that age bracket cannot successfully understand The Life of Pi, it's just unlikely.

Admittedly, I do not read a lot - in fact, the last novel I read was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for last year's English ISU. I don't want to lie in saying that I'm going to be running to the library to pick up books exclusively written by Canadian authors - but I can say that I've gained a new appreciation for Canadian literature. In that light I believe this assignment was very successful. I treat most assignments/projects like mindless work to be completed. However, about half-way through the book I was pulled right into the story and sometimes looked forward to doing sections of the assignment. That is definitely a first.

While I'm not sure when I will pick up my next novel, I have gained a slight interest in blogs. I took a few breaks from my ISU and browsed the website to find a plethora of other blogs about every stupid little thing in the world. I often found myself stuck reading a few of them losing time. I may start my own personal blog if I could think of something to write about. This blog served me as a bit of an intellectual outlet for me to learn and express myself.

Finally, I loved the novel. It's definitely one of my best reads so far. It was able to make me think and wonder about pretty much everything. My favourite character was the tiger, Richard Parker. It sounds lame, but I'm still very upset about Pi and him parting ways forever. It bugs me every time I think about the novel. It made me feel a bit better when the last chapter described the scene with Pi and his future family standing together. Yahn Martel made sure he pointed out that his wife was holding an orange cat in her arms - this I took as a symbol for Richard Parker being with Pi in spirit.

All-in-all this entire study helped me grow a lot intellectually, and emotionally. I'm actually glad to have had the opportunity to do this assignment. Had you told me before that this assignment would do this and that I would enjoy it, I would think you were crazy - but now as I conclude this study, I urge you to not alter this independent study for the next year's classes; not everyone will appreciate the study like I did, but a few people might put some extra work in and get out of it what I did - or maybe even more. Cheers

- Tyler Scott