Life of Pi the end...

Is the life of Pi a buildungsroman? I really do not think so. Well at least not as much as some of the other books we have read. It might be a bit different had the book continued on a bit longer after Pi landed and was rehabilitated into society, but from what we were able to see I really do not think it was enough to make a full decision from. Granted Pi did go through a lot, changed a lot, and grew a lot, but was it necessarily a buildungsroman? He changed because he had to do what ever it took to survive. He had to adapt to live with life on the boat, and that does not necessarily mean that he grew and came of age. He became a lot more self sufficient that is true but it was only because he had to. It does not mean that he learned how to be self sufficient in the world he grew up in or in the world that he was going to go live in, but ask him anything about how to live life on a boat, and how to tame a tiger, or share quarters with a tiger then he will be able to help. But that type of knowledge is not sufficient enough to justify a buildungsroman in the sense that we have been studying it. It was a great story, and we learned a lot about life and religion from Pi. It just seems a bit incomplete as a true buildungsroman for my tastes.