I read some of his novel “The Cunning Man”. It was very complex and realistic. Some things “I didn’t get because I’m not Canadian nor do I live” there. It was entertaining but maybe will be more so if you know more about the world and society in Canada.…
People say that Canada lacks a unique identity, but Strange Brew took this opinion as a challenge with its extreme, satirical exaggeration of the stereotypical Canadian. Everything from the language to clothing is a Canadian exaggeration. The plot takes a Canadian pastime, beer, and revolves the story around it. What this really shows is the true identifier for Canadians, the ability to be at the butt end of our own joke. From the toque to the skates and all the Canadian stereotypes in between, scratch Strange Brew and it bleeds red and white.…
From the different time periods to the places you can tell these stories are completely different. The Scarlet Pimpernel took place in France during the French Revolution. On the other hand, The Old Man by the Sea took place in the Atlantic Ocean. In The Scarlet Pimpernel it was a much more crowded situation, with groups of people throughout the book. Although, The Old Man by the Sea was a much lonelier situation where it would be just the old man out in the ocean alone for long periods of time. While reading the Scarlet Pimpernel you learned that it was a harder language to read due to the fact that it was in a later time period that is why it might be harder to read. Also, while reading The Old Man by the Sea you should’ve learned that the moral of the story was the…
In the book, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Pi, finds himself stranded out at sea and struggles to survive. Against all the odds, the protagonist faces many obstacles in his journey towards survival. Achieving something worthwhile requires effort, sacrifices, and conquering obstacles, just like in the protagonist’s case. To achieve a worthwhile goal, which is survival, the protagonist overcomes the difficult obstacles he stumbles upon in his journey with perseverance and determination. The protagonist overcoming obstacles also help develop themes or messages that further contribute to the overall meaning of the novel.…
As stated before the author Yann Martel has an ironic association with Piscine. Piscine is the guy with the amazing story and Yann Martel is the author seeking an extraordinary story. The duo was a match meant to be, the fact that they meet was perfect. Piscine could share his story with the world and Yann Martel had a chance to redeem himself after his last book…
what is the ideal canadian man, a lumber jack, outdoors man - it's a fiction.…
On a September afternoon in Southern Ontario, Alexander MacDonald travels along Highway 3, to visit his older brother, Calum, once a great chief of the Scottish-Canadian clan in Cape Breton, but now an alcoholic that lives in a forgotten apartment in Toronto. “No great Mischief”, tells the story of the MacDonald’s that arrived to the New World in 1779 but remained loyal to their traditions. The story is narrated from Alexander MacDonald’s eyes. He grew up in Cape Breton and orphan at the age of 3, he and his twin sister were raised by their Grandparents; people whose motto was “Always look after your own blood”. They lived their childhood apart from their older brothers, but fate pulls them back together. After his graduation day, Alexander joins Calum and the Scottish clan to work at the uranium mines. Alexander unmasked the true meaning of family, compassion and death through heart-breaking and joyful stories. “No Great Mischief”……
Canada is known for the diversity of culture, religion, color, and beliefs, as well as our ability to be able to create a status acceptable to everyone, making Canada, despite our individual diversity and differences, to be united as one. However, what we don’t realize is that Canada has not always been this way; this is the perspective that Wayson Choy expresses through his novel "The Jade Peony". His text and word play emphasizes on a world so unknown, yet so…
The way Walters expressed Canadian values in the book is by using traits of Canadian literature such as nature and multiculturalism. The protagonist, Jed, is a hunter and he always go out into the forest to look for animals to hunt on. Thus, learned to interact with nature. Jed knows how to blend in with nature and become noiseless like any other animal. He was taught by and learned his ways from his father and grandfather, they educate him about the creatures of the night and day. The nature is like a second home to Jed and it is his way of feeling close to…
Although the bare essentials to human survival are just food, water, and shelter, there is also other things that humans need. They need spiritual needs like believing in a faith. Or emotional needs like friendships and feelings. In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Yann gives Pi spiritual, physical, and emotional needs. Pi meets these needs by staying true to his faith.…
many battles along the gothic line. The author has written many books based on Canadian…
Life of Pi by Yann Martel tells the story of a sixteen year old religious boy, called Pi Patel, who survives in a boat for 227 days after a shipwreck. I believe this book deserves to win the Man Booker Prize not for the story it tells but for the thoughts it brings to our minds.…
“Aggressive assimilation” of First Nations people was a policy developed by the Canadian government in the 19th century (Davidson, 2012). This policy was taught in the residential schools of Canada and has had a strong negative impact on the Canadian community. As Long as the Rivers Flow is a novel written by the former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, James Bartleman. It examines the sexual, physical and psychological abuse committed on Canada’s First Nations children. Bartleman’s style of writing effectively informs the reader of the First Nation people’s experiences in Canada through fiction. Word choice, structure and point of view are all methods used by Bartleman to develop an informative and fictionalized account following the life of a residential school survivor, Martha Whiteduck.…
iAll humans are born with instincts; it is during the most desperate times in life when these instincts take control of an individual. In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Pi, goes through a situation that evoked his instincts to take control of himself. Pi spent 227 days as a castaway on a boat drifting in the Pacific Ocean. During this time he dealt with intense hunger and thirst and was very desperate. In the second story that Pi tells, each of the animals from the first story are symbolic of humans. Pi is related to Richard Parker, as many of their actions are similar between the two stories. In light of Pi 's second story the similarities suggests that Pi uses Richard Parker to represent his instinctive mind and serve as an escape from the horrific level of savagery he sank to on the lifeboat. Pi, however, did begin to accept his situation and realize that his instinctive mind would play a major role in his survival no matter how opposed to killing and eating his rational mind was. The savage-like behavior of Pi is brought on by intensely desperate situation, hunger, thirst, and Pi 's instinctive mind represented by the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker.…
When it comes to the existence of a god or gods, there are three kinds of people in this world: Those who believe, those who do not believe, and those who do not concern themselves with the subject. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, it is promised that Pi Patel’s narrative “will make you believe in God” (X). In Life of Pi, there are two stories by this protagonist: Pi’s “dry, yeastless factuality” (63) tale of survival and the “better story” (63). Martel does not indicate to the reader which story actually occurred, and neither can be proven as the legitimate one, which parallels the arguments between the existence of a god and scientific reason. In the story, Pi’s father believes in humankind’s contemporary discoveries, which contradicts Pi’s…