Week 1 Post B

I found the first few pages of the book very entertaining not because it had a lot of action like most stories do to catch a reader's attention, but rather because it described in detail the 3-toed and 2-toed sloth. Martel actually presented an abundance of useless information such as, "If you come upon a sleeping 3-toed sloth in the wild, two or three nudges should suffice to awaken it; it will then look sleepily in every direction but yours"(4). Pi (the main character) is very interested in animals and Martel characterizes pi by demonstrating his knowledge of the three and two toed sloths. The reader feels a personal connection even though Martel doesn't even give a physical description until chapter two. Some other facts that amazed me about the three toed sloth is that they have a algae that grows under their fur which turns brown during the dry season and green during the wet season giving them a natural camo (much like the one in Halo 3). Lastly, Martel even managed to compile enough information about the animal that he writes, "As for hearing, the sloth isn’t not so much deaf as uninterested in sound. Beebe reported that firing guns next to sleeping or feeding sloths elicited little reaction. [Sloths] are said to be able to sniff and avoid decayed branches, but Bullock (1968) reported that sloths fall to the ground clinging to decayed branches 'often'"(4).