JG_LOPWeek4ECQs

=Week 4 ECQ's=

Theme: Belief in God
 * ECQ #1**

"Stop your trembling! This is miracle. This is an outbreak of divinity" (Martel 295).

Many hope for a "miracle" in times of need. They search for a sign that their suffering has a reason. People crave "miracles", for it renews faith and bestows hope. However, there is not a "miracle" just because one desires it. Sometimes one has to maintain their own faith, sometimes they have to create their own hope. "Miracles" are wonderful because they require no effort from oneself. However, belief is anything but effortless. There will be trials, to test any belief. Rarely will there ever be a "miracle" to quickly vanquish doubts. At the end of those daunting trials, either the belief has survived or been vanquished. If it survives the knowledge and gratification is a "miracle" on its own. Pi's belief has wavered in the past but, in the end, he persevered and to him that is a "miracle".

Theme: Survival is more important than morals
 * ECQ #2**

"I killed and skinned as many meerkats as would fit in the locker and on the bottom on the boat. I reaped the dead fish from the ponds" (Martel 357).

As Pi journeyed across the Pacific Ocean he was forced to survive not only just live. During his survival he had to toss aside his morals and lifestyle and do the one thing he dreaded the most. Killing. But once he got to the meerkats island he had killed before, but how Pi explained that he killed them was the astonishing part. "I killed and skinned as many meerkats.."; he did not go into detail, he did not tell how he killed them he just killed them and skinned them like it was nothing. When he says he "reaped the dead fish..." he also implies that is as if killing and taking dead animals to eat was something he did everyday. Pi Patel had come to terms with the fact that he had to kill he would die, he had to do the thing he dreaded and was forced to shove his morals aside in order to survive his ordeal ar sea.