Since case studies are one of the many ways social scientists look at a certain problem, lets compare Life of Pi to another book that is similar in the aspect of there being a young boy stranded in the wild who has to fend for himself. The book I've decided to compare it to is called Hatchet.
Hatchet is a book that many kids read in elementary school, and it's about a boy named Brian Robeson, who is thirteen years old. Brian's parents are divorced and his father lives in northern Canada. We join Brian at the beginning of the book on his way, by plane, to spend the summer with his father. Tragically, the plane crashes and Brian is left stranded in the wilderness, with only his hatchet (a gift from his mother) to help him survive. As we can see, both stories have some very similar characteristics. Both involve a young teenage boy, who is faced with a tragic incident and separated from his parents. Because of this incident, he has to come up with different ways of meeting his basic needs. May it be hunting for food, finding clean water or making a shelter, they both struggle to meet these needs on a regular basis.
Both boys are faced with difficult problems too. They both have to be weary of predators(Pi: Richard Parker, Brian:Wolves and other animals). They also struggle to maintain a steady income of food, and because of this they reach a point where they consider giving up and dying. For Pi, this point came after the biggest storm he survived, where he loses all of his dried fish and his raft. He decides to drink all the water and lies down, waiting to die. For Brian, his lowest point comes when a plane flies past him without noticing him, and a small animal raids his food supply. He then uses his hatchet (which allowed him to stay alive) to try and take his life.
Both boys, miraculously survive their close encounter with death. They also seem to view their survival as a miracle, and a sort of rebirth. They use it as motivation to continue on and find solutions for their problems. Pi finds inner strength to continue fishing and believes one day he will be found. When Brian regains consciousness he realizes the huge mistake he almost made. He decides that the chances of him being rescued are very slim, so he teaches himself how to successfully fish.
Both these boys grew up in fairly modern house holds. They never really needed to hunt for their food, nor did they have to travel far for their water. Not to mention the fact that Pi lived his entire life as a vegetarian. How on earth were they able to survive for so long on their own, so far from society? Simple, they were guided by their human nature. Passed down through our genetics are the instincts of thousands of generations of successful hunters and scavengers. From a young age you can see these instincts at work. If you were to feed a small child food that is very sweet, they will eat it happily, because subconsciously their body knows that sweet foods are usually filled with fat and nutrients that are essential for the growth of their brains and body. On the other hand, if you were to feed them food that is very sour, they will spit it out immediately, because subconsciously their brains are telling them it could be poisonous. Our brains can also help us problem solve. The reason why Brian was unable to catch fish was because he didn't account for the refraction of the light in the water. At the beginning, Pi has difficulty fishing because he isn't using the right anchors or the right bait. Further on in the story the boys are able to figure out why they aren't catching any fish, and how to improve their skills. They find the right technique, and which bait works the best. They were able to accomplish this even without prior knowledge or experience with fishing, all they had was their instincts and their human behavior.
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