We would never think that somehow pools and oceans could tie into the subjects of animals, but they do very significantly. Now you may think, what do they really have in common? If you think about it there are many things, an ocean and wild animals: and ocean is unknown, it has many powers that are unknown and are really uncontrollable, and has no specific direction on where it’s going or where it’s been, it is just out there, in the wide open.
Now, wild animals and oceans are same just like pools and calm animals. How is this possible you ask? Well, pools: they are calm, keep us safe, they have boundaries, there actually is a direction, and they are clear. Just like the animals who are tame, the ones in the zoo. They sit in a cage all or a closed area all day long. They don’t know what is out in the real world, they get fed at the same time every day, they know where they can go and what they are allowed to do. They are never angry or upset because they always get what they want and they do get it because there are people to take care of them, they even have directions on which way they can walk in their cage and they way they can’t walk because they will run into a wall. Pools are just like them--think about it; there are sides to keep you in your boundaries, the water is clear and you can see out of it, mostly it is calm, unlike the ocean.
Whether it is pools or oceans there is paradox, just like weather it is wild animals or tame animals—there is paradox in everything. If there were no tame animals in the world, none locked up we would always have to be afraid that they could be outside our houses at any time and if there were always tame animals, there would never be anything to fear animal wise. They would all be locked up and even if they weren’t locked up they would still be tame, and that means that we wouldn’t have worries that if we pet a tiger our hand will get eaten off or if we step in a lagoon of alligators they are not going to try and bite our legs off. Same with pools and oceans, think about it, if we never had oceans and just pools around, it would not be the fun of going to a pool because it is not like the ocean that gives you waves to ride and a large area to go boating on. Then if there were no pools and just oceans everywhere there would be nowhere to go without getting in salt water or have the risk of seeing a shark, a stingray, maybe even a jellyfish.
My point is that whether we had all tame or wild animals, or just pools or just oceans nothing would balance out just like paradox. Paradox says that we need to have a balance in our life otherwise it would never be the same. For example, if we had no death there would be nothing to fear or joy, we would always have time to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. So we have to have pools and oceans and tame and wild animals otherwise nothing would ever balance out.
Pi witnesses paradox all over, he is in the middle of the ocean and realizes how it is much different than a pool, and he also notices the difference between the animals that his father has in the zoo compared to the ones that are in his boat with him. He realizes that there are things in the world that have to have opposites otherwise nothing would ever balance out. We need paradox to live life.
