Two Boys and the Wilderness

Since human behavior is so diverse, it can be difficult to determine what is caused by nature and what is caused by nurture. Many psychologists use case studies to help compare and determine where those lines lie.  Case studies are the detailed study of a person, situation or group over a period of time. Often, some hypotheses about similar situations can be drawn, but conclusions can be very limited.

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. 

HUMAN INTERACTION

Gather round lovelies, today we're going to discuss social interaction. I know for many of you it might be a new topic or maybe even your first time, so we're going to take it slow and ease into it and I promise, EVERYTHING will be OK.

I'm just kidding, but in all seriousness, today we're going to be learning about socialization. Socialization is the act of social contact, the way individuals learn to think and act a certain way, that is accepted in their culture or region. 

Social interaction is another major part of what shapes us as human beings. Along with our human nature, our social group and culture helps form friendships and influences morals and beliefs. There have been studies done on twins who have been separated at birth. In this study they compare their personality, morals and values among other things. Here's a video that explains these twin studies much better than I ever could:

As he explains, identical twins share not only physical traits, but many other things such as humor, personality and IQ levels, regardless of where they grew up, with each other or apart.

On the other hand, their morals and values tend to change based on where and how they were raised, and who has influenced them. It proves that even with our genetics and human nature, we need some amount of socialization in order to develop to our full potential.

 People who lack social interaction at a young age are called isolates. This means they've been deprived of physical, social or emotional contact. This can effect their growth mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and even socially.

Now, I bet you're thinking, well how does this relate to Life of  Pi in ANY way? Well, as you can probably tell, Socialization, Human Nature and Nurture are the basis of the way we act and how we deal with problems in our lives. As it turns out, in Life of  Pi, Pi Patel goes through a IMMENSE amount of change and life and death decisions which he has to deal with one of two ways, the way he was taught during his life(the way he was NURTURED) or the way our genetic make up wants us to do things, the way NATURE intended.

One of the many problems Pi comes face to face with is finding clean water and food. It is the simplest form of human nature we all face, when we're hungry or thirsty, we go off in search of water and food. The difference between us and savages or animals, is that we prefer clean water and cooked food. Most of us, apart from sushi have never eaten raw meat, and would never imagine wanting to. For Pi, he was brought up in a home filled with vegetarians. Because of this, it is even more horrific at the beginning of the book for him to even think about eating raw meat, not to mention having to kill the animal in order to eat it.

As the book progresses, you can tell that Pi is slowly letting his human nature over power his nurturing and socialization. After he catches and kills the first flying fish, his means to find, kill and eat food become more and more barbaric. As we progress through the book, he goes from hitting the head of the fish under a blanket to kill them, to total decapitation. He also is very vicious with his first turtle, breaking its neck and sawing through all the cartilage, muscle and bone in order to kill it and eat it. He also attempts to eat tiger feces, which in our society and pretty much any society, wouldn't be acceptable.

On the other hand, he is also a very good example of how nurture can be a very vital tool. Throughout his time on the raft and life boat, Pi continues to be very faithful of all three religions he chose to follow. He makes time every day to pray and pay his respects to his god. This, in turn, also helps keeps his mind busy, and keep his hopes and spirits up. It also proves that we're not just preprogrammed machines that eat sleep and drink. We're capable of looking at the bigger picture, and coming to terms with tragic events.

In our society, as an adult, it is unacceptable to only follow the influences of our human nature. As we grow up we have to learn how to not only how to dress, act and function in society, but when we have kids of our own we need to be able to provide and nurture another human being. If you think about it, our parents have one of the most difficult jobs, they have to provide and help build the foundation for the next generation. Not only that, but they have to ensure that we're capable of looking after ourselves, so we can in turn have kids of our own.

In that case, it's no wonder that some people may mess up once and a while, doing the most important job there is. Here's a video of a father who took to great extremes disciplining his daughter for posting rude comments about her parents on Facebook. You be the judge on whether or not these consequences were called for or not.

Was this the right type of nurture to help shape and influence the next generation, or was it too extreme to have a positive impact on her?

What Is Human Nature?

Time to take out your pens and paper kiddies and take note of some very important definitions:

Nature: the influence of inherited biological characteristics on human behavior

Nurture: the process of training or influencing a child through learning

Culture: all the learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values and ideals of a particular society or population    

When we talk about Human Nature, we're talking about habits and abilities that can be traced back through the history of the human kind back to our primitive ancestors. These traits have been used for centuries in order to help us survive and cope with changes in our habitat and lives. Many scientists believe that these habits are part of the reason we behave the way we do.

Picture a new born baby as a brand new computer. They're the most updated version you can get. Their software is basically a digital version of human nature, and based on the tools they're given, that's how they function in reality. This is the NATURE part of your makeup. As you may know, over time your computer's hard drive fills up with pictures and documents, maybe even games. These represent your memories and outside influences such as culture, religion, and people you meet. Now because you have all these different experiences, it's also going to change the way the computer runs, make it faster, slower or more efficient. All these things are what's called NURTURE.



Now, there is a big debate between Anthropologists, Sociologists and Psychologists about which one has a stronger effect on who you are as a person, and who you're destined to become. Many have dedicated their lives to try and answer the question of where one draws the line between what actions are caused by nature or nurture.

Margaret Mead is a well known anthropologist who studied gender roles, and how human nature affected them. She believed that our roles were not determined through our genetic makeup, but rather the culture we grew up in. She did a study of three different tribes and compared them to one another to try and prove her point.

The first one she studied was called the Arapesh, and the way their culture functioned was by equality. Both men and women were treated as equal, and the children were raised with warmth and love. As they grew up, they viewed the world in a trusting manner and knew that aggression was not acceptable.

The second one she studied was called the Mundagumor. Their society treated the children harshly and let them fend for themselves for the most part. This made them grow up believing that others were potential enemies and they were hostile and aggressive.

The final tribe she studied was called the Tchambuli. They believed that women were superior and men were below them. when women would go out to hunt, men would stay and look after the household. She found that the women created a cohesive group, where as the men were excluded from religious ceremonies.

She came to the conclusion that masculinity and femininity were not determined by gender or genetics, but by the culture you were brought up in. She believed that some parts of our personality was from nurture influencing our human behavior.

Deep stuff huh? Here's a picture of Margaret Mead with a bird to numb the dull throbbing of your brain for a bit.