“In a survival situation, it’s do or die. The ones that take action, using knowledge and common sense live! “-Daniel W. Shrigley. In life you go through many challenges and in many of these challenges, you must face them in order to be successful. If you don’t, well you might as well die trying. We find that in the two stories, Story of Keesh and Life of Pi, both characters took action to stay alive. So now we will be investigating the similarities and differences between Life of Pi and the Story of Keesh in where the main theme is survival and the harsh environment plays an important factor.
In both stories the loss of life is a factor in both stories, they each lose a beloved member or someone important to them. In the Story of Keesh, Keesh loses his father who was, Bok, a mighty hunter, when he fell into a tussle with a mighty bear in order to end a great famine within the village. In the text it states, “The father of Keesh had been a very brave man, but he had met his death in a time of famine, when he sought to save the lives of his people by taking the life of a great polar bear. In his eagerness he came to close grapples with the bear, and his bones were crushed” (London, ).
This death was very significant because reading later on, this specific death motivates Keesh to go ahead and speak in the council about the meat and then later to go hunting for polar bears. In the hopes to keep himself, and his mother, Ikeega, alive. In the Life of Pi there is also a certain death but in this case Pi losses both his mom and dad along with many more. According to the text it states, “I looked about for my family, for survivors, for another lifeboat, for anything that might bring me hope. There was nothing” (Martel, 79).
Later on with the story the loss gives Pi the motivation to live and look to survive. As you can see, now we know how the loss of family affects the way in which both characters were affected. In both stories, The Story of Keesh and Life of Pi, the ability to survive is really big. They are both left in tremendous problems with each having to be creative and intelligent in order to survive. In the Story of Keesh, we see how he is left fatherless after wrestling a bear in order to end a famine within the village. In the story he has to use his head in order to supply good meat for his village.
So according to the text is states, “one takes a small chunk of blubber, thus, and thus makes it hollow. Then into the hollow goes the whalebone, so, tightly coiled, and another piece of blubber is fitted over the whale-bone. After that it is put outside where it freezes into a little round ball” (London, 73). This is Keesh explaining the process of building his hunting traps, he next discuss how it works. “The bear swallows the little round ball, the blubber melts, the whalebone with its sharp ends stands out straight, the bear gets sick, and when the bear is very sick, why, you kill him with a spear.
It is quite simple. ” This is him using his head, using his resources around him to efficiently hunt and kill a polar bear. In other words it is his ability to be able to use his head to be able to survive. Next we go onto the story of Life of Pi, in where he needs to look and search this huge boat in order to survive. In the text it states, “It was three and half feet deep, eight feet wide and twenty-six feet long, exactly. “The boat was designed to hold a maximum of thirty two people and was symmetrically shaped with rounded ends” (Martel, ).
Imagine being in this huge boat with supplies but then you’re too tired to move because of the past events. Although eventually Pi goes ahead to find supply’s it took him a tremendous amount of physical and mental strength in order to look therefore this is how he is able to survive. The harsh environment is also plays a very important factor in the theme on survival. Both stories have different environments but with the same concept on survival. In the Story of Keesh, the environment is extremely rough with you having to rely on the hunters for food.
In the text it states “And the winter darkness, when the north gales make their long weep across the ice-pack, and the air is filled with flying white, and no man may venture forth” (London, ). This shows the type of environment displayed throughout the novel. Imagine living close to complete darkness year-round and then having such strong winds that it is impossible to travel. In the Life of Pi, the environment is unbearable with water all around that you can’t drink. For example in the text it states” I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the pacific, hanging on to the oar, an adult tiger in front of me, a storm raging about me”(Martel. 79).
Imagine this horrendous scene with yourself all alone in a humongous lifeboat with sharks and a full sized adult tiger. The quote explains the situation Pi is in. The environment in where he is placed and there’s nothing he can do about it. With all the points we can now understand the pressure the two characters were in and how the environment affected their survival. Given all these points on comparison and contrast we can now say the similarities and differences between Life of Pi and the Story of Keesh in where the main theme is survival and the harsh environment plays an important factor.
