Life of Pi and Year of the Flood

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Life of Pi and Year of the Flood Compare and Contrast "Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships."(Stephen R. Covey) This idea is present between Pi and the author of the survival guide. Pi trusts that the author of the survival guide is in fact a sailor and knows how to survive a shipwreck, so he uses the information that was conveyed to him. This form of communication is in writing, in contrast to Year of the Flood where the protagonists, Ren and Toby, are not allowed to write things down, so they have learnt not to trust anyone. This is why Pi is able to form relationships with anyone that he meets, including Richard Parker. This is due to the fact that he has learnt to trust others and their principles, like he trusted the writing's of the sailor. Ren and Toby will find it increasingly difficult to trust anyone because they were raised on the untrustworthy principles of the Gardener cult. Although, the novels Year of the Flood and Life of Pi are similar in that they are portrayed through a guidebook or an oral hymn book for survival purposes. They differ, however, in that one guide is written and followed due to a trust between the protagonist and his surroundings while the other novel's guide could not be written due to a lack of confidence between the protagonists and their surroundings. Pi is able to follow the survival guide because he trusts the author of the guide book. This is proven in chapter 58 when Pi first opens up the manual." The manual was written by a British Royal Navy commander. It contained a wealth of practical information on surviving at sea after a shipwreck. It included survival tips..." (Martel 170) later Pi reads all the tips the sailor had written and follows them. "I decided to try my hand at fishing, for the first time in

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