Plot Summary



Life of Pi

by

Yann Martel

2001

The BestNotes Study Guide by D. L. Cassie

LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING

The story is initially set in India in the late 1990’s. The author has traveled to Pondicherry, a coastal town in the former French territory of India, which joined Independent India in 1954. The territory of Pondicherry still has many French citizens, as well as an unusually wide variety of churches/places of worship. The author then travels to Canada to interview Pi Patel, the narrator of the story, but little of the actual story is set there, save the author’s observations of the adult Pi’s home.

Pi grew up in Pondicherry in the mid-1970’s, but the setting for the greater part of his story is the Pacific Ocean, specifically along the equatorial counter-current which runs east to west along the equator. The last pages are set in Mexico where Pi recovers from his 227 day ordeal at sea.

CHARACTER LIST

Major Characters

Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)

Pi is the main character/protagonist of the story. He is a teenage Indian boy, son of a zookeeper. He practices three religions, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. His faith and knowledge of animal psychology help him survive 227 days at sea in a lifeboat with a 450 pound Bengal tiger.

Richard Parker

He is the Bengal tiger that becomes Pi’s nemesis as well as his reason for living. The tiger ended up with a human name as the result of a clerical error where the name of the tiger, Thirsty, and the name of his captor, Richard Parker, were accidentally reversed.

Minor Characters

The Author

Though it would seem unusual to include the author as a character, in Life of Pi, the author is more than a narrator. He interacts with the adult Pi as well as describes Pi’s home, family, cooking, etc. The character of the author adds authenticity to the story by reminding the reader periodically that the narration coming from Pi is the result of an interview process, not just the spinning of a tale.

Francis Adirubasamy

He is a close friend of the Patel family and a former competitive swimmer. He teaches Pi to swim. Pi refers to him as Mamaji, mama meaning uncle and ji indicating respect and affection. He is also the man who refers the author to Pi for the “story that will make you believe in God.”

Pi's Father (Santosh Patel)

Pi’s father is the owner/keeper of the Pondicherry Zoo. He teaches Pi the finer points of animal care and control, along with respect for the animals’ strength. He dies in the shipwreck.

Pi's Mother (Gita Patel)

Pi’s mother is loving and nurturing, especially in the area of education. She reads widely and shares her books with Pi. She dies in the shipwreck, or, she may have had the role of the orangutan in Pi’s second story.

Ravi

He is Pi’s older brother who loves to tease Pi. Unlike Pi, he is popular and athletic. Nonetheless, the brothers are close. He dies in the shipwreck.

Mr. Satish Kumar

He is an excellent biology teacher who finds nature to be an illustration of the logic of science. He is an atheist, and through him Pi learns to accept atheists as believers – but of another faith. This Mr. Kumar inspires Pi to study zoology in college.

Mr. Satish Kumar

Ironically, this man of faith has the same name as the atheist science teacher. He is a shopkeeper in the Muslim section of town. He is also a Sufi, a Muslim mystic. Pi feels that Mr. Kumar’s shop/home is a sacred place and learns to practice Islam there. This Mr. Kumar inspires Pi to study religion in college.

Father Martin

He is the Catholic priest who exemplifies Christ’s love to Pi. He meets with Pi several times, each time explaining that Jesus Christ lived the way He did because of love. Father Martin unknowingly catalyzes Pi’s acceptance of multiple faiths.

Mr. Tomohiro Okamoto

He is the senior representative from the Japanese Ministry of Transport. He and Mr. Chiba question Pi in Mexico about the sinking of the Tsimtsum and about Pi’s incredible survival story. He is reluctant to believe the story.

Mr. Atsuro Chiba

He is the junior representative from the Japanese Ministry Of Transportation who accompanies Mr. Okamoto to Mexico. He sees deeper meaning in Pi’s story, but goes along with whatever Mr. Okamoto says.

CONFLICT

Protagonist

The protagonist of a story is the main character who traditionally undergoes some sort of change. He or she must usually overcome some opposing force. The protagonist in this story, Pi, is also the narrator. Therefore the reader gains understanding through Pi’s point of view. He is a young man who is confident about his knowledge of zoology, but eager to learn more. He respects and appreciates the beauty of Hinduism, the religion he was born into, but is still striving to find his connection with God. Pi has not done anything to cause his life-threatening situation.

Antagonist

The antagonist of a story is the force that provides an obstacle for the protagonist. The antagonist does not always have to be a single character or even a character at all.

On the surface, it would appear that the antagonists here are Richard Parker and Nature. Pi’s hardships at sea begin with the threat presented by the tiger, and progress to surviving starvation and the elements. However, the real conflict is an internal struggle. Pi must maintain his faith in order to survive, but he must compromise his beliefs in order to live. For example, he includes prayer in his daily routine at sea, but he must kill and forego vegetarianism to stay alive. Pi Patel is a seeker of knowledge and a seeker of God. He is striving to choose “the better story” for his life.

Climax

The climax of a plot is the major turning point that allows the protagonist to resolve the conflict. The climax in this story comes in Part Three of the book. The reader has known all along that Pi survived his ordeal because it is he who is narrating the story. So none of the drama at sea is truly climactic. The twist at the end, when Pi reluctantly offers a second story devoid of animals and devoid of faith, brings the climax. Pi allows Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba to believe the second story if they choose, but presses them to confess which story they think is better.

Outcome

The outcome, resolution, or denouement of this is that both men admit the first story is better. This reaffirms Pi’s own beliefs (even though the men may or may not really believe the story). Mr. Okamoto chooses to include the first story in his official report. However, the ultimate outcome is left to the reader because which story is actually true is never firmly established.

SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis)

The Author’s Note, preceding Chapter 1, explains that the author has traveled to India, restless and in need of inspiration for a story. At a coffeehouse in Pondicherry, an elderly man named Francis Adirubasamy strikes up a conversation with the author saying, “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” He refers the author to Piscine Molitor Patel who lives in Toronto, Canada. The novel then begins in Piscine’s voice.

Piscine is an ardent teenager growing up in Pondicherry, an area of southern India that was once part of French India. The family, consisting of Piscine, his parents, and his playfully irritating older brother, Ravi, is happy. His life is rich with unique and wonderful educational opportunities. His father runs the Pondicherry Zoo where Piscine learns the psychology and husbandry of animals. (One such lesson in the workings of the natural world comes when Piscine’s father explicitly demonstrates for Piscine and Ravi how a starving Bengal tiger reacts to a goat being introduced into its pen.) Piscine’s mother reads widely and has an extensive assortment of books and literature which Piscine is encouraged to explore. In addition, Piscine’s thirst for knowledge is nurtured by good schools and excellent teachers, in particular his atheist science teacher, Mr. Kumar, who inspired Piscine to study zoology.

Piscine is named after a famous swimming pool in France. A good friend of the family, Francis Adirubasamy, had been a champion competitive swimmer and touts the glory of the Piscine (pool) Molitor in Paris and thereby influences the parents’ choice of the name. Schoolmates tease Piscine (pronounced Pea – seen) calling him “pissing.” In response to this verbal bullying, when Piscine enters the next level of school he rushes up to the blackboard during roll and announces his full name, underlining the first syllable, instructing all to know him as “Pi.” He proceeds to illustrate his new name with the mathematical explanation of the Greek letter pi, the “letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated tin roof.” The name catches on and Pi is thrilled.

Along with his search for knowledge, Pi is also in search of God. He grew up Hindu, but at age 14, he meets Jesus Christ via a Catholic priest named Father Martin. He asks to be baptized. Soon after, he meets another Mr. Kumar, this one a devoutly practicing Muslim, and converts to Islam as well. Pi happily practices all three religions simultaneously, even asks his father to buy him a prayer rug so he can face Mecca to pray. Once, upon a chance meeting at the zoo, the priest (Catholic), the pandit (Hindu), the imam (Muslim), and Pi’s parents discover Pi’s triple religious affiliation and argue that Pi must choose one. Pi responds, embarrassed, that he just wants to love God.

As the adult Pi narrates his story, he includes seemingly random, but informative discussions of religion, zoology, and Indian culture. During the interview process, the author also interjects his own observations about Pi, his home, and even his cooking.

Despite the abundance of wonder in Pi’s India, there is political unrest. At 16, Pi does not fully understand the politics, but he knows that it is Mrs. Gandhi’s actions that cause his father to decide to close the zoo and relocate to a better life in Canada. The zoo animals are sold, mostly to zoos in America, packed up, and loaded onto a freighter called the Tsimtsum, to travel to Winnipeg, Canada with the family. However, midway across the Pacific, the ship sinks.

Pi is the only survivor, in a lifeboat with a hyena and a zebra with a broken leg. He sees another survivor, Richard Parker, swimming frantically. Pi calls to him and throws him a lifebuoy. Full of panic and despair over losing his family, Pi encourages Richard Parker to swim to the lifeboat. Richard Parker finally makes it and jumps in to the boat. Pi comes to his senses and realizes that he has just invited Richard Parker, a 450 pound Bengal tiger into the lifeboat. Pi “turned around, stepped over the zebra and threw [him]self overboard.”

Now even more frightened of the black depths of the ocean and the triangular fins nearby, Pi wedges an oar under the tarpaulin at the bow of the boat and pulls himself out of the water. He decides that he might possibly survive if the tiger stays under the tarpaulin and he stays quiet and still on top. So he inches up the oar and re-boards the boat.

A short distance away, Pi sees Orange Juice, a female orangutan, drifting toward the boat on a raft of netted bananas. When she nears, she climbs on board. What follows is a week of terror as Pi watches the gruesome food chain play out. The hyena eats the zebra, alive. Then after repeated screaming matches and mutual batting, the hyena finally eats the orangutan. Richard Parker eats the hyena.

The majority of the rest of the story is about Pi’s 227 days at sea. He soon realizes that his only hope for survival is to tame Richard Parker. Oars and lifejackets are tied together to make a raft that will float, tethered, behind the lifeboat. This is Pi’s “safe zone.” Drawing on his knowledge of animal behavior, Pi convinces Richard Parker that he is the alpha male. He uses the whistles from the life jackets as his tamer’s whip and “treats” from the ocean as behavior rewards. He marks his territory, his half of the lifeboat, with urine and vomit. Though he is still in fear of the tiger, Pi keeps Richard Parker at bay by keeping him supplied with food and fresh water until he feels safe enough to spend time on the lifeboat, not just on the raft.

Over time, Pi develops a deepening bond with Richard Parker. A sort of zookeeper/animal relationship maintains the truce. But more than that, Richard Parker becomes Pi’s reason for living. The formerly vegetarian Pi learns to kill and eat anything he can, and shares his catch with the tiger. He includes prayer in his daily routine and often marvels at the splendor of nature. However, as months drag on Pi’s and the tiger’s health deteriorate. They both lose their vision temporarily. Incredibly, while blind, Pi drifts into the lifeboat of another blind castaway. At first Pi thinks he is hallucinating about a conversation with the tiger, but then realizes it is indeed another man. The two men talk about food at length. Not knowing about Richard Parker, the other castaway boards Pi’s boat with the intent of killing and eating Pi. Dramatically, the tiger’s killer instinct saves Pi as well as provides Richard Parker with a meal. Pi is distraught over the other man’s death and cries so hard that his tears actually help to clean out his eyes and partially restore his vision.

In cycles of hope and despair, it soon seems that the possibility of survival is lost. Barely alive, Pi and the tiger drift into a floating island that seems to be made of knotted masses of algae. Richard Parker climbs off of the boat onto the island. Pi samples the algae as food. The two stay on the island and regain their strength, returning to the boat at night. Pi discovers thousands of meerkats living on the island, as well as freshwater ponds. At night, the meerkats take to the trees. On attempting to stay in the trees one night with the meerkats, Pi discovers to his horror that the algae that makes up the island secretes acid at night that will digest anything left on its surface. Pi finds human teeth within the algae and concludes that it is a carnivorous island that may have even digested a previous castaway who died there. Alarmed, Pi returns to life adrift on the boat, which has become a butchery, a circus ring, and a place of prayer.

When they reach land (Mexico), Pi is exhausted and weak. Richard Parker simply gets out of the lifeboat and disappears into the jungle. Officials representing the shipping company of the Tsimtsum come to Mexico to question the recovering Pi. They find Pi’s story of his 227 days at sea too implausible to believe. Pi counters their incredulity with facts and reason, but the investigators are still doubtful. So Pi tells them a completely different story, a story that includes in the lifeboat Pi’s mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and a French cook.

The second story has murder and cannibalism, but no animals and no floating island. One investigator notes the parallels between the people and the animals of the two stories, but the other dismisses them. They seem satisfied. Pi says to the men, “In both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer,” to illustrate that there is no factual difference in the outcomes of the two stories. He then asks the men which story they prefer. They admit to preferring the story with the animals, the better story. “And so it goes with God,” is Pi’s response. The better story is what ends up in the men’s report.

THEMES

The Better Story

The predominant theme is the concept of the “better story”, in other words, the importance of telling a good story. Life itself is a story and one can choose his own story. The “better story” is the more imaginative one and, according to Pi, the one God would choose as well. One must have faith in something beyond bare logic.

Science and Religion

A minor theme is the reconciliation of science and religion as ways to understand the world. Pi meshes the two in order to survive 227 days on the lifeboat. He ends up majoring in both zoology and religious studies.

Religious Syncretism

Another minor theme is the syncretism, or union of the seemingly opposing principals, of religions. As different as Pi’s three religions are, they all involve a personal relationship with God. They are blended into Pi’s own unique spirituality and remain with him as an adult.

MOOD

The novel is divided into three parts and the mood changes as one part transitions to the next. In Part One, the mood is wondrous, full of the embarrassments and marvels of childhood. It changes to a spiritual mood as Pi gets older, discovers multiple ways to know God, and prepares for the journey to Canada. Part Two deepens the spiritual mood, but as time goes on and Pi’s situation becomes more and more life-threatening, the mood changes to desperation. In Part Three the desperation remains as Pi tries intently to get the Japanese representatives to believe his story. The desperation turns to satisfaction when Pi is finally able to make his point.

Yann Martel - BIOGRAPHY

Yann Martel is a Canadian author who was born in Spain on June 25th, 1963. His parents were there while Martel’s father was on a scholarship to complete his doctorate. Martel’s family traveled a lot because his father was a teacher and a diplomat. Martel therefore grew up in Alaska, British Columbia, Costa Rica, France, Ontario, and Mexico.

He attended Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario from 1979 to his graduation two years later. He continued on and studied philosophy at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. While beginning his writing career, Martel took various jobs such as tree planting, dish washing, and working as a security guard. He has been living off his writing since the age of 27. Yann Martel currently lives in Montreal. In addition to writing, he practices yoga and volunteers at a palliative care unit.

As an adult, Martel has traveled to Iran, Turkey and India. To write Life of Pi, he spent six months in India visiting zoos, temples, mosques, and churches. He interviewed the director of the Trivandrum Zoo. To create his main character, Pi, Martel immersed himself in the Indian culture. He then returned to Canada to research Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, as well as animal psychology and disaster/castaway stories. The subsequent writing of Life of Pi took two more years.

Works by Yann Martel include:

The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatio (short stories, 1993)

Self (novel, 1996)

Life of Pi (novel, 2001)

Life of Pi won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction 2001, the Man Booker Prize 2002, CBC Radio’s Canada Reads competition 2003, and the French version won the 2004 Le Combat de Livres.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Summary

The author is in India attempting to write a novel. He is displeased with his progress, as his current story lacks passion. It hasn’t a spark of life, so he mails his notes off to a fictitious address in Siberia.

While in a coffeehouse in Pondicherry, he is conversing with an elderly man named Francis Adirubasamy. The man offers a story “that will make you believe in God.” The author is skeptical at first, assuming the man is some sort of fundamentalist or evangelist. The man says the author must get the true account from the person who lived it – a man named Patel, in Canada. The author goes to Canada, finds Patel, and gets his story. The story is told in Patel’s voice.

Notes

The Author’s Note begins autobiographically, explaining Martel’s trip to India and his restlessness as he searches for a story. However, the Author’s Note is more than an “Introduction,” “Acknowledgement,” or “Foreword” to the book. It sets the reader up for actually believing the story. It establishes the setting as a real place. The formerly French territory in south India where Pondicherry is located, of course, exists. Even the coffee house in Pondicherry exists, across the road from the Trivandrum Zoo. The “Pondicherry Zoo” does not exist, but the Botanical Gardens do. The author introduces Francis Adirubasamy as a real person, and even goes so far as to include the characters of Mr. Patel, Mr. Adirubasamy, and Mr. Okamoto in the acknowledgements. The characters are mentioned right beside the non-fictitious Canada Council for the Arts which granted support for Martel’s writing of Life of Pi in 1997. Mixing actuality and invention prepares the reader for the “better story” so that we do not “sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality” or “end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”

PART ONE - Toronto and Pondicherry

CHAPTER 1

Summary

A gloomy, unknown narrator presents himself, explaining that he has majored in both religious studies and zoology at the University of Toronto - his religious studies thesis being about the cosmogony theory of Isaac Luria, and his zoology thesis about the thyroid gland of the three-toed sloth. He then describes the nature and habits of the sloth in detail. Though he was recognized for his intelligence and ability in the zoology department, he personally did not separate science and religion, “such a beautiful example of the miracle of life, reminded me of God.” He mentions the goddess Lakshmi, hinting that he may be of the Hindu faith.

He describes how he loves Canada, but misses India. He also misses Richard Parker (though the reader does not yet know exactly who Richard Parker is). He continues, disjointedly, about his experience in the hospital in Mexico and his embarrassment at an Indian restaurant in Canada.

Notes

Chapter 1 sets the pace and motif of the novel. The reader will often be sidetracked by digressions into the nature and habits of animals and their relationship with humans. These descriptions were well researched by Martel and can be considered accurate science. The main character will also often digress into religious remarks, but they will not always come from the Hindu faith.

The topics for the theses are significant. The “thyroid gland of the three-toed sloth” sounds methodologically scientific, but the narrator chose the sloth because of its soothing, spiritually calming nature. The doctrines of Isaac Luria’s cosmogony are based on the Old Testament and Zohar (Kabbalist text), but the concepts closely correspond to the Big Bang Theory which was validated by science hundred of years after Luria. This coexistence of faith and science is the motif of the novel.

Lastly, the narrator’s list of the top five places to visit presages the particulars that the reader will be learning about Pi’s life. The list includes Oxford, representing intellectual/scientific interests, Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims, Varanasi, the holiest city for Hindus, Jerusalem, the holiest city for Christians, and Paris, the city of magnificent swimming pools.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 2

Summary

Patel lives in Scarborough. He is a small, dark man of about forty. He speaks quickly and goes into his story.

Notes

This is a brief interjection by the author giving the narrator’s physical appearance and location. It let’s the reader know that the previous chapter was the beginning of the author’s interview with the man in Canada referred to in the Author’s Note. These interjections support the reality of the story.

CHAPTER 3

Summary

The narrator (Patel) talks about Francis Adirubasamy who is a close family friend. Patel calls him Mamaji (dear uncle). Mamaji was a champion competitive swimmer and tries to teach Patel’s parents and older brother, Ravi to swim. The family is unskilled and unenthusiastic, except for Patel himself, who is thrilled with both swimming and pleasing his “uncle.”

In addition to teaching swimming, Mamaji loves to talk about swimming and about the incredible swimming pools in Paris. Patel’s father loves to hear of them. Mamaji gloriously praises one pool in particular, the Piscine Molitor. So taken is Patel’s father with the dreamlike image of that pool, that his son becomes its namesake. We finally learn the narrator’s name: Piscine Molitor Patel.

Notes

India did have an Olympic swimmer in 1928, named Mulji. He may have been Martel’s model for Mamaji. It will become significant later in the story that Piscine is the only family member that can swim. The word piscine (pronounced pee-seen) means pool in French. However, the word piscine (pronounced pie-seen) means fish-like in English. This is an interesting play on the word in light of what is in store for Piscine in Part 2 of the novel.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 4

Summary

Piscine gives a charming description of The Pondicherry Zoo, and explains how his father, a former hotelier, came to be its founder, owner, and director. Keeping a zoo is humorously compared to keeping a hotel, the zoo guests being unhygienic, sexually open, and never leaving tips.

Piscine loves growing up in the zoo. He sees beauty and perfection in nature. He explains that the animals in the zoo are “happy” and would find being “free” disagreeable because they have established their territories, free of predators, in their zoo enclosures. Like humans in their own houses, the animals each have their own “compressed territory where basic needs can be fulfilled close by and safely.” Piscine goes on to cite instances where animals have had the opportunity the escape and did not. He says that animals in the wild do not have true freedom because they are restricted by time, space, predation, etc. and must constsntly defend themselves. He concludes saying that people have the same misconceptions about zoos as that have about religion.

Notes

Piscine begins his justification of zoos saying, “I have heard nearly as much nonsense about zoos as I have about God and religion.” He continues on for over four pages about animals in zoos, not mentioning religion again until the end where he compares religion and zoos once again, with no explanation. To understand the analogy, consider what Piscine said about animals in the wild compared to animals in the zoo. The zoo animals have a framework around them that makes it so much easier to meet their needs that they do not want to leave. Perhaps Martel is suggesting that humans also need something more than “freedom”, a framework (i.e. God, religion) to make it easier to meet human needs so that our lives are more than “lives of compulsion and necessity”

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 5

Summary

Piscine laments to the reader the difficulty of his unusual name. Unfortunately, his schoolmates (deliberately), and even his teachers (accidentally), pronounce Piscine as Pissing. He advances to secondary school, in the shadow of his older brother Ravi who is popular and athletic. On the first day of school, in every class as roll was being taken, Piscine rushes to the blackboard and introduces himself as Piscine Molitor Patel – Pi Patel. He illustrates his name with the Greek letter pi and a drawing of a circle bisected by its diameter. To Pi’s delight, the name catches on.

Notes

There are several religious references in this chapter. The first is Pi’s reply to a pizza guy, “I am who I am,” which is how God replied to Moses. Next, he lists several followers of Jesus who were known by more than one name to illustrate how life changes can accompany name changes. Finally, he compares the taunting he was subjected to in school to the persecution of Muhammad in Mecca.

It is important to Pi to establish himself in his new school. He is not athletic like his brother, who he compares to Kapil Dev (captain of India’s World Cup cricket team, 1983), but he is clever and knows how to train animals/humans. He repeats his lesson about his new name until it is accepted. In the last paragraph of the chapter, Pi defines himself with his new name.

The name Pi carries much meaning. In math pi is an irrational number, but though “irrational,” it is used to understand a great deal about the universe, logically and rationally. Pi will experience “irrational,” unbelievable things in Part 2 that he explains, logically and rationally. The number represented by pi describes the relationship between the diameter of a circle and its circumference. Pi will describe the relationship between his linear journey and his cycles of faith. For more on the significance of “Pi,” see Symbolism/Motif/Imagery section.

CHAPTER 6

Summary

Once again the author interjects giving the reader particulars about the adult Pi’s cooking skill. He also notes that Pi has a “reserve of food to last the siege of Leningrad.”

Notes

The character of the narrator is developed further with each of the author’s commentaries. The siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days between September 1941 and January 1944. Food was so limited that hundreds of thousands died of starvation. Why Pi would hoard so much food will become apparent later in Part Two.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 7

Summary

Pi gives an account of a meeting he has with Mr. Satish Kumar, his Communist, atheist, favorite, biology teacher. Mr. Kumar is visiting the zoo, delighting in the perfect order of nature. Pi explains why there are goats in the rhino enclosure – they are social animals and need the company. Mr. Kumar discusses the value of scientific explanations for everything that exists and that there is no reason to believe what we cannot sense. He goes on relating the story of his childhood polio and how medicine saved him, not God. Pi has difficulty with Mr. Kumar’s ideas until he learns to accept them as another form of faith. He ends the chapter commenting that atheists do not bother him, agnostics do.

Notes

Mr. Kumar is described as having a geometric build. His physical description matches his character. He is logical and scientific. He seeks order in the universe. He has faith in the views of Mendel (father of genetics) and Darwin (natural selection). Pi is able to accept Mr. Kumar’s atheism because although Kumar does not believe in God, he still believes and takes the “leap of faith” that reason leads him to.

Pi accepts atheism, but not agnosticism. Atheists don’t believe in God. Agnostics believe that we do not know for sure whether or not God exists. Pi’s opinion on agnosticism is summed up in the final sentence of the chapter, “To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”

CHAPTER 8

Summary

Pi lists some of the terrible things visitors do to the animals at the zoo leading to the supposition that humans are the most dangerous animals. Pi explains that anthropomorphizing is what makes people lash out at the animals. An animal is an animal. Pi has learned this from both his father and Richard Parker. (The reader does not yet know who Richard Parker is.)

Pi tells of the time his father found it necessary to demonstrate to Pi and Ravi just how dangerous an animal is. Father takes the boys and their mother to the cage of Mahisha, the tiger that has not been fed for three days in order to simulate conditions in the wild. A goat is let into the cage and what happens as the tiger attacks is “enough to scare the living vegetarian daylights” out of Pi. Father continues the lesson with story after story of the strength against humans of every animal they passed. The final stop is at the guinea pigs which Father pronounces “not dangerous.” The boys and their mother ignore Father for the next week.

Notes

Another analogy of religion and zoology is used when describing the problems of anthropomorphism, “The obsession with putting ourselves at the centre of everything is the bane not only of theologians but also of zoologists.” This sentence also foreshadows Pi being the actual physical center of everything he sees in Part Two.

There are also more religious references. Pi mentions the story from the Hindu epic the Ramayana about King Ravana kidnapping the goddess Sita. And Mahisha, the tiger’s name, is the name of an evil demon defeated by the goddess Durga.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTERS 9, 10, 11

Summary

Pi shares insight into the art and science of zookeeping. In Chapter 9 he defines the concept of flight distance – the distance an animal wants to keep from an enemy. Flight distance can be diminished by providing food, shelter, and a stable environment. In Chapter 10, Pi gives examples of animals that might want to escape. Full grown animals caught in the wild that don’t adapt, or even zoo-bred animals may in a moment of “madness” seek escape. Pi makes it clear, however, that the animals are escaping from something not to somewhere. Often escaped animals are not found for some time, or even at all. In Chapter 11, Pi tells of a black leopard that survived unnoticed in Switzerland, in the winter, for over two months.

Notes

These three chapters detail the behaviors of animals and the connections between humans and animals that will be a fundamental part of the story later. He attributes uncharacteristic animal behaviors to “a measure of madness” that moves all living things toward survival. At the end of Chapter 11, Pi is laughing about some animal that could not be found in the Mexican jungle, but at this point, the reader does not know what he is laughing about. It is a clue that there is more to the story.

CHAPTER 12

Summary

The author observes that Pi gets distressed sometimes while telling his story because “Richard Parker still preys on his mind,” but Pi wants to go on. Pi cooks very spicy food each time the author visits and the author, though he foolishly told Pi he likes spicy food, suffers.

Notes

This is another teaser to make the reader curious about the rest of the story. It is also more realism to establish credibility.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 13

Summary

Pi analyzes for the reader the process of lion taming. The trainer enters the cage first to establish it as his territory, and then as the lions enter he cracks his whip and asserts himself as the super-alpha male to whom the other lions submit. It is in fact more relaxing for the animals once they know their place in the social order because then there are fewer unknowns to cause fear or discomfort.

Notes

This chapter accounts for the human side of lion taming. This seemingly random piece of information is more of the back-story, so that in Part Two the reader understands from where Pi gets his ideas.

CHAPTER 14

Summary

Pi continues his discussion of lion taming. The animal with the lowest social standing is the easiest to train. It has the most to gain from maintaining a close relationship with the trainer. It needs the trainer to provide food and protection so it is likely to be the hardest working, most faithful animal. Pi says this concept holds true across the animal kingdom.

Notes

This chapter explains the animal’s side of the psychology of lion taming so the reader understands why an animal of superior strength (as graphically demonstrated by Pi’s father in Chapter 8) would want to submit to a human. Again, this is more back-story to add credibility to Part Two.

CHAPTER 15

Summary

The author describes Pi’s home as a temple. There are countless religious articles. Surprisingly, the objects represent different religions. There are statues and shrines of various Hindu divinities (Ganesha, Shiva, etc.), representations of Christianity (the Cross, Virgin Mary), and items of Islam as well (photo of the Kaaba, prayer rug). The author merely describes and does not comment on this inconsistency.

Notes

The chapter is a preface to the next thirteen chapters which are devoted to theological discussion. The reader will come to know how and why Pi ends up practicing three different religions.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 16

Summary

Pi tells of his first visit to a Hindu temple. He describes with delight, the rituals of worship, then goes on to explain the beliefs behind the rituals. He takes pleasure in being religious, in being Hindu, but cautions against fundamentalism using a parable about how Krishna vanishes when milkmaids become possessive. He compares Hindus, specifically Hare Krishnas (misunderstood to be “hairless Christians” by Pi’s foster mother), to Christians because of their trust in love. And “Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims.”

Notes

Chapter 16 speaks principally about Hinduism. However, many parallels between religions are brought out in the chapter. This religious syncretism is an ongoing theme throughout the novel, though Pi practices each religion in his own way. Subsequent chapters will focus on Catholicism (Christianity) and then Islam as Pi develops his own increasingly complex relationship with God.

Simplified definitions of Hindu concepts/terms from this chapter that may be unfamiliar to some readers follow:

samskara – the Hindu series of sacraments to purify and perfect man

“foreheads carrying, variously signified, the same word – faith” – probably refers to tilaks, the shapes marked on the forehead as symbols of the divine, or bindi, dots made with kumkum (vermillion) used to signify female energy and marital status, worn to protect women and their husbands

murti – statues of deities

prasad – an offering, sometimes sweets or flowers that is returned to the offerer to eat or wear

atman – the universal inner spiritual force or soul

“Bank of Karma” – karma means “action” i.e. whatever you do, and also the consequences, are your responsibility therefore your actions in this life determine the nature of your next life

CHAPTER 17

Summary

Pi continues his discussion of religion. While on vacation in Munnar, Pi notices there are three hills, each with a “Godhouse,” one Hindu temple, one mosque, and one Christian church. Hindu is the foundation for his first notion of faith and this faith leads him to “meet Jesus Christ.” Pi watches a priest from a distance and he is moved by the priest’s appearance of offering love and guidance. Timid and confused, Pi enters the church wondering which “murti” was supposed to represent the Catholic god.

The next day Pi goes into the rectory and meets Father Martin. The priest explains that Christianity revolves around the belief that God sent His Son to suffer and die for man’s sins, and then the Son was resurrected. Pi tries intensely to understand this and makes several comparisons of the stories of Hindu gods to the story of the Christian God. Over the next few days Pi meets for tea again and again with Father Martin in attempt to shed light on his confusion. Father Martin answers all of Pi’s questions and objections with, “Love.” Eventually Pi understands the meaning of love in the story of God’s Son and is inspired to run to Father Martin to ask to be a Christian. With the priest’s blessing, Pi goes into the church and prays to Christ. He then leaves and goes to the Hindu temple to thank Lord Krishna for bringing Jesus into his life.

Notes

The irony of involving Krishna in being introduced to Christ is obvious. However, this does not seem incongruous to Pi. He is used to the many manifestations of one God due to his Hindu background. To him, another story does not conflict with his existing beliefs, but enhances them giving Pi yet another way to know God.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTERS 18, 19, 20

Summary

A year later, Pi feels the same timid curiosity he had about a church, this time about the Great Mosque. He describes the building, but dares not go in. He wanders along the adjacent buildings to a bakery. Here, while speaking to the owner, Pi hears the muezzin (a servant at the mosque who leads the call to prayer), and in response the owner immediately excuses himself. Pi watches the owner go through the gestures and prayers of Muslim worship. Later, while kneeling still at church, Pi remembers the yoga-like physical Islamic way of praying.

Pi returns to the bakery to inquire about Islam. The man tells Pi, “It is about the Beloved.” They go together to the mosque and Pi takes pleasure in bowing to the ground to pray.

The baker is also a Sufi, a Muslim mystic. His name is Satish Kumar, the same as Pi’s biology teacher. Pi prays with him and feels that Mr. Kumar’s home is a sacred place. One day, on his way home from praying with Mr. Kumar, Pi experiences a profound feeling of the connectedness of all things natural and divine. He recounts a later experience of the nearness of God that happened in Canada. He had a vision of the Virgin Mary (in Christianity, the Mother of Christ).

Pi is now happily practicing three religions. “The presence of God is the finest of rewards.”

Notes

Two of the themes are brought out in these chapters, the syncretic approach to religion and the importance of the better story. Regardless of the methods of worship, to Pi, it is all about believing in something beyond the tangible. This belief allows Pi to experience the better story. “Atman met Allah.” The universal spiritual force and God have come together.

The third theme is also hinted at, the idea that science and religion are both ways to understand the world. Mr. Kumar the teacher and Mr. Kumar the Sufi are both the “prophets” of Pi’s youth. One inspires him to science, the other to religion. There is also a real-life Satish Kumar. He is a former Jain monk from India who literally walked across the world to promote disarmament and raise awareness of the beauty and connectedness of all things. His book, Path Without Destination, describes his journey and his beliefs and makes him a likely inspiration for the characters of Mr. and Mr. Kumar.

CHAPTER 21

Summary

The author reflects on his afternoon with Pi. He writes down his impressions of Pi’s concepts of “dry, yeastless factuality” and “the better story.”

Notes

This brief reflection demonstrates that the author understands Pi’s perspective on life. He understands the common thread of Pi’s three religions, love. Though only half a page long, Chapter 21 represents the heart of the novel. Along with the paragraph that follows, i.e. Chapter 22, the whole point of the novel is revealed.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 22

Summary

Pi imagines what an atheist might experience upon dying and finally having faith and love revealed. He contrasts that with his imagined experience of an agnostic who dies clinging to “dry, yeastless factuality” and thereby misses the “better story” because of lack of imagination and faith.

Notes

The meaning of the novel is summarized here. Faith and love provide for the better story in life, and the better story is, well, better. This chapter also foreshadows Pi’s “better story” of his experiences in Part Two.

CHAPTER 23

Summary

Pi, now sixteen, is happily practicing his manifold religions without his basically secular family’s knowledge. While walking along the beach, the family happens to meet the “wise men” of each of Pi’s religions. As the priest, imam, and pandit approach, Pi is horribly aware his religious multiplicity will not be accepted. The priest commends Pi on being a good Christian. This, of course, amazes and upsets the others. Each “wise man” takes his turn attempting to correct the others about Pi’s faith and about which religion is truest. After much proselytizing, the holy men finally agree that though it is venerable for Pi to seek God so enthusiastically, he cannot practice all three religions. He must choose. Embarrassed, Pi replies, “I just want to love God.” No one could object to or reprimand that comment so the three wise men walk away. Father escapes the situation by offering to buy ice cream and the family continues their walk in silence.

Notes

All three religions espouse a personal relationship with God and profess that God is love. Pi is able to accept this commonality innocently. The “wise men,” caught up in dogma, do not see it until Pi explains himself, inoffensively yet incontrovertibly. Diffidently, they depart, unwilling to accept the Truth Pi has revealed, but unable to dispute it. Not being ingrained with any particular dogma, Pi’s parents quietly accept it.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 24

Summary

Ravi teases Pi about his religious affiliations. He enumerates the days of worship for each and jokes that Pi needs only three more religions to be on religious holiday every day of the week.

Notes

There is an interesting play on words here when Ravi asks Pi if he will be the next Pope Pius. Pi who is pious may be the next Pius. Pi is used to his brother’s teasing and does not let it dissuade his religious zeal.

CHAPTER 25

Summary

Pi defends his religious practices and scorns those who are so small minded that they lose sight of the real meaning of faith because they are too busy pronouncing the outer appearances of faith. He is chased away from the usual houses of worship and must rearrange his patterns and places of worship. He is not deterred, however, because he knows “that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside…The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart.”

Notes

Here again is the syncretic theme. For Pi, the point of religion is to have faith and demonstrate love for God, not to cubbyhole one’s faith into a particular doctrine. He defends this eloquently, as quoted above.

CHAPTER 26

Summary

Pi approaches his father and asks to be baptized (as a Christian) and requests a prayer rug (for Islamic prayer). Father is confused and tries to explain to Pi that the different religions have nothing in common. Pi refutes this, listing several prophets and, of course, the one God shared by Christians and Muslims. Father points out to Pi that the family is Indian, implying that Pi should be Hindu. Pi refutes this as well explaining that Christians and Muslims have been in India hundreds of years. Exasperated, Father tells Pi to go ask Mother. Mother then tells Pi to go ask Father. Rather than pursue the issue further, Mother tries to change the subject by suggesting great books for Pi to read. Pi is not to be deterred and makes his point analogizing his multiple religions with Mamaji’s multiple passports. Mother, too, becomes exasperated.

Notes

Confident, Pi now goes beyond reasoning with his heart, i.e. “I just want to love God,” to arguing with doctrine and facts. Indeed, the more one studies the various religions, the more one sees they have in common making it easy to accept, as Mahatma Gandhi said, that all religions are true. His parents, not being religious do not know what to make of Pi’s fervor.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTERS 27 - 28

Summary

Pi parents discuss their son’s religious issues, contrasting India’s political progress under “Mrs. Gandhi” (Indira Gandhi) with Pi’s spiritual progress. They conclude that this phase of Pi’s life will pass, just as Mrs. Gandhi and her “foolishness” will pass. They give in to Pi’s requests.

Pi is delighted with his prayer rug. He prays outside in the yard where he can drink in the beauty of Creation. His parents and Ravi watch him, perhaps confused, perhaps embarrassed. He is equally thrilled with his baptism, though the support of his parents comes awkwardly and Ravi continues to tease.

Notes

Pi’s faith and seemingly discrepant beliefs are completely out in the open now. He has taken on the external trappings of religion as well as the convictions. His family has accepted it. Though he no way expresses it, this is a victory of sorts for Pi, and an affirmation of the themes of the novel.

CHAPTER 29

Summary

Pi understands the problems going on in India but is unconcerned because his immediate world, the zoo and God, is not troubled. His father, however, is deeply concerned by Mrs. Gandhi’s autocratic takeover and the effect the governmental infringements on freedom will have on his zoo business. With the diminished possibility of continued success in India, Father decides to move the family to Canada. To Pi and Ravi, the destination seems incomprehensibly far away.

Notes

During the mid-1970’s there were food shortages, high inflation, and political corruption in India. Indira Gandhi “solved” the problems by imprisoning her political enemies, censoring the press, and abrogating constitutional rights. Irreparable harm was done to the Indian democracy. These are the events that troubled Pi’s father so, and the basis for his decision to emigrate.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 30

Summary

The author meets Pi’s wife. He describes her as Canadian, second generation Indian, with typical Indian features. She is a pharmacist. The author has noticed the religious items in Pi’s house all along, but now sees that there is evidence of married life as well. He suspects it might be Pi’s wife that cooks the torturously spicy food. But then, smiling, Pi says that he has made a special chutney for the author, confirming that Pi is the cook.

Notes

Again the author interjects reality to give the reader insight into Pi’s personality and also to solidify his credibility. These author-narrated chapters convey that the conversations with Pi are real events, not just story-telling.

CHAPTER 31

Summary

Pi arranges to meet Mr. Kumar the Sufi at the zoo, but he is afraid he will not recognize him because Mr. Kumar is physically indistinct. He rubs his eyes as an excuse for not seeing Mr. Kumar approach. When he hears Mr. Kumar’s voice he greets the Sufi with the traditional Muslim phrase, “Salaam alaykum.” As they leisurely walk through the zoo, Mr. Kumar marvels at every creature, but especially the zebras. Just then, the other Mr. Kumar approaches. Pi gives pieces of carrot to each Mr. Kumar to feed to the zebras. The three enjoy the experience. Mr. Kumar remarks, “Equus burchelli boehmi.” The other Mr. Kumar remarks, “Allahu akbar.” Pi simply says, “It’s very pretty.”

Notes

Just as Mr. Kumar the biology teacher’s physical geometry corresponds to his scientism, Mr. Kumar the Sufi’s lack of physical distinction matches his spirituality. In the chapter, Pi does not have to distinguish Mr. Kumar from Mr. Kumar because their words and actions differentiate them. The biology teacher feeds the zebra with a sense of the function of the carrot. The Sufi feeds the zebra with a sense of wonder. The biology teacher’s remark is the scientific name of a Grant’s zebra, separating it from other varieties of zebra. The Sufi’s remark means “God is most Great,” including the zebra as part of the magnificence of God’s work. Pi’s comment is one of perfect contentment because he appreciates the perspectives of both Mr. Kumars.

This scene is a concrete illustration of the coexistence of science and religion motif. Each of the Kumars appreciates the perfection of the animals, with science and religion both having a place. While touring the zoo, the Sufi even quotes a passage from the Qur’an that is not about faith, but about knowledge. “In all this there are messages indeed for a people who use their reason.”

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 32

Summary

Pi defines “zoomorphism” as an animal perceiving a different animal to be one of its kind, such as the lion tamer being the super-alpha lion. He lists several other examples including a mouse that remains uneaten in the viper enclosure for weeks. Other mice are eaten as expected, but this one seems to have a non-prey relationship with the snakes. Eventually it is eaten by a young viper. Uncharacteristically, Pi anthropomorphizes and suggests that upon swallowing a mouse, a viper would feel regret, taking “an imaginative leap away from the lonely, crude reality of a reptile.”

Notes

Pi is once again preparing the reader with information about animal behavior that will come into play later. He refers back to the “measure of madness” (Chapter 10) that motivates animals to buy into deception if it is in their own best interests. A motherless cub will readily accept a surrogate mother rather than face the reality of being motherless, “the absolute worst condition imaginable for any young, warm-blooded life.” This last comment foreshadows Pi’s “measure of madness” yet to come.

CHAPTER 33

Summary

The author is looking through old photos with Pi. Numerous pictures capture many parts of Pi’s adult life. There are but four pictures from his childhood, mailed to Canada by Mamaji. Richard Parker is in one of the pictures, but he is oblivious to the camera. There are no pictures of Pi’s parents and Pi laments, “It’s very sad not to remember what your mother looks like.”

Notes

The author depicts Pi as a man of deep feeling. Though Pi smiles in his photos, his eyes betray that he has been wounded. The author sees Richard Parker, who has been made reference to before, but the reader does not yet know who Richard Parker is. It is now also apparent that Pi has experienced “the absolute worst condition imaginable” that he referred to in the previous chapter.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 34

Summary

Pi’s family sells off the zoo animals, mostly to zoos in America. Pi feels as though he and Ravi are zoo animals being shipped off to Canada. Because of extensive regulations and paperwork, the preparations take over a year. This at least, gives Pi and Ravi time to get used to the idea of moving. Three Americans come to examine the animals. Finally the paperwork is complete.

Notes

Pi prepares the reader for a journey. At this point it seems as though it will be a geographic journey, traveling to a new country. Pi is leaving his wondrous zoo life behind. More than adequate preparation has been made. What could go wrong?

CHAPTER 35

Summary

Pi’s family leaves on June 21, 1977. Mother is especially sad to leave the beautiful familiarity of India. They board the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum accompanied by the caged, sedated animals. Pi is thrilled. Still, things go wrong.

Notes

This is the last beautiful description of India. The family leaves on a ship that bears the name of a Kabbalist concept from the cosmogony of Isaac Luria (who was first mentioned in Chapter 1). The word tsimtsum or zimzum means “contraction” or “withdrawal.” A simple explanation is that before God could create the universe He had to contract or withdraw Himself so there would be space for His Creation to fill. Then into that space, a second tsimtsum, or contraction of God’s light entered. From that light came the entire universe and its imperfect people. There was no imperfection in Pi’s life before the Tsimtsum.

CHAPTER 36

Summary

The author arrives a little early to Pi’s house and at first sees no one. At that moment, Pi’s teenage son runs out of the house, late for baseball practice. Pi apologizes for the lack of proper introduction. Then, surprised, the author also meets Pi’s dog, four-year-old daughter, and cat. Pi is a proud and loving father. “This story has a happy ending.”

Notes

The reader now has the complete picture of the adult Pi’s life. He seems to be living “happily ever after,” as confirmed by the author’s final remark. Pi has survived whatever obstacles he had to face. Martel has given away the ending of his own novel. In this case, however, knowing the outcome is not a “spoiler” because for Martel (and for Pi), it is not about the result, it is about the story – specifically, the better story.

Pi takes over the narration completely from here. There will be no more interjections from the author for many chapters.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

PART TWO - The Pacific Ocean

CHAPTER 37

Summary

The ship sinks and Pi is in a lifeboat with a broken-legged zebra. He exclaims, “Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu,” as he sees Richard Parker in the water and calls to him. Pi is not physically injured, but is emotionally in ruins. As far as he can tell, his family and the animals they were traveling with have all drowned. He focuses on getting Richard Parker to the lifeboat. At last, Parker is within reach. Pi throws him a lifebuoy and pulls him toward the boat. Coming to his senses, Pi tries to fight Richard Parker off, but Parker is able to climb into the boat. Richard Parker is an adult Bengal tiger. “His head was the size and colour of the lifebuoy, with teeth.” Pi jumps overboard.

Notes

“The ship sank.” The opening sentence of this chapter is blunt and to the point, yet full of meaning. The sinking of the Tsimtsum (meaning “contraction” or “withdrawal”) may mean that God has withdrawn from Pi to make room for Pi to develop as an independent creature, or it may mean that Pi must withdraw into himself to make room for the development of the better story. During these first desperate moments as a castaway, Pi ponders the meaning of reason and immortality. He verbalizes his thoughts to Richard Parker (who the reader finally learns is a tiger). What began as a geographic journey now becomes a spiritual one.

Giving the tiger the human name Richard Parker challenges the distinctions between humans and animals that Pi has been describing all along. This humanizes the tiger that is to become a main character. Pi also slips into anthropomorphizing again, “Don’t you love life?”, “We’re in hell yet still we’re afraid of immortality.” His religious values are providing the motivation to save himself and another of God’s creatures.

CHAPTER 38 - 39

Summary

Pi describes the first days of the voyage. He is interested in the chimpanzee and her bananas (complete with large spiders). Ravi is interested in the engine room of the ship, where he thinks something is wrong. In the middle of the night, Pi hears an explosion. He tries to wake Ravi, but ends up leaving him and goes out on deck alone. It is stormy, so Pi decides to go back below, but he cannot because the stairwell is filling with water. He goes back on deck, bewildered, hearing the groans of the ship and the shrieks of the animals. Up on the bridge, he finds three Chinese crewmembers. They shove a life jacket with an orange whistle at Pi and throw him overboard.

He lands on the tarpaulin of a suspended lifeboat, losing the life jacket but not the whistle. The Chinese men are shouting at him. A zebra leaps off the ship and crashes into the bottom of the boat. The boat breaks free and splashes into the water.

Notes

Pi goes back to describe the sinking of the Tsimtsum and how he ended up in the lifeboat with a zebra. He does not yet understand why the Chinese crewmen are shouting at him. This is a chapter of frightening confusion for Pi.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 40

Summary

Pi clings to the lifebuoy, relieved that Richard Parker has not jumped in the water to eat him. The water is black, rough, and there are sharks within reach. He cannot see Richard Parker under the orange tarpaulin so he wedges an oar under it and pulls himself out of the water. Eventually he slides the lifebuoy onto the oar and around himself.

Notes

Pi’s only concern is survival. There are frequent references to the color orange – the whistle, the life jacket, the lifebuoy, the tarpaulin, and Richard Parker. Orange symbolizes survival. It is also the color of the second Hindu chakra (energy center in the body), which is related to water, emotional identity, and the ability to accept change.

CHAPTER 41

Summary

Pi carefully inches his way down the oar toward the boat. He reasons that Richard Parker is under the tarpaulin and will not come out if Pi is not in view. Pi pulls himself onto the boat remarking at the exotic beauty of the zebra, and wondering why Richard Parker has not eaten it. Shocked, Pi sees that there is another animal on board, a male spotted hyena. He surmises that the hyena is the reason the crewmen threw Pi into the lifeboat – to get rid of the hyena somehow so that they could safely board. As threatening as the hyena is, though, it is preferable to the tiger, which Pi thinks must have fallen overboard because the two animals would never coexist. Pi drifts, the immense sea and his immense pain consuming him.

Notes

Pi is living exclusively in the present. He is not yet considering his future survival, just his immediate circumstance. He has the beauty if the sea and sky around him, but the pain of loss within.

CHAPTER 42

Summary

Orange Juice, a female Borneo orangutan (and mother of two sons), drifts toward the lifeboat on a raft of netted bananas. She climbs aboard, dazed. Pi grabs the net, but does not think of salvaging any bananas. The hyena screams.

Notes

The variety of animals increases. The reader will soon see the value of Pi’s previous digressions into the particulars of animal behavior.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 43 - 44

Summary

Pi is optimistic that there is a furor of rescue activities occurring, and he and Orange Juice will be saved. The hyena jumps on to the tarpaulin briefly, frightening Pi, then discouraged by the expanse of water, retreats. It reemerges, barking and running laps around the zebra. Pi tenses each time it nears him. The hyena continues this interminably, allowing Pi to digress into describing the repulsive nature of hyena appearance and behavior. When it finally stops, the hyena vomits, and then lies in the mess.

Another day dawns and Pi remains suspended on the oar, flies buzzing around him. Toward evening he becomes frightened of what animal activity the night may bring. In the darkness he hears snarling and barking from the other end of the boat, and grunts, possibly from Orange Juice, closer to him. Beneath the boat he could hear even more sounds of predator and prey as they splashed.

Notes

The animals are displaying unpredictable, yet natural according to Pi, behaviors. The zebra is helpless, yet still exotic and beautiful. The hyena is at once aggressive and cowardly. It expresses power, and then ends up succumbing to its own involuntary condition. Martel plays on the word “catholic” which in this case describes the hyena’s wide-ranging, universality of taste rather than one of Pi’s religions.

Pi passes another day in “breathless boredom,” and a night in fear.

CHAPTER 45

Summary

Pi’s hopes rise with the orange sun and he searches the horizon for the rescue ship where he will be reunited with his family. Within the boat, the hyena is eating the zebra. The piteous zebra is still alive. The rocking of the boat is making Pi nauseous, so he changes his position and is now able to see Orange Juice. She appears terribly seasick and her expression causes Pi to laugh. He is amazed that the hyena has not harmed her, but reasons that they are from such separate origins that they may not recognize each other as predator and prey. A hawksbill turtle swims past and Pi beckons it to alert a ship of Pi’s location.

Notes

Pi is still an observer of his situation. He feels rescue is imminent and has no plan for long term survival. He is frightened, amused, and perplexed at his state of affairs. The sky, the sea, and the animals are a backdrop to the rescue scene he anticipates.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 46

Summary

Though Pi endured many torturous nights, he remembers the second night as particularly wrenching. After noticing the mako sharks in the water, Pi watches Orange Juice. Anthropomorphizing again, he feels she is searching the horizon hopelessly in search of her sons. The hyena rips the hide from the zebra. The zebra’s protests enrage the hyena into a tearing and eating frenzy. Pi describes the gruesome scene as the hyena slides on the blood, right into the zebra, and eats the still conscious victim from the inside. Orange Juice roars at the sight. They hyena responds with its own roar. The zebra sputters some blood overboard causing frenzy among the sharks. The violent noise persists. Finally, the roaring of animals and banging of sharks against the hull stops. Pi is distraught with the realization that he has lost everything. He deeply mourns the loss of his family, and cries through the night. The hyena continues eating.

Notes

At the beginning of the chapter, Pi makes it clear that his ordeal was severe. “I have so many bad nights to choose from that I’ve made none the champion.” He then describes a grisly and emotionally crushing night. Martel continues to blend physical description with the abstract underscoring the simultaneous spiritual and scientific motif of the novel.

CHAPTER 47

Summary

Horror-struck, Pi sees that the zebra is still alive the next day. “I had no idea a living being could sustain so much injury and go on living.” It dies by noon, but the afternoon brings another hyena attack – this time against Orange Juice. Pi is uplifted by Orange Juice’s indomitable spirit as she whacks the hyena. He recalls that she had been a pet that was donated to the zoo when she got too large and intimidating. After only a few blows, however, the hyena manages to get to Orange Juice’s throat. Pi assumes he is the next victim and approaches the hyena. Before he is upon it, he looks beneath the tarpaulin and sees Richard Parker. He collapses.

Notes

Pi may be referring to himself as well as the zebra with his remark about the endurance of a living being. He, too, will sustain much injury, physical and emotional. Orange Juice is a maternal symbol. In the previous chapter she mournfully searches for her sons. Here, she represents to Pi a motherly defender, but fear and lack of killing experience defeat her.

CHAPTER 48

Summary

Pi recounts how Richard Parker came to have a human name. Seven people had been killed in Bangladesh, presumably by a panther. A hunter is hired. He baits the panther with a goat, but it is a tiger rather than a panther that appears. The tiger and her cub drink from the river before approaching the goat. (Pi points out here that thirst is a greater requirement than hunger.) The hunter shoots the tiger with a tranquilizer. The tiger, and her cub which the hunter names Thirsty, are being sent to the Pondicherry Zoo. The clerk at the train station, however, transposes the hunter’s name, Richard Parker, with the tiger cub’s name on the official paperwork. Pi’s father is amused and the name sticks.

Notes

As mentioned in Chapter 37, the human name helps give the tiger “main character” status and blur the distinction between humans and animals. The name itself, however, was carefully chosen by Martel. There were several shipwrecked Richard Parkers preceding the tiger. In 1837, Poe wrote his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym about a shipwreck where Pym and another survivor cannibalize a third survivor named Richard Parker. In 1846, the ship Francis Speight sank leading to another tale of cannibalism, one victim being Richard Parker. In 1884, in another true story, a yacht, the Mignonette sank and the cabin boy, Richard Parker, was killed and eaten by the other survivors. Yet another Richard Parker died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. His body was never recovered. This background information hints at the possibility of cannibalism or that Richard Parker may end up missing.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 49

Summary

Immobilized by weakness, Pi realizes he has not eaten, drunk or slept for three days. Seeing his hopeless situation and incapacity to defeat a tiger, Pi ironically perks up and decides to search for fresh water. Since Richard Parker is the threat now, Pi is no longer afraid of the hyena, and proposes that the hyena might sense this, perceiving Pi as the super alpha. The presence of the tiger helps Pi understand the prior unusual behavior of the animals, but he has no basis for Richard Parker’s unusual inactivity. He guesses that the tiger is either sedated from before the shipwreck, or seasick. Pi continues to explore the lifeboat for water.

Notes

Pi is finally taking action toward his own survival. Ironically, this comes only after realizing that he has virtually no chance of survival.

CHAPTERS 50, 51, 52

Summary

Pi gives a detailed accounting of the size, shape, and capacity of the lifeboat, paying attention to the amount of space Richard Parker has under the tarpaulin. He confirms orange, “such a nice Hindu color,” as the color of survival. There are five oars, but Pi does not have the strength to row the substantial boat.

Finding no containers and driven by thirst, Pi unhooks part of the tarpaulin, exposing Richard Parker’s hideaway. He is spooked by an orange life jacket, thinking it is Richard Parker, but discovers there are several life jackets aboard. Behind the jackets lay Richard Parker. “God preserve me!” Pi finds a compartment in the forward bench and eases it open so that the lid blocks off the space that is open to the tigers den. The locker is full of survival supplies, including cans of water. Too frazzled to find a can opener, Pi smashes a hole in the can and feasts on the water. He repeats this again and again drinking four cans of water. His entire body revels in the experience. His thirst quenched, he is now aware of his hunger. There are biscuits in the survival locker. Being vegetarian, Pi balks at first at the animal fat in them, but knows his situation is an extenuating circumstance. He eats more than the daily allotment and he is rejuvenated. He takes inventory of the contents of the locker and calculates that he has enough food for 93 days and enough water for 124 days. Each item he finds brings grateful pleasure.

Pi makes a list of all that he has, including the food, water, ropes, rain catchers, notebook, etc. from the locker, plus one boy, one hyena, one tiger, one lifeboat, one ocean, and one God. He sleeps soundly.

Notes

Pi has an incentive to live. He has discovered the survival supplies, and rediscovered his faith. He calls out to God and makes sure to include God on the list of what he has. There will be surges and lulls in his reliance on God throughout his tribulations.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 53

Summary

Pi ponders his impossible situation, certain death if he stays on the lifeboat with Richard Parker or certain death if he casts himself to the sea. With nothing else to occupy his mind, he anguishes over all he has lost. He is ready to give up, but an internal voice encourages him in the form of a prayer, “so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.” He builds a raft by weaving life jackets and ropes onto a framework made of the buoyant oars. He lashes the lifebuoy to the center and tethers the raft to the front of the boat. The hyena is shrieking and Pi prays to be given enough time to finish.

Pi is riveted with fear as he watches Richard Parker rise to his full magnitude. The tiger kills the terrified hyena silently. Standing over his kill, he moans, uneasy with the rocking of the lifeboat. He turns to face Pi. Even petrified with fear, Pi is awestruck at the majesty and beauty of Richard Parker. Suddenly, a rat appears from under the tarpaulin and clambers atop Pi’s head. Richard Parker makes for the rat, but hesitates because of the rocking of the boat and the unstable footing of the tarpaulin. Quickly, Pi throws the rat to the tiger and the rat disappears into Richard Parker’s mouth. The animal seems satisfied and returns to his den under the tarpaulin, dragging the hyena with him. As he is eating, Pi notices there is vomit in the den which confirms that Richard Parker is seasick.

Pi hurriedly completes his raft, tests it for buoyancy, and climbs uneasily aboard. The raft is a precarious means of survival so Pi pills himself back toward the lifeboat. He hears Richard Parker eating and opts for the seemingly less threatening sea and sharks.

A cold rain falls. Pi once again pulls himself toward the lifeboat to retrieve a rain catcher from the survival locker. The noise alerts Richard Parker and, rain catcher in hand, Pi lets out the rope in terror as night falls.

Notes

Pi’s faith has inspired his will to live. His knowledge gives him the means to survive. He knows, however, that existence on the raft is a temporary solution. This chapter graphically demonstrates that although the tiger has a human name, it is indeed a formidable animal.

CHAPTER 54

Summary

Pi spends the night cold, wet, and without sleep. The rain intensifies as do the waves. Pi is afraid the raft may break free from the boat and realizes that he must come up with a more workable plan of survival. He concocts five plans. Each he immediately sees is impossible. Plan Number Six: Wage a War of Attrition seems, at first, a good idea. Richard Parker has no means of acquiring food or water. Pi can at least get fresh water and possibly out survive the tiger.

Notes

Pi is desperate. The construction of the raft is a step in the right direction, but he knows it is not the answer for the long term. Plan Six seems workable, but remember Pi’s comment from Chapter 47 about the inconceivable endurance of an animal.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 55 - 56

Summary

The rain continues through the night and the morning. Pi is worn out and has only a vague recollection of “Plan Number Six.” When the rain stops and the sun begins to warm and dry him, Pi falls asleep. He wakes and observes the vastness of the sea, realizing that the raft and the lifeboat are vulnerable and insignificant. He feels doomed. He sees Richard Parker in the lifeboat and envisions him surmounting the “moat” between them and vanquishing Pi. That vision, and Pi’s knowledge that tigers can drink salt water, leads Pi to conclude that Plan Number Six is the worst of his plans.

Pi describes how, no matter what your resources and intelligence, fear will defeat you. Fear will involuntarily adversely affect all parts of the body, except the eyes which will “always pay proper attention to fear.” Fear is the opponent that must be defeated.

Notes

Pi’s spirit ebbs and flows throughout his time at sea. During these low points there is no reference to God, only Pi’s dismal interpretations of his plight. When his intellectual and emotional feelings combine once again with his faith, his perception of his situation will change.

CHAPTER 57

Summary

Pi sees that Richard Parker now seems content after eating the hyena and drinking rainwater that accumulated in the lifeboat. The tiger is making a sound that Pi has never heard before, but knows of from his father’s description. It is a contented purring sound called prusten. Pi understands clearly now that he and Richard Parker must both survive. He is determined to tame the tiger. In this Pi finds an incentive to survive, a means of conquering his fear.

Acting like a circus performer and shrieking on his whistle, Pi causes Richard Parker to cringe. The tables are turned, at least temporarily. Richard Parker is now afraid of Pi. The first “training” complete, Pi formulates a seventh plan – Keep Richard Parker alive.

Notes

The reader can now begin to make sense of the detailed description of lion taming from Chapters 13 and 14. It is this knowledge that will help Pi carry out Plan Number Seven. The incongruity of the tiger with its current surroundings may provide the “measure of madness” that will make Pi’s attempts at training work.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 58

Summary

Pi lists survival tips from the manual he found in the locker. There are many practical and very specific recommendations, not the least of which assures “If you have the will to live, you will.” There is, however, no information on the training of a tiger so Pi set his thoughts upon devising a training program. He reviews in his mind that he must establish his territory and provide himself shelter, daunting tasks. He remains hopeless.

Notes

The chapter illustrates how “crude reality” is not enough. Even though Pi knows what must be done, he has not yet uncovered the faith to make it work.

CHAPTER 59

Summary

Pi takes note of the relationships between the lifeboat, the raft, and the sea. When Pi pulls the raft in close to the boat, the boat turns sideways to the waves and rocks, causing Richard Parker distress. In response to the tiger’s growls, previously unknown inhabitants of the lifeboat, cockroaches, like the flies and rat before them, attempt to flee the lifeboat. Pi discerns that, except for microbes on the decaying flesh of the tiger’s prey, he and Richard Parker are now completely alone.

Pi lifts himself on to the boat to get rations from the locker. He smells that Richard Parker has urinated to mark off territory only under the tarpaulin, and sees that there is a pool of rainwater that the tiger may use to drink and to cool himself. Pi dares to dip out a beaker of water to drink. Unconcerned about contamination, Pi drinks the purloined water and then urinates back into his cup an almost identical volume of liquid. He distributes his urine over the tarpaulin to mark it as his territory.

Next, Pi deciphers how to use the solar stills and strings them out between the boat and the raft. He reworks the raft to make a seat and shelter, all the while keeping an eye on Richard Parker. He gathers rations and blankets, boards his raft, and lets out the rope. He watches Richard Parker from a distance, marveling that the tiger is truly worthy of its title, Royal Bengal tiger.

Suddenly, splashing from the sea below brings Pi from his musings. He examines the colorful plethora of sea life, comparing the activity of the fish to a busy city. When aboard the Tsimtsum, Pi had thought only dolphins lived in the open ocean. He watches the scene below him contentedly until he falls asleep.

Notes

Pi is becoming more adept in his perilous environment. Here, Martel reminds the reader of the name of the ship, Tsimtsum. Pi is left to contemplate tsimtsum as he withdraws himself from the lifeboat and prepares to create an inhabitable world for Richard Parker and himself.

CHAPTER 60

Summary

Pi awakens during the night in wonder of the beauty and vastness of the ocean and sky. He compares himself to Markandeya, who catches a glimpse of the overwhelming universe when he drops out of Vishnu’s mouth, and nearly dies of fright before being rescued by Vishnu. Feeling inconsequential in the scheme of the universe, Pi prays and goes back to sleep.

Notes

Pi’s situation is looking up. Having rediscovered his faith, as evidenced by his reminiscence of a Hindu story and his Muslim prayer, Pi now has the spirit to survive. This is the first time prayer or God has been mentioned in several chapters. In the chapters without God, Pi is without hope. His faith will flow for the next several chapters, then, like the sea, will ebb once again.

The Hindu saint, Markandeya, has more in common with Pi than Pi describes. Markandeya was destined to die at the age of 16, Pi’s age. However, his devotion to Shiva (the expression of Brahman, or God, who destroys the universe) prevents death from claiming him. When he falls from Vishnu’s mouth, Markandeya is lost in a dark sea. Vishnu (the expression of Brahman who preserves the universe) appears as a mountain and rescues Markandeya. Like Markandeya, Pi’s devotion will save him from death. This chapter, though brief, reminds the reader, who is aware from the start that Pi will survive, that this is a story “that will make you believe in God.”

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 61

Summary

Pi is feeling optimistic and surprisingly strong. He tries his hand at fishing, using his shoe leather as bait. He fails. Pi then rummages through the locker in search of something more to use as bait, but finds nothing. He sits up and sees that he has become Richard Parker’s center of attention. He is struck in the face, and assumes the tiger has attacked. To Pi’s amazement, it is not Richard Parker but a flying fish that smacked him. The fish is flopping around inside the locker. Pi tosses the fish to Richard Parker, but the fish flies right past the tiger. Dozens more flying fish leap out of the water to escape being eaten by dorados. Pi likens his experience to Saint Sebastian’s martyrdom. Richard Parker, rather than taking a beating like Pi is, seizes this feeding opportunity confidently. When the onslaught of fish is over, Pi takes one of the many that landed in the boat and returns to his raft.

Pi needs to use the flying fish as bait, but anguishes over having to kill a living thing. Tearfully, he forces himself to do it feeling “as guilty as Cain.” The head of the flying fish turns out to be the best bait and Pi catches a three foot dorado. Pi thanks Vishnu. Killing the fish is easier this time because it is for Richard Parker. In its death throes the dorado changes colors like a rainbow. Pi pulls himself over to the lifeboat and drops the dorado in, blowing his whistle repeatedly to remind the tiger of the source of the food. Grabbing the remaining dead flying fish from the locker, Pi returns to his raft feeling accomplished.

Notes

Pi’s spirits are high and accordingly, this chapter is full of religious references. Saint Sebastian was a Christian martyr who survived being executed by arrows, and was subsequently beaten to death. Likewise, Pi is both pierced and buffeted by the flying fish. Cain is the firstborn son of Adam and Eve according to the book of Genesis in the Bible. Jealous that God accepted his brother Abel’s sacrifice but not his, Cain murdered Abel. Pi likens himself to this first murderer when he kills the flying fish. According to Hindu tradition, the first incarnation of Vishnu is a fish that warns man of a great flood, a story that closely parallels the Christian story of Noah. Upon catching the dorado, Pi thanks Vishnu, who saved man in the form of a fish, for saving Pi, in the form of a fish. After the great flood, God reminded Noah of His bounty with a rainbow. Pi is reminded of God’s bounty with the rainbow of the dying dorado.

CHAPTER 62

Summary

Unable to sleep well, Pi shifts his attention to Richard Parker. The tiger seems disturbed and Pi attributes this to thirst. There must be a way for Pi to provide water for the tiger without sharing his own canned water. Pi checks the solar stills, unconvinced of their utility. Elated, he discovers that each still has generated almost a liter of fresh water. He gathers the water in a bucket, adds a little sea water to increase the volume, and brings it to the lifeboat. He secures the bucket to a bench and gets Richard Parker’s attention by tossing pieces of flying fish. The tiger goes for the fish and finds the water as well. Pi stares straight into the tiger’s eyes and blows his whistle. Richard Parker retreats under the tarpaulin. Pi notes that the lifeboat is functioning just like a zoo enclosure.

Pi fishes again, but without success. A sea turtle swims by and Pi thinks he will soon have to consider catching them. It is oppressively hot, but Pi takes comfort in the increased production of the solar stills. Pi is completing his first week as a castaway.

Notes

Pi refers to the solar stills as “sea cows.” The marine mammal sea cow has supposedly been mistaken for a mermaid by shipwrecked sailors, and has also been hunted as food. In Pi’s situation, the productive solar stills are as satisfying as sighting a woman or eating meat might have been for sailors. Also, cows are sacred to Hindus and are not to be slaughtered. They are symbols of the sanctity of life. The solar stills are certainly life-giving to Pi and Richard Parker.

Pi, the whistle-blowing provider of food and water, is becoming successful at establishing himself as the super-alpha animal. Once again, his zoo background will work in conjunction with his faith to provide for Pi’s survival. Martel does not write that it has been one week since the shipwreck; rather he writes that is a “week since the Tsimtsum had sunk,” reminding the reader that it was not just a shipwreck, but a cosmic tsimtsum for Pi.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 63

Summary

Pi lists the survival records of other famous castaways. Not one comes close to his 227 days at sea. He attributes his survival to his “busy” schedule which includes frequent daily prayers. The heat of the sun and the rocking of the sea help keep Richard Parker at bay when he wavers from his feeding routine. Having the tiger as a diversion and a companion also helps keep Pi “busy.” Pi tells the dates that begin and end his story, but is not aware of the dates or the specifics of time during his days at sea. He explains that he remembers specific occurrences and sensations, but not necessarily in order.

Notes

Pi makes a point of specifically including prayer in his daily routine. His will to live is rooted in his faith. Richard Parker may represent faith or God here because it is the tiger that inspires Pi to go on living. The dates and duration of Pi’s ordeal may also be significant. The family left India on June 21st, the summer solstice which is a pagan holiday. The day the ship sank, July 2nd , is the exact middle of the year (and the same day Amelia Earhart was lost in the Pacific). Pi’s landfall, February 14th is a Christian holiday honoring Saint Valentine, a day to celebrate love. And 227 days might be interpreted as 22/7 which closely approximates the value of pi, though as Pi explains, the days (like pi) cannot be divided exactly.

CHAPTERS 64 -65

Summary

Pi’s clothes are gone and his skin is badly damaged by the elements. He tries to understand the navigation information in the survival manual but, having no seafaring training, cannot. He has experienced spiritual guidance from the stars, but cannot glean geographic guidance. So Pi drifts, trying to control his life, but unable to control his direction. He is traveling the Pacific equatorial counter-current.

Notes

Pi is drifting, not only along with a current, but “down the road of life.” Though he cannot control where he is, he pays close attention to his surroundings with the understanding that each of his actions has consequences, possibly fatal ones.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 66

Summary

Pi changes from hook and line fishing to using gaffs to impale the fish. He is over his revulsion of handling and killing them. Using the cargo net as a lure proves fruitful. On rare occasions there are so many fish that Pi is covered in scales and feels he looks like a fish god. He begins catching turtles and wrestles to get them on board, exhibiting the strength of Hanuman. Pi is repentant that he, a vegetarian, has become a flesh eating killer.

Notes

Previously, Pi was repulsed by the thought of eating even the animal fat in the survival biscuits. He was in tears killing the first flying fish. Now he desperately slaughters and eats anything he can catch. This chapter perfectly illustrates Pi’s inner conflict where he must maintain his faith yet compromise his beliefs in order to survive. Pi has become animal-like while Richard Parker has become a human companion.

Hanuman refers to the Hindu god with a simian form. He is a symbol of physical strength, perseverance, and devotion. He helps when faced with ordeals or challenges. Pi mentioned him in Chapter 23 as a suitable god for Father at the zoo. He is suitable for Pi in his current predicament as well.

CHAPTER 67 - 69

Summary

Pi describes the distractions from the nerve-wracking monotony of his daily existence. Algae begin to grow on the underside of the raft and eventually an entire ecosystem develops. Pi watches the worms, slugs, shrimp, crabs, and fish, sampling them as possible food items. He settles on the crabs as most palatable and eats them to local extinction. He also sucks on the barnacles that attach to the lifeboat.

Another distraction is, of course, Richard Parker. Pi, unable to sleep much, examines in detail the tiger’s favorite sleeping positions

The third distraction is that of a light in the distance. When Pi sees what might be a ship he sets off flares that smell, to him, like cumin. This smell of home helps relieve Pi of the crushing disappointment that there is no hope that he will actually be found. Richard Parker stares at the light of the flares. The light illuminates the water briefly making the fish visible.

Notes

There is no mention of God in these three chapters or in the next. Pi is desperately hanging on to every little bit of life around him. The flares, instead of saving Pi, become a dismal reminder that it is just Pi, Richard Parker, and the fish. Pi feels there is no chance that a ship “would cut into such a tiny circle and see me”. The italicized words are noteworthy as will be shown in a subsequent chapter.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 70

Summary

Pi presents a detailed picture of the process of slaughtering a sea turtle. He cannot do it on the raft, so he hauls the turtle over to the lifeboat in hopes that the oppressive heat will dissuade Richard Parker from emerging from the shade of the tarpaulin. Following the recommendations in the survival manual, Pi slashes the turtle’s neck with a hatchet and catches the blood in a beaker. He drinks it. He saws off the belly shell with a knife, though it is difficult because the turtle is thrashing about.

Almost spent from this part of the task, Pi pulls off the belly shell. “It lifted reluctantly, with a wet sucking sound. Inner life was revealed, twitching and jerking – muscles, fat, blood, guts and bones. And still the turtle thrashed about.” Pi stabs the turtle repeatedly and even cuts the head off, but it continues flailing and the head tries to breathe. He shoves the head overboard and drops the rest of the quivering turtle down to Richard Parker. Knowing the tiger has smelled blood, Pi retreats to the raft. He is exhausted and got only a cup of blood from his efforts. He decides to rethink his relationship with Richard Parker, to exert his “rights” as the super-alpha.

Notes

Pi has reached the basest point of his savagery. He carries out the gory process of killing the turtle without remorse and without a prayer of sadness or appreciation for the turtle’s life. His revulsion and anguish that “a living being could sustain so much injury and go on living” (Chapter 47) is gone. He expresses the attitude that might makes right and will attempt to show his might in order to exercise his right to a place on the lifeboat.

CHAPTERS 70 - 71

Summary

Pi outlines a step-by-step procedure for taming a wild animal at sea. It is actually the rationale for Pi’s own plan of action. To implement the program, first provoke the animal, but not to the point of attack. “If it does, God be with you.” Maintain eye contact. Then, when the animal attempts to cross into your territory, blast on the whistle and trip the sea anchor so the boat rocks the animal into seasickness. (If you become seasick yourself, use your vomit to mark your territory.) Then, retreat to your own safety zone and leave the animal alone, but safely sheltered. Repeat the process until the animal associates the sound of the whistle with extreme nausea. By this time, the whistle alone should suffice in controlling the animal.

For the training of Richard Parker, Pi fashions a shield from a turtle shell. His first attempt at intimidating the tiger earns Pi a smack into the water with a paw. Panicked, Pi swims to his raft. After acquiring another turtle shell, Pi makes a second attempt, and a third and fourth with the same results as the first. He reasons that Richard Parker does not want to fight, just “make his point.” With a fifth shield, Pi is finally able to prevail.

Notes

Pi explains that the training of Richard Parker is a “simple necessity.” He no longer searches the horizon for a rescuer, but has accepted that he must survive on his own. Richard Parker has become Pi’s load in life and rather than being consumed by it (literally), Pi is drawing on his scientific knowledge and faith. It is as if his whole life has been preparation for his present situation.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 73

Summary

Pi wishes he had a book that he could read over and over and appreciate anew each time. He wishes for scripture. He considers himself as Arjuna, but without any advice from Krishna. Remembering his feelings the first time he found a Gideon’s Bible in a hotel, he believes that finding scripture when in need of a place of rest is an excellent way to spread faith.

He would even appreciate a novel, but all he has is the survival manual. He keeps a diary, writing small so as not to run out of his limited supply of paper. The things he writes are not chronological, but clumps of information about the events and feelings he is experiencing.

Notes

Pi wishes for divine guidance in the form of a book. He refers to himself as Arjuna, the “Doer of Good Deeds,” about whom the story from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad-Gita is written. Arjuna is reluctant to battle against people who are dear to him, but Krishna reminds him of samsara (the cycle of reincarnation) and moksha (liberation from the cycle and its worldly conception of self) to show Arjuna that death is not a bad thing. Arjuna can then complete his task. The relationship between Arjuna and Krishna is that of Man guided by God. Pi has a task to complete, but no godly words of wisdom to guide him. Having nothing to read, he writes.

CHAPTER 74

Summary

Pi conducts his own religious rituals. This practice is comforting, yet difficult. When feeling his lowest he professes out loud his belief in God as Creator. However, the creations of God that Pi has in his current possession are rapidly deteriorating, as is his spirit. He remembers his family and rekindles the light of God.

Notes

Pi’s rituals at sea are completely devoid of the requirements of the religious rituals. His Mass (Divine Liturgy of Catholicism) is without Communion (sacrament of bread and wine commemorating Christ’s Last Supper before His crucifixion). His darshan (meaning “sight” or devotion to something seen) is without murti (holy statues or images to look upon). And his pujas (chanting of mantra while making offerings to murtis) are with turtle meat (definitely non-vegetarian) as Prasad (offerings to a deity that are then consumed). He even prays to Allah, having no clue which direction to face toward Mecca (sacred city which Muslims turn toward during prayer). There is an element of despair in Pi’s faith. He often comes close to losing it, but God always remains and Pi “would go on loving.”

CHAPTER 75

Summary

Pi sings “Happy Birthday” to his mother.

Notes

In the midst the of daily utility of survival, Pi does indeed go on loving.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 76

Summary

Pi cleans up after Richard Parker’s bowel movements, which like Pi’s have become painful and infrequent due to inadequate diet. But the cleaning is more than zoo keeping to prevent disease. Pi explains that Richard Parker had hidden the feces indicating that the tiger wishes not to offend Pi. Richard Parker sees Pi as dominant. Pi uses the process of cleaning up as an act of “psychological bullying,” rolling the feces in his hand, sniffing it and staring. It is frightening, yet satisfying, for Pi to exert his dominance.

Notes

Pi needs to continuously assert himself as the super-alpha male, which is quite an expenditure of energy. He is having success in this, but his health, and Richard Parker’s, is declining.

CHAPTER 77

Summary

Pi restricts his own rations of biscuits as the survival supply diminishes. Always hungry, he now eats turtles and all parts of a fish, even the parts he would have previously used only for bait. He compares every morsel to the very best Indian cuisine. His mood changes with the degree of fullness of his stomach. He eats everything.

Pi tries eating Richard Parker’s feces. Having “abandoned the last vestiges of humanness” he catches the emerging ball in a cup and adds some water to it. He puts it into his mouth and finds that it is truly waste with no nutrients. He spits it out and feeds the remainder to the fish.

Pi’s health continues to decline.

Notes

Pi considers his wretched foodstuffs a menu of Indian dishes, even Richard Parker’s feces is “like a big ball of gulab jamon” (fried balls of dough and chopped nuts served with sugar syrup). He is in a starvation induced dreamy delirium. His physical and mental states are worsening.

CHAPTER 78

Summary

Pi describes the rich variations in the clouds, color, light, and rainfall of the sky. Then he describes the many sounds of the sea. Between the two are the winds, the moons, and all of the nights Pi spends drifting. He is living in an unchanging geometry of circles. The vista around him as far as he can see forms a circle. The sun is a loud, disturbing circle from which he wants to hide. The moon is a silent circle, tauntingly reminding Pi of his solitude. He wonders if there might be another “also trapped by geometry, also struggling with fear, rage, madness, hopelessness, apathy.”

There are opposing feelings associated with every circumstance. The sun is scorching and painful, yet it cures the strips of fish Pi hangs, and powers his solar stills. Night is relief from the blinding heat of day, but it is cold and frightening. When hot and dry he wishes to be wet. When it rains he nearly drowns. When he catches food he must gorge himself before it spoils. The rest of the time he starves. The hardest to cope with are the opposite, yet sometimes simultaneous feelings of boredom and terror. Thoughts of death are the only constants, and happiness comes from tiny, pathetic triumphs like finding a tiny dead fish.

Notes

There is irony in a boy named Pi describing circles, and like the mathematical pi, his journey is inexact and endless. He has no way of knowing if is he is getting anywhere or just going in circles. Even his spirit is cycling between hopefulness and despair. His musings about the possibility of another in his predicament foreshadows an actual meeting.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 79

Summary

Several species of sharks frequently come near the lifeboat. Their grace and deep colors are a pleasant distraction for Pi. He catches a mako by the base of the tail and the shark leaps into Richard Parker’s end of the boat. The tiger attacks it. Pi watches Richard Parker’s frightening display of power. However, the tiger has no experience with sharks and steps into the mako’s mouth. The shark clamps down on Richard Parker’s paw. Richard Parker roars with such fierceness that Pi collapses. The tiger slashes at the shark with his three free paws. Pi regains himself and retreats to the raft. There is terrible snarling and rocking of the lifeboat. Finally, Richard Parker sits up having defeated the shark. Pi is able to gaff bits of the shark meat for himself. He learns to go for smaller sharks and stabs them through the eyes for a fast kill.

Notes

Pi describes the animal battle with a zoological detachedness. He seems to have lost his compassion. Except for being frightened by Richard Parker’s tremendous roar, there is no emotion. Pi even approaches the matter of eating meat and killing sharks in a cold, matter-of-fact way.

CHAPTER 80

Summary

There is another school of airborne flying fish. Pi ducks behind a turtle shell while Richard Parker swats at and eats the fish. A dorado pursuing the flying fish crashes into the lifeboat and is stunned. Pi retrieves it from the water and praises Jesus-Matsya. The large fish catches Richard Parker’s attention. Reluctant to give up his prize, Pi defiantly stares down the tiger. Eventually, Richard Parker submits and returns to the flying fish. To his amazement, Pi is truly the master here. This gives Pi the confidence to spend more time aboard the lifeboat.

Notes

Jesus-Matsya is Pi’s own combination deity. Jesus is the name of the Christian Christ who sacrifices himself for mankind, and Matsya is Vishnu in the form of a fish from the story of the Great Flood. So the fish sacrifices itself for Pi’s salvation. Pi demonstrates here how hunger can make someone foolhardy enough to challenge a tiger, yet he is strong enough in spirit to defeat Richard Parker.

CHAPTER 81

Summary

Pi reflects on the incredibility of his survival. He attributes his success partially to the fact that Richard Parker is a zoo animal and is without any natural sources of food and water. Pi is the supplier. He describes his relationship with the tiger as “pure and miraculous.” The concrete proof that Pi is able to survive is the fact that it is he who narrates this story.

Notes

Since the story is indeed incredible, Martel interjects reasonable proof here. In Part One, the author provided background to reinforce reality. In Part Two it is Pi reassuring the reader that his ordeal is true.

CHAPTER 82

Summary

Obtaining and protecting fresh water is Pi’s obsession. He stores what he can carefully, mixes some salt water in to Richard Parker’s ration, and drinks of the rain when he can. Yet there is never enough to drink. Food is also scarce, especially since Richard Parker gets the bulk of whatever Pi catches. Pi eats whatever he gets his hands on quickly, partly out of starvation and partly to get his share before Richard Parker gets it. He feels that he has sunken to the level of an animal.

Notes

As Pi’s condition weakens he is concerned only with basic survival. There isn’t a glimmer of the deep concern he once had for other living things.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 83

Summary

There is a tremendous storm with huge waves that threaten to sink the lifeboat. Pi decides to take his chances with Richard Parker rather than with the sea, so he climbs under the tarpaulin and closes it over the boat. He holds on to the tarpaulin rope and the bow bench to keep from being thrown onto Richard Parker as the boat tosses in the storm. At night the sky clears. Pi is soaked and bruised. The raft is gone. Most of the food has washed overboard, but the bags of water in the locker are unbroken. Pi unhooks the tarpaulin, and soon after daylight, Richard Parker emerges. Pi mends the tarpaulin and bails the boat as the tiger looks on disinterested. He finds one last orange whistle.

Notes

Pi is distraught. When he closes himself into the lifeboat with the tiger he is choosing his mode of death – by animal rather than by water. He has lost hope for survival. But at the end of the chapter, the sun is out and Pi finds some hope in the last whistle, a whistle that helps him hold his dominance over Richard Parker.

CHAPTER 84

Summary

A whale swims by the lifeboat. Pi imagines the whales communicating his predicament all through the ocean, seeking help. Unfortunately they are harpooned. Dolphins swim by as well and, though he tries, Pi is unable to catch one on his gaff. There are birds which Pi hopes are a sign there is land close by. He catches one, breaks its neck and eats every organ. He tosses the skin, bones and feathers to Richard Parker. “None of the birds ever announced land.”

Notes

Pi falls to anthropomorphizing again as the whales converse about him in his imagination. It is indicative of his starving condition that Pi could, at the same time, consider the killing of whales a “heinous crime,” yet attempt to gaff a dolphin. He refers to the albatross as “supernatural” perhaps referring to Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner where the Mariner frees himself of the curse from killing the albatross when he regains his ability to pray. The birds’ ability to announce land comes from the Bible story of the great Flood when Noah sends out a dove, and the dove returns with an olive leaf indicating there is dry land.

CHAPTER 85

Summary

Pi is awestruck by a spectacular lightning storm. He tries to share his wonder with Richard Parker, but the tiger is trembling with fright. Pi describes the light as overwhelming and penetrating and he is not afraid. He praises Allah (Muslim word for God) and tries to get Richard Parker to share his joy. Pi is happy.

Notes

Occurrences such as this are what keep Pi going. As he described earlier, he gleans happiness from any source he can. This is a moment of divine wonder for Pi. He praises God and is happy.

CHAPTER 86

Summary

Pi sees a ship! With uncontrollable happiness Pi envisions his family safe in Canada where he will join them. He is amazed at the size of the tanker as it approaches, and then realizes in horror that it is about the hit the lifeboat. Rowing frantically, Pi maneuvers the lifeboat slightly so the tanker misses it by less than two feet. He fires a flare that hits the side of the ship. The ship passes by, noisily. Pi is unable to get anyone’s attention. Richard Parker seems to be aware that something important has happened, but is more concerned with resuming his nap. Pi bursts out with professions of love for Richard Parker, his only companion, and promises to get the tiger to land.

Notes

This is the event presaged by Pi in Chapter 69. A ship has cut into his tiny circle, but did not see him. Pi is over having to constantly assert his position as super-alpha male. He sees Richard Parker as his companion and his salvation.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 87

Summary

Pi uses a wet cloth he calls his “dream rag” to cover his face, impeding his air intake so he falls into amazing dreams. This passes the time and allows Pi a temporary escape.

Notes

Chapter 81 convinces the reader of the factuality of Pi’s story. Now, Chapter 87 suggests that some “remembrances” are induced by the “dream rag.” However, using the simple language of a boy and providing such detailed descriptions keeps the reader believing.

CHAPTER 88

Summary

The lifeboat drifts into a mass of trash. It is revolting and foul. The odor remains on the wind for a long time. Pi salvages only a wine bottle. He writes a message explaining his predicament, corks and seals the bottle, and launches it out to sea.

Notes

Pi sees the glory of God in all of the obstacles nature presents. He has nothing praiseworthy to say about this man-made mass of garbage. He does, however, indicate that he still has hope and places that hope in the bottle.

CHAPTER 89

Summary

All that Pi has is deteriorating rapidly. Even the bright orange items have faded to almost white. The sun is so brutal it even burns off smells. Richard Parker is as withered as Pi. He makes a last entry in his diary before the pens runs out. He writes of his wasted condition. He and Richard Parker will die soon. Rain brings momentary salvation, but the tiger does not respond to it. Pi touches him to see if he is still alive. It is an amazing experience to touch a tiger. Pi gives up. “It’s no use. Today I die. I will die today. I die.”

Notes

The bright orange of survival has faded. Pi has nothing left, physically or mentally. Yet the feel of the tiger is amazing. At the brink of death, Pi is still grateful for Richard Parker.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 90

Summary

Richard Parker loses his vision. Soon after, Pi loses his. Pi is so weak he cannot stand or feed himself. The loss of his vision adds emotional pain to his physical torment. He closes his eyes and resolves to die with a farewell prayer.

Pi hears a voice. He thinks it is an illusion, but converses with the voice at length about food. He goes on about an imaginary feast of Indian cuisine. The voice begins to suggest other dishes, dishes made from meats and animal organs. Pi suggests eating a carrot. The voice replies that it would rather not eat a carrot. This statement convinces Pi that he is talking to a true meat-eater, Richard Parker. He asks the voice if he has ever killed a man. The voice replies that it has killed a man and a woman, and eaten them. Pi scolds the voice for its animalism. “So, you would throw the first stone, would you?” replies the voice. Pi changes the subject to more talk of food.

It strikes Pi as peculiar that Richard Parker has a French accent. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Pi realizes that someone else must really be there. He calls out to the voice and tells his name. The voice, another castaway, responds, asking for food. They discover that they have both gone blind, probably from poor hygiene and malnutrition. They exchange more stories about food. The other castaway offers to trade Pi miscellaneous items for food. Pi explains that he has no food. The man tells of eating cigarettes and a boot. Pi repeats his food story, “Once upon a time there was a banana and it grew. It grew until it was large, firm, yellow and fragrant. Then it fell to the ground and someone came upon it and ate it and afterwards that person felt better.” The other castaway is distraught. Pi tells him that they should get together and “feast on each other’s company.” They tie their boats together and the other man boards Pi’s lifeboat. They embrace, Pi in tears. Pi tries to tell the man about the tiger, but the man is trying to kill and eat Pi. Richard Parker saves Pi’s life by eating the other man. Pi is mortified.

Notes

Poor hygiene and dehydration can actually cause temporary or permanent blindness. Trachoma is one such example of a treatable condition. Here, however, Pi has lost his sight not only in terms of vision, but he has lost sight of his humanity. He has become progressively more animal-like, as has the other castaway (the “voice”). When he invites the other castaway to “feast on each other,” his invitation is taken quite literally. Pi’s crying over the other man represents his gaining back human emotion. Gaining back his humanity helps him gain back his vision.

The remark about the “first stone” is a reference from the Bible where, when Christ is challenged to stone an accused adulteress, He replies that he who is without sin may cast the first stone. The “voice” is chiding Pi, implying that perhaps Pi is guilty of cannibalism. Pi changes the subject, but later will indeed be guilty.

The story of the banana tree is rooted in Indian legend. Some speak of bananas as the “forbidden fruit”. Many refer to the banana as kalpatharu, the herb with all imaginable uses. The Kalpatharu Tree is the “Wish Granting Tree” that came from an ocean of milk stirred by the gods. Another possible interpretation is from Pi’s own perspective, for if he came upon a banana tree he could return to vegetarianism and health, and he would “feel better.”

Martel pushes the reader to the limits of credibility. Pi wondered in Chapter 78 if there could be another lost like himself, and here is that “other.” Despite the extreme unlikelihood of this occurrence, thirteen pages of dialog provide the reader a short one act play within the text with enough detail to buy into. However, Pi at this point freely admits he may be delusional, which leaves a window of skepticism open for those readers who doubt.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 91

Summary

Pi scavenges around in the other man’s boat and finds water and a bit of food. Finding that crying has partially returned his vision, Pi rinses his eyes with seawater repeatedly. In two days his vision has returned. He sees the gruesome horror of the remains of his “brother” castaway. Pi confesses to using some of the man’s flesh for bait, and even eating some of the dried bits himself. He prays for the man’s soul.

Notes

It is not unusual that the madness and starvation of being lost at sea lead to cannibalism. Pi, however stops when he catches a fish. Richard Parker, true to his name (see Notes Chapter 48), is part of a cannibalism story.

CHAPTER 92

Summary

Pi drifts to an island made only of plants, no soil, just floating plant-mass. It is entirely green, Pi’s favorite color and the color of Islam. Pi thinks it is an illusion, but decides to try stepping out onto it. He smells the vegetation. Stunned, he falls overboard on the green mass. He examines the tube-like algae. He tastes it. The inside is salty, but the outside is sugary sweet. Pi continues to break off and eat pieces of algae. He drags himself to the shade of an algal tree, which smells like a lote tree but is not. He weeps and praises God.

Richard Parker summons the strength to go ashore. He stumbles off to the inner part of the island. Pi is concerned that the tiger will claim the island as its territory so he returns to the lifeboat after a day of eating and resting. Richard Parker also returns to the lifeboat, licking his paws. Pi accomplishes defecation for the first time in a long while.

Pi goes back out on the island to feast the next day. Richard Parker is reluctant, but eventually follows suit and disappears to the interior of the island. Pi returns to the lifeboat. Soon he sees Richard Parker charging toward the boat. Pi blows his whistle to stop the tiger. Richard Parker stops, but jumps about uncomfortably. Pi holds the tiger at bay by whistling, but the tiger becomes so agitated it jumps into the water, swims to its side of the lifeboat and boards.

The next day Pi practices walking and eats more algae. Richard Parker disappears into the island vegetation. Pi and Richard Parker are regaining their strength. Richard Parker returns to the boat again that evening. The following morning, after the tiger departs, Pi goes out to explore the island. There are ponds, trees, and hundreds of thousands of meerkats. Pi joins the meerkats which are huddled around a pond. Suddenly, the meerkats dive into a pond and swim back out with many large dead fish. Pi examines a pond and finds it has cool fresh water. He soaks in it. Soon Richard Parker appears, killing and eating meerkats left and right. The meerkats know nothing of predators so they accept their deaths meekly.

Pi cleans out the lifeboat and he and Richard Parker spend several more days on the island, returning to the boat at night. In Richard Parker’s absence Pi explores the island. He finds it uniform throughout and six or seven miles across, for a circumference of about twenty miles. He makes many other scientific observations of the algae.

All the while Pi and Richard Parker are getting stronger and healthier. Pi feels the tiger may be looking for a mate and may become threatening so he decides to resume training. He teaches the tiger three jumping through a hoop tricks, but is unable to perfect jumping through a rolling hoop.

Pi leaves the lifeboat and decides to sleep in a tree. At nightfall thousands of meerkats noisily climb up the tree, surrounding Pi. He awakens in the morning covered with furry meerkats that leave the tree and go back to the ponds. Pi brings provisions from the lifeboat and continues to sleep in the tree, with the meerkats, every night. One night, the meerkats shriek as dead fish once again appear in the ponds. No meerkats leave the trees. In the morning, Pi discovers that the fish are gone.

Later, Pi explores deeper into the forest. He finds a tree that appears to have fruit. The fruits are actually bundles of leaves and as Pi unwraps them he finds a human tooth in each. He thinks the island may be carnivorous. To test this he drops a meerkat from the tree where he sleeps. The animal quickly climbs back up, licking its paws. Pi gingerly steps onto the ground. His feet burn uncontrollably and he too climbs back up, tending his feet. Pi reasons that somehow the surface of the island exudes acid at night and digests anything in contact with it. He decides, sadly, that he must leave the island.

He takes water, skinned meerkats, and dead fish. He takes algae, but it dissolves in its own acid at night. He cannot leave Richard Parker to die, so Pi waits for the tiger’s return and is once again lost at sea.

Notes

The island is green. Not only is it the color recommended by the survival manual as a color to watch for, but it is the color of Islam. The Qur’an says that the inhabitants of paradise will wear fine green silk garments. Also, Muhammad, the Prophet and founder of Islam, is said to have worn green or carried a green banner. The reference to the lote tree is also a Muslim reference. Since lote tress are commonly used as boundary markers or fencing, they are symbolic of the spiritual experience of Muhammad’s ascension, where he crosses the border of the domain of God. Perhaps the island is the Garden of Eden and Pi has crossed the border.

Pi literally and figuratively purges himself of corruption by defecating and by cleaning out the lifeboat. He is ready for a new life.

However, there are hints that the island is troublesome. Richard Parker and the meerkats cannot stay on the island’s surface at night. The animals must tend to wounded paws if they try. Fish emerge dead from the ponds. Pi does not understand these things at first.

The island offers only temporary salvation. On the island, science and religion are not intermingled. Science offers Pi respite in the absence of faith. When Richard Parker (representing faith or spiritual salvation) is away, Pi conducts scientific tests and makes observations about the island ecosystem. He calculates the circumference of the island after estimating its diameter. Pi uses pi. When Richard Parker is there, Pi trains him to do hoop tricks as if the tiger (faith) is something to play or experiment with rather than something necessary for survival.

When Pi comes upon the tree that appears to have fruit, the Garden of Eden symbolism is confirmed. In Eden there were many trees, including the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (i.e. the Tree of Death). Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, Pi had plenty to eat and could have chosen faith over the physical desire for fruit. The fruit was black, on twisted branches, and out of reach, but Pi didn’t take the hint. His innocence is shattered.

He kills and skins the meek meerkats, acquires water and leaves the island. He does not leave, however, without his spiritual companion, Richard Parker. He symbolically leaves pure logic behind and takes back his faith.

The carnivorous island is an even further stretch of the reader’s imagination than the French castaway. Pi loses the piece of algae that could have been physical evidence for the existence of the island, but has the remains of small mammals evidencing the meerkats. Martel is drawing the reader into the deepest frontier of the “better story”.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 93

Summary

Pi’s resources are exhausted. He has nothing left to draw upon. At his absolute lowest, he seeks the highest. “I should turn to God.”

Notes

Pi has no reason to be alive. After intermittent cycles of faith and loss of conviction, he ultimately turns to God.

CHAPTER 94

Summary

The lifeboat is precariously washed ashore in Mexico. Pi clambers over the side of the lifeboat into the surf. Richard Parker stumbles across the beach into the jungle and disappears without looking back. Without the tiger, Pi feels orphaned, but realizes he is not as he compares the beach to the cheek of God. People find Pi and he weeps for the loss of Richard Parker. He despairs that there wasn’t a proper goodbye to give the story a harmonious shape. A proper conclusion, such as telling Pi’s story in exactly one hundred chapters, allows closure. Pi wishes he had been in Richard Parker’s thoughts as the tiger left. He also regrets to this day that he did not take the opportunity to thank the tiger and wish it, “farewell. God be with you.”

Pi is taken to a village, bathed vigorously and fed. He eats insatiably. He is taken to a hospital and eventually to his foster mother in Canada. Thanks are extended to all those that helped him.

Notes

Ironically, this chapter is not about God as the previous chapter implied, but about landfall. It is about how Pi’s story may end imperfectly because of the bungled farewell. Martel rescues that imperfection by telling the story in exactly one hundred chapters as Pi challenged to reader to do, to “conclude things properly.”

Richard Parker is gone. He disappears and no one can prove his existence, yet his presence kept Pi alive. No one can prove God’s existence, yet His presence kept Pi alive. Pi assures the reader that God is not gone because the beach “was like the cheek of God, and somewhere two eyes were glittering with pleasure and a mouth was smiling at having [Pi] there.”

PART THREE - Benito Juarez Infirmary, Tomatlan, Mexico

CHAPTER 95

Summary

The author’s voice is back, explaining the round about way Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba of the Maritime Department in the Japanese Ministry of Transport reach Tomatlan. They mistakenly travel by way of Tomatan, fifteen hundred kilometers, a ferry boat ride, and a broken down car from their actual destination of Tomatlan. They arrive at the Benito Juarez Infirmary after forty-one hours of unpleasant travel. They speak to Pi for hours, recording the interview. They give a copy of their tape and a copy of their final report to the author.

Notes

The author already mentioned Mr. Okamoto in the acknowledgements at the end of the Author’s Note. Here the reader finds out who he is. The details about the car breaking down augment “reality” as Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba travel to Tomatlan. Tomatlan, actually Boca de Tomatlan (Mouth of the Tomatlan River), is a real place, a four hundred year old fishing village in Jalisco, Mexico.

CHAPTER 96

Summary

The Japanese men introduce themselves to Pi and explain that they want information about the sinking of the Tsimtsum. They speak to each other on the side, in Japanese. Politely, they tell Pi that they had a good trip. Pi says that his trip was terrible. The men give Pi, who is always hungry now, a cookie and they begin the interview.

Notes

Mr. Chiba addresses Mr. Okamoto as “Okamoto-san,” a term of respect, indicating that Chiba is an underling. “Okamoto” is a brand of Japanese condoms, making the reader wonder if Martel’s Okamoto is going to “protect” his department from Pi’s story.

CHAPTER 97

Summary

“The story.”

Notes

The survivor Pi tells the same story to the Japanese men that the adult Pi told the author.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND NOTES

CHAPTER 98

Summary

Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba request a break. Pi requests another cookie. Aside, in Japanese, the men indicate that they think Pi’s story is crazy. They note that Pi is hoarding the cookies they gave him under his sheets. They humor him with another cookie, and then excuse themselves from the room.

Notes

Pi’s food hoarding behavior seems eccentric, if not mad. It is easy for the Japanese men to disbelieve his story. However, having been a castaway for over seven months, stashing food is merely a habit for Pi.

CHAPTER 99

Summary

When the men return they tell Pi that they do not believe his story. Pi asks why not. Their first argument is that bananas do not float. Pi produces two bananas from somewhere in his bed and insists that they try it for themselves in the sink. The bananas float. Their second argument is the impossibility of the floating carnivorous island with meerkats. Pi counters that Venus flytraps would seem impossible, as would the bonsai tress that Mr. Chiba brings up in the conversation, if one had never seen them. Their third argument is the missing tiger. Pi explains instances of wild animals that escaped into civilization and were never found. Pi is angry at the men for denying his story just because it is “hard to believe.” Mr. Chiba produces a chocolate bar to distract Pi from his anger. The men comment aside that Pi has stolen their entire lunch.

Mr. Okamoto tries to redirect the conversation to facts about the sinking of the ship. Pi is not deterred. The discussion continues with additional objections and counters. Again Mr. Okamoto tries to redirect the conversation to the sinking of the ship, something Pi will never forget. They converse idly to relieve the tension.

Pi irritably agrees to tell the men “a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently...dry, yeastless factuality.” Pi tells them a story without animals. In the second story, there was a French cook, a sailor with a broken leg, and Pi’s mother on the lifeboat. The cook amputates the sailor’s leg, and then when the sailor dies, butchers and eats him. Pi and his mother are aghast. Some time later, after a heated argument, the cook kills Pi’s mother, tossing her head into Pi’s lap. The next day, Pi kills the cook. This is when he turns to God to survive.

Mr. Okamoto points out to Mr. Chiba, in Japanese, the similarities and analogies between Pi’s two stories. They don’t know what to make of it. They press Pi for information about the crew and the actual sinking. Pi is annoyed and speaks scornfully of the crew and the officers. They discuss the technicalities of the shipwreck.

Since both stories have basically the same outcomes, the ship sinks and Pi loses everything, Pi asks the men which story they prefer. The men agree that the story with the animals is the better story. Pi replies, “Thank you. And so it goes with God.” He cries. The men thank Pi and leave commenting that they will try to avoid Richard Parker. “He’s hiding somewhere you’ll never find him,” is Pi’s response.

Notes

Pi’s description of the cookies which “are good but they tend to crumble,” could well be Mr. Okamoto’s description of Pi’s story. It is a good story but Okamoto’s perception of reality causes it to crumble. However, each objection the men present is argued against logically by Pi. Yet even with logical support for his story, Pi cautions against being overly reasonable or “you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater.” This alludes to the saying “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” which warns one not to eliminate everything when it is only part that needs to be disposed of.

Pi’s second story of cannibalism, but no animals has parallels to the first. The zebra and the sailor both have a broken leg and are attacked, scream at first but die silently, and are then eaten. Orange Juice, the orangutan, and Pi’s mother both have two sons, and both are decapitated after a screaming and slapping the assailant. The hyena and the French cook both kill and eat a male (the zebra or sailor) and a female (the orangutan or Pi’s mother). The French castaway also admits to killing and eating a man and a woman. That leaves Richard Parker and Pi. They both kill the animal/person that had killed and eaten the others. The Japanese men assume that Pi has made up the story of the animals because the other story is too unbearable. There is no Richard Parker; Pi is the tiger.

Pi tells Mr. Okamoto that Richard Parker is “hiding somewhere you’ll never find him.” This could mean that the tiger is deep in the jungle, or it could mean that Pi, who admitted to becoming animal-like during his ordeal, has buried his cannibalistic killer side deep inside himself forever. The reader is left to choose which story to believe.

Reason would prompt belief in the second story. Heart would choose the first. Choosing the first story requires faith in the divine and so this story may after all “make you believe in God.” Pi tells Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba that, like them, God prefers the better story.

CHAPTER 100

Summary

Mr. Okamoto submits his report explaining that the cause of the sinking of the ship cannot be determined. In an end comment he adds that Mr. Patel’s story is one of tragedy and courage, for no one else has survived at sea “in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.”

Notes

In the end, despite using words such as “unreliable,” “speculation,” and “conjecture,” it is apparent that Mr. Okamoto has chosen “the better story.”

OVERALL ANALYSES

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)

The adult Pi is the narrator of the story who survived 227 days at sea. Being the son of a zookeeper, he constantly interjects facts about animals and animal behavior into his story. The boy Pi is the character experiencing the story, a young man full of wonder. He is slim with dark hair and dark eyes. His attitude is honest, innocent and respectful. He is named after a beautiful pool in Paris because of his father’s love for the stories his friend Francis Adirubasamy tells about the pool. Schoolmates make fun of the name calling Piscine “pissing.” When starting at a new school, Piscine takes the opportunity to adopt a new name, Pi. He also adopts two new religions, Catholicism and Islam, on top of his native Hindu, practicing all three in effort to experience God.

When Pi is sixteen he loses his family in a shipwreck and ends up lost at sea. Relying on faith and his knowledge of animals he is able to survive. He may endure a life-threatening adventure with animals aboard his lifeboat, or he may be shipwrecked with his mother and two others, depending on which story the reader chooses to believe. Pi trains a 450 pound Bengal tiger so that the two survive together, or Pi is the tiger that kills in order to survive.

Richard Parker

Richard Parker, the tiger, may or may not be a real character, depending on which story the reader chooses to believe. In the “better story,” he is a royal Bengal tiger that swims to Pi’s lifeboat after the shipwreck. The tiger got its name from a clerical error that confused the tiger’s name with that of its captor. This human name blurs the distinction between animals and humans. This is brought out especially when Pi, at a low point in his ordeal, describes himself as killing and eating just like Richard Parker.

The tiger represents Pi’s burden in life. He is also Pi’s reason for living. From this perspective, the tiger may represent God or faith.

Pi is constantly asserting his super-alpha male position so that he is not killed by Richard Parker. This training process provides Pi with a diversion and a companion. Pi grows to love the tiger, but the tiger remains an animal and shows no concern for Pi, disappearing into the jungle when the two finally reach land.

If the reader chooses to believe the second story, then Richard Parker is actually Pi himself. He represents the animal side of Pi that survives by killing and eating even human flesh. He disappears at the end of the story because Pi has returned to civilization and the Richard Parker side of him will not be seen again.

PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

The novel espouses several postmodern concepts including learning things for the purpose of using them (such as Pi’s knowledge of animals), subjective rather than traditional approaches to religion (as Pi has practicing three religions), and theological impoverishment (wherein faith is for the story rather than for the soul). Accordingly, the novel is written using postmodern techniques. The most striking example is the change in narrator. Some chapters are narrated by Pi and others are narrated by a fictional author. Another example is ambiguity. The reader is left with doubts about the actual facts.

Life of Pi is like a panchatantra, an ancient Indian fable involving animals, intent on making a point. This “fable” is divided into three distinct parts, each with its own purpose.

Part One is the back-story that sets up the real story to suspend disbelief. It lets the reader know where Pi learned all that he knows about animals and religion. By changing narrator it gives the reader constant reminders that the real character is the adult Pi who is alive and well and living with his family in Canada giving this interview. The author intersperses glimpses into the adult Pi’s life with Pi’s own narration so the reader is convinced that this is more than a story about a boy in India.

Part Two, the central part of the novel, tells how Pi gets along with the tiger. It is the lost-at-sea part of the story and is not sequential. It is scattered memories, possibly delusions, from Pi’s ordeal. In this part of the novel conventional realist techniques are used. The details were researched to establish credibility. Basic life functions are included (eating, drinking, defecating, sleeping, cleaning, etc.). However, though the facts and anecdotes are based on reality, there is still a magical, verging on unbelievable, quality. Part Two underscores the theme of the story that one must have faith in more than pure logic. Whenever Pi is hopeless, faith brings him solace.

Part Three drives home the whole point of the “better story.” Neither of Pi’s narrations is positively the real story. It is for each reader to decide. There are enough inconsistencies in each story to render either one unbelievable. The twist at the end confirms that the story is not “The” Life of Pi in that it is not a specific life, but the array of life. It requires the reader to provide the conclusion. Readers may choose the more logical story or they may choose to have faith in something beyond crude reality and choose the “better story.”

Pi’s story could actually be finished as of Chapter 99, but Chapter 100 is necessary to give the story the proper form of exactly 100 chapters according to Pi’s challenge to the reader in Chapter 94. This gives precise order to the telling of a possibly unbelievable story. Adding to this order is the fact that the story has come full circle, beginning and ending with a Canadian Pi.

THEMES ANALYSIS

The Better Story

The major theme is the value of the “better story.” As Pi puts it, “The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no?” How we interpret reality can be, as it is for Pi, our faith. We need to believe in something beyond the seen. It helps us deal with fear. It helps us find a “better story.”

Everything about life is a story and we can choose our own story. Martel’s point is that the story that is more imaginative is the better story. The reader can choose whether Pi’s life is real-life fiction or imaginative fiction. Pi presents the Japanese men (and the reader) with two stories, one inspired and one crude reality. The men prefer the better story and in the end accept it. Pi feels that God prefers the better story as well, “And so it goes with God.”

Science and Religion

A theme, and also a recurring motif, is the bringing together of science and religion as equal ways of understanding the world. Pi’s zoo upbringing and his relationship to the animals provide a scientific understanding of the world. His multiple religious philosophies and relationship with God provide a spiritual understanding of the world. He must combine his knowledge of science with his faith in order to survive on the lifeboat.

Pi’s inspiration came from his childhood “prophets,” Mr. and Mr. Kumar. In Chapter 31, where the two Kumars meet and enjoy the zoo with Pi there is a comfortable intermingling and even a crossing over of the biology teacher’s knowledge and logic with the Sufi’s spiritual understanding. These two seemingly opposite men move Pi to a double major, one zoology and one religious studies. Pi accepts both perceptions as part of understanding the world.

Religious Syncretism

Seemingly opposing religions are brought together in Pi. Hinduism, Catholicism (or Christianity), and Islam are very different religions. However, they are all based on belief in one God. Though Brahman (Hindu) is expressed as countless different divinities, Christ (Christian) is one third of the Trinity that is God, and Allah (Muslim) is singular, each is a God of love. Man can have a personal relationship with God in each of the religions. The dogmas of each religion may contradict each other, but for Pi it is about faith, not about dogma. Just as he accepts science and religion as equal ways of understanding the world, Pi accepts all three religions as equal ways to know God.

POINT OF VIEW

The story is told in the first person, but by two different narrators. At first, as expected, the Author’s Note is in the author’s voice, but this voice becomes a fictional narrator as the story progresses. The bulk of the narration is reminiscences of the adult Pi as told to this fictional author. Regardless of which narrator is speaking, the story is from an adult viewpoint. However, the tone of the young Pi comes through and the reader feels as if it is a teenage boy narrating at times.

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS / QUOTES

[Page numbers are from the paperback edition, Harcourt, 2001.]

1. “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” Author’s Note p. x

This is spoken by Francis Adirubasamy to the author. At first the reader may think the story is about believing in a religion but it is not. It is not about holding on to the particulars, but about having faith in something beyond what is seen. At the end of the book the reader may choose to believe or not.

2. “If we citizens do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.” Author’s Note p. xii

The author is thanking the Canada Council for the Arts for their support, but he is also encouraging the promotion of the better story.

3. “But religion is more than rite and ritual. There is what the rite and ritual stand for.” p. 48

Pi is describing the sights, sounds, and smells of Hinduism. He goes on to explain the fundamentals of that religion. He sees the world from a Hindu perspective, but cautions against fundamentalism. This points out again that it is not about the particulars of the religion, but about faith.

4. “Tree took account of road, which was aware of air, which was mindful of sea, which shared things with sun. Every element lived in harmonious relation with its neighbour, and all was kith and kin.” p. 62

Pi is returning home from a visit with Mr. Kumar, the Sufi. He has a feeling that the connectedness of all things has been revealed to him by God.

5. “I felt like a small circle coinciding with the center of a larger one.” p. 62

This is another part of Pi’s revelation. He has a sense of peace, unity, and harmony resulting from his ability to weave three religions and science into his personal belief system. The circle simile is appropriate for someone named Pi.

6. “The presence of God is the finest of rewards.” p. 63

Pi is pleased with the spirituality he has achieved. He has just described two instances where he felt that God had come close to him. With three religions he can strive for three times the presence.

7. “Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!” p. 97

Pi is shipwrecked and sees Richard Parker swimming toward him. There is ironic humor in his multi-religious exclamation (one of many). Also, not yet knowing who Richard Parker is, the reader is led to believe momentarily that someone else has survived the wreck.

8. “After a thorough investigation, I made a complete list:

• 192 tablets of anti-seasickness medicine

• 124 tin cans of fresh water, each containing 500 milliliters, so 62 liters in all

• 32 plastic vomit bags ………

• 1 boy with a complete set of light clothing but for one lost shoe

• 1 spotted hyena

• 1 Bengal tiger

• 1 lifeboat

• 1 ocean

• 1 God” p. 145-146

Pi makes a very specific, quantitative list that goes on for two pages. The last entries on the list are both humorous and philosophical. Pi has God with him, even alone in the middle of the ocean.

9. “Only fear can defeat life.” p. 161

Pi is explaining the dangers of fear, but at the same time seems to be talking himself out of being afraid. Fear can cause the loss of belief and the loss of reason. The “light of words” defeats fear by not allowing your mind to wallow in it.

10. “It came as an unmistakable indication to me of how low I had sunk the day I noticed, with a pinching of the heart, that I ate like an animal, that this noisy, frantic, unchewing wolfing-down of mine was exactly the way Richard Parker ate.” p. 225

Pi kills and eats quickly so he can get his share before having to give it up to Richard Parker. He has become like an animal. Animals are not accountable to God for their actions. This scene comes at a time when Pi’s faith has waned.

11. “I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently.”

Pi is angry that the Japanese men do not believe his story. The have told him they want to know what really happened. This quote brings the climax of the story. Pi will tell a second story, without animals, about his survival. He will then press the men into confessing which they thought was the better story.

SYMBOLISM / MOTIFS / IMAGERY / SYMBOLS

Pi

Piscine’s nickname, Pi, has a symbolic relationship with the mathematical pi (π). The ratio of the circumference (circular) of a circle to its diameter (linear) is pi. The correlation between the linear journey to North America and the cycles of doubt and faith are experienced by Pi. Mathematical relationships are calculated and explained logically and rationally by the irrational number pi. Unbelievable experiences and irrational events are explained logically and rationally by Pi. Neither Pi nor pi can be confined by logic or taken to a coherent ending point. Pi is sixteen when he is shipwrecked, and pi is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. Pi even uses pi (π) to work out the circumference of the algae island.

Algae Island

The island itself is symbolic as a Garden of Eden. It offers temporary salvation to Pi, but he must leave the island Eden once he discovers the black “forbidden fruit” on the twisted branches of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” His illusion of the island is shattered. There is a kind of heaven and hell associated with day and night. By day the meerkats eat without having to kill and show no fear, even of Richard Parker. At night, the island becomes carnivorous and the ecosystem feeds on itself. (See Chapter 92 Notes)

Tsimtsum

The name of the ship comes from the Kabbalist concept of tsimtsum, where God withdraws himself to make room for the creation of the universe. The sinking of the ship may symbolize God withdrawing from Pi to make room for Pi to develop as an independent creature. Tsimtsum is necessary for creatures that are to become independent so they can freely choose a relationship with God. (See Chapters 35 and 37 Notes)

Orange

Orange is the color of survival. The whistles, life jacket, lifebuoy, tarpaulin, and Richard Parker are orange. It is also the color of the second Hindu chakra. (See Chapter 40 Notes)

Animals

The animals in Pi’s lifeboat symbolize human traits and may also represent people.

hyena – French cook, cowardliness

orangutan – Pi’s mother, maternal instincts

zebra – Chinese sailor, exoticism

tiger – Pi, animal nature

meerkats – mirage, meekness

Pi’s Story

The lifeboat ordeal is a metaphor for the human condition. We aspire to higher things (religion, justice, salvation), but we are entrenched in our own basic animal needs. These aspirations and needs are brought together in the lifeboat. If the aspirations are grand, the journey will be perilous.

MOTIFS

The motif of the reconciliation of science and religion as equal ways to understand the world stems from the concept of pi – using the irrational to explain the rational. Throughout the book science and religion, two seemingly opposite areas of study, intermingle and complement each other. The two Kumars represent these concepts, and even they come together to marvel at the zebras in the zoo. Next, Pi’s knowledge of science and his faith combine to effect his survival. And the adult Pi ends up with degrees in both zoology and religious studies.

KEY FACTS SUMMARY

Title: Life of Pi

Author: Yann Martel

Date Published: 2001

Meaning of the Title: It is not “The” Life of Pi because no particular life is supported. It is about the multiplicity of life and, in the end, the reader is left to choose which of Pi’s “lives” to believe.

Setting: India, Canada, Pacific Ocean, Mexico

Genre: Novel

Protagonist: Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)

Antagonist: Richard Parker; nature; internal struggle

Mood: Wondrous, spiritual, desperate, satisfied

Point of View: First person, changing from fictional author to Pi

Tense: This story is written in past tense.

Climax: When Pi tells a second story and challenges the Japanese men to choose the better story

Outcome: Both men admit the first story is better

Major Theme: The importance of telling/living the better story

Minor Themes: Science coexisting with religion; religious syncretism

STUDY QUESTIONS / QUIZ

1. Where is the author when he first hears about Piscine Patel?

a. Canada b. India c. home

2. Who is narrating the italicized chapters?

a. Piscine b. Martel c. a fictional author

3. Piscine was named after a ____.

a. pool b. relative c. famous Indian actor

4. What animal is the most dangerous to man?

a. elephant b. golden agouti c. alligator

5. What animal is the most dangerous to zoo animals?

a. elephant b. tiger c. man

6. Richard Parker is a ____.

a. friend of Pi’s b. tiger c. priest

7. Orange Juice is an ____.

a. monkey b. chimpanzee c. orangutan

8. Besides Orange Juice and Richard Parker, the two others in Pi’s lifeboat are a ___ and a ___.

a. zebra, hyena b. dog, zebra c. Golden agouti, hyena

9. What is prusten?

a. an Indian rice dish b. a Hindu offering c. a sound tigers make

10. Pi hesitates killing the flying fish because he is a ____.

a. vegetarian b. wimp c. worshipper of the fish god

11. What does Pi wish he had besides salvation?

a. a book b. another pen c. a beer

12. What was the name of the ship that sank?

a. Titanic II b. Tsimtsum c. Panama Lady

13. Pi could not see the other castaway because Pi was temporarily ____.

a. unconscious b. blind c. insane

14. Where did Pi’s lifeboat come ashore?

a. Mexico b. India c. Bahamas

15. Where did they end up finding Richard Parker?

a. in the jungle b. still in the lifeboat c. they did not find him

ANSWER KEY

1.b 2.c 3.a 4.a 5.c 6.b 7.c 8.a 9.c 10.a 11.a 12.b 13.b 14.a 15.c

ESSAY TOPIC IDEAS / BOOK REPORT IDEAS

1. Relate Piscine’s nickname, Pi, to elements of the story and/or themes of the novel.

2. What role does Richard Parker play in the story?

3. How does Father’s lesson about the nature of animals in Chapter 8 figure in to the rest of the story?

4. How is the distinction made between religious beliefs and faith in the story?

5. What does Pi say about fear? Is he able to defeat his own fear?

6. Describe how the “Bank of Karma” works.

7. At what point in the story did you realize that Richard Parker was a tiger? What is the significance of his human name?

8. How might the perceptions of Life of Pi differ for readers of different religions?

9. Whose voice do you hear telling the story? Why is this significant?

10. Does this story have the “happy ending” promised in Chapter 36?

11. Which of Pi’s stories do you believe? Why?

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