Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The Life of Pi - Some Thoughts

So the protagonist (Pi) is left alone on the lifeboat with the Bengal tiger.  Survival became a matter of paramount importance. The first thing he did was to build a raft to put some distance between them.

Next, he had to reclaim territory from the tiger and to assert himself as the alpha male. Drawing inspiration from a Circus Ringmaster, he used a whistle from a life jacket to establish his presence.  Now the tiger was terribly seasick.  Pi used this to discipline the beast by making the boat bob up and down while he blew the whistle. As reward, he fed the beast with fresh fish caught off the ocean.  The tiger started associating its seasickness with the whistle and in time grew to respect the whistle.  In this way, Pi gained superiority over the beast and the order of their relationship was established.

I thought that was an interesting account of animal psychology.  You should use this knowledge to establish yourself as a pack leader if you happened to own and love dogs.

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