Life of Pi

Life of Pi

CHARACTERS
1. Pi (Piscine Molitor Patel)
  1. was named after a french swimming pool
  2. used to get teased at school for it
  3. so he changed is name to Pi
  4. protagonist
  5. polytheist
2. Pi's Father
  1. owns the Pondicherry Zoo where Pi grew up
  2. not religious, is confused at Pi's polytheism
3. Pi's Mother/Orange Juice
  1. Pi's mother is called Gita
  2. in the second animal less story, the orangutan orange juice is portrayed as the mother
  3. orangutan
4. Ravi
  1. Pi feels guilty about leaving Ravi behind in the exploration that saved him and the rest of the family drowned
  2. Pi's brother
5. Hyena/Cook
  1. in the second animalless story the hyena is refereed to as the cook
  2. the hyena is eaten by the tiger
  3. often referred to as ugly
  4. given dog attributes
6. Richard Parker
  1. bengal tiger that jumped aboard the lifeboat when the ship capsized
  2. is the name of fictitious and real people in real life that were shipwrecked
  3. named after the hunted that hunted his mother
  4. 450 pounds
7. Zebra/Taiwanese Sailor
  1. in the second telling of the story the Zebra is referred to as the taiwanese sailor
  2. in the first story the zebra breaks it leg and the hyena tears of the limb
  3. in the second telling of the story the cook (hyena) amputates his leg for fishing bait
  4. the suffering the zebra is enduring makes us pity it
8. the blind frenchman/cook
  1. the blind frenchman sails up to Pi towards the end of the book, he's blind and pi is bland to so they cannot see each other
  2. the two japenese investigators identify the blind frenchman as the cook
MAIN IDEAS/THEMES
1. Religion
  1. Pi is Hindi, Christian, and a Muslim
  2. when he is praying he prays to Allah, God and the relevant Hindu god
2. Science
  1. Pi often refers to the Survival Manual that is in the lifeboat
3. Man and the Natural World
  1. animals become more like humans
  2. humans become more animalistic
  3. tiger and hyena are given human attributes
  4. Pi sometimes gives himself animal attributes e.g. when he is eating food he describes how he is eating like Richard Parker
  5. zoo animals develop domestic animal like traits
4. Suffering
  1. it brings out the worst and best of the characters
  2. in some cases the animals care for each other
    1. ' "I love you!" The words burst out pure and unfettered, infinite. The feeling flooded my chest. "Truly I do. I love you Richard Parker. If I didn't have you now, I don't know what I would do. I don't think I would make it. No, I wouldn't." '-Pi
  3. but in other cases they murder them to eat
  4. Pi used to be a vegetarian but because of lack of supplies he is not
  5. for food
5. Fear
  1. at the beginning of the book Pi is frightened of Richard Parker
  2. he overcomes this and trains him or as he calls it 'phsycological bullying'
  3. at the beginning not only is her frightened of the tiger he is frightened his future
  4. when he starts running low on supplies, he overcomes his fear of killing animals and on the time when his is on the boat kills many animals and describes how they rtutally came to an end
  5. “I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always … so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.” - Pi
6. Hunger and Thirst
  1. Pi is on a life boat in the middle of the ocean
  2. he is surrounded by food and water
  3. but the water is salty therefore undrinkable
  4. and the food is hard to catch
PERSONAL RESPONSE
1. I though it was a great book
2. The end was confusing but after thinking about it I understood it.
3. It is a unique book that lets you choose what you thought happened, there are 2 endings of which I cannot choose.
4. The book is full of symbolism and metaphors, the ones mentioned here are just a few of many.
5. I have never read anything like that before, but it was pleasant change.
INTERESTING TECHNIQUES
1. Metaphors
  1. that Pi's Mother is Orange Juice the oranguatan
  2. that the Hyena is the Cook
  3. that the zebra is the taiwanese sailor
  4. "it was a mountain creeping up on us" (Pi describing the passing ship)
  5. that Richard Parker was him (2nd story)
2. Tone
  1. Unflinching
    1. although at the beginning Pi is scared
    2. Pi adapts
    3. Richard Parker doesn't scare him anymore and sometimes RP is frightened
    4. things like breaking fishes necks and killing them does not phase him
    5. "You may be astonished that in such a short period of time I could go from weeping over the muffled killing of a flying fish to gleefully bludgeoning to death a dorado."-Pi
  2. Amusing
    1. Pi is describing the origin of his name
    2. even at the toughest times he can find the positive side
    3. "Here it is, for your enjoyment and instruction, for your gratification and edification, the show you've been waiting for all your life, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH! [...]. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, without further ado, it is my pleasure and honour to present to you: THE PI PATEL, INDO-CANADIAN, TRANS-PACIFIC, FLOATING CIRCUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSS! TREEEEEE! TREEEEEE!" - Pi training tiger
3. Imagery
  1. When the ship is passing by, Pi also describes it very graphically
    1. "The bow was a vast wall of metal that was getting wider every second. A huge wave girdling it was advancing towards us relentlessly...The ship slid by for what seemed like a mile, mile of high, black canyon wall, a mile of castle fortification with not a single sentinel to notice us languishing in the moat...Its engines rumbling loudly and propellers chopping explosively underwater, the ship churned past and left us bouncing and bobbling in its frothy wake." -Pi
  2. when he visits the island, Pi is very descriptive of it, putting a clear image in the reader's mind
  3. "The trees were beautiful. They were like none I had ever seen before. They had a pale bark, and equally distributed branches that carried an amazing profusion of leaves. These leaves were brilliantly green, a green so bright and emerald that, next to it, vegetation during the monsoons was drab olive."-Pi describing the island
4. Symbolism
  1. Pi
    1. irrational number=3.14........ "π"
    2. so large that we cannot comprehend it
    3. symbolises that some realities in life we can't comprehend, or are too hard to face
  2. Orange
    1. symbolises hope and survival, which is very uncertain
    2. the tiger is also orange
    3. it is also symbolistic of Hinduism
  3. Algae Island
    1. he comes across a small island while he is on the lifeboat on which he and Richard Parker live on for sometime and build up their strength
    2. it is full of meerkats which symbolise the followers of religion
    3. there are many trees which represent religious leaders e.g priests, iman
    4. the island represents religion, a sign to keep going
    5. the green from the plants represents Islam
Memorable quotes
1. 'Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror.'

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