Life of Pi

If you liked...Suggestions for further reading

Life of Pi

• Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952) An old fisherman, far out at sea, lands a marlin too large to bring aboard his small craft. He fights the sea, the elements, and his own hunger and thirst in a desperate attempt to bring the fish to land before it is consumed by sharks.
• Ben Jones, The Rope Eater (2003) Brendan Cane, a Union Army deserter during the American Civil War, signs on board the Narthex, a ship bound for a mythical paradise hidden in the heart of the Artic. The survival story of the shipwrecked crew is interwoven with the childhood memories of Muslim engine tender Aziz.
• James Scudamore, The Amnesia Clinic (2006) Influenced by the outlandish tales of his eccentric Uncle Suarez, Fabian and his friend Anti embark on a quixotic adventure across Ecuador to investigate the disappearance of Fabian’s parents six years earlier.
• Moacyr Scliar, Max and the Cats (1981; translation copyright by Eloah F. Giacomelli, 1990) Max Schmidt barely escapes the Nazis on a freighter which subsequently founders off the coast of South America. Max is trapped on a dinghy with a hungry jaguar. Martel acknowledges that reading a review of this novel inspired the idea for Life of Pi, but denies having read Scliar’s novel before writing his own
• Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before, translated from the Italian by William Weaver (1995) Renaissance era adventurer Roberto della Grivo finds refuge in a mysterious abandoned ship after himself being shipwrecked in the South Pacific. After Roberto discovers he shares the ship with brilliant Father Caspar, the narrative alternates between their attempts to reach a nearby island and an exposition of Roberto’s life story.
• Steven Heighton, Afterlands, a novel (2006) A fictional account of the 1871 Polaris expedition, whose 25 member crew with eight women and children were stranded and separated, with half trapped on the grounded ship and half on an ice floe. Heighton explores the capriciousness of memory as events are interpreted in conflicting ways.

Major Character List

Life of Pi

• Picene Molitar Patel aka Pi – the main character, survives 227 days in a lifeboat at sea accompanied by a Bengal tiger
• Richard Parker – the Bengal Tiger
• Orange Juice – a Borneo orangutan, temporary passenger in the lifeboat
• A Hyena – a temporary passenger in the lifeboat
• A Zebra – a temporary passenger in the lifeboat
• Pi's father – proprietor of a zoo in Pondicherry, India, who taught Pi a great deal about the nature of zoo animals
• Ravi – Pi’s older brother, teases him about his name
• Satish Kumar – Pi’s biology teacher, an atheist and Communist
• Satish Kumar – Pi’s Muslim spiritual guide, a Sufi mystic
• Pi's Mother – another passenger on the lifeboat in one version of the story
• The French cook – appears as an adversary to Pi in both versions of his story
• A Chinese sailor – appears as a passenger on the lifeboat in Pi’s second story
• Tomohiro Okamoto – officer of the Marine Department of the Japanese Ministry of Transport, leads interview of Pi in Mexican hospital
• Atsurra Chiba – Okamoto’s colleague, assists in the interview, appears somewhat naive
• Francis Adirubasamy – the ostensible source of the story
• Yann Martel – the presumptive narrator of the story

Discussion Questions

Life of Pi

1. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover; yet inevitably we do. Both the original hardback edition and the subsequent paperback edition of Life of Pi depict a boy and a tiger in opposite ends of a lifeboat on the open sea. The hardback shows the boat from above with an abstract quality to the characters; the boy is lying in a fetal position; the tiger is lying on its belly. The paperback depicts the characters in a realistic style, with both the boy and the tiger looking out of the boat. The 2007 illustrated edition shows a tiger from the side view, his body wrapping around the cover of the book, with a pale, abstract background. Which is the best cover for the book?
2. In his introduction the author claims that the story of Pi was told to him as “a story that will make you believe in god” (p. x). Several paragraphs later he refers to “a tape and a report from the Japanese Ministry of Transport” that he received, and declares “It was as I listened to that tape that I agreed with Mr. Adirusbasamy that this was, indeed, a story to make you believe in God.”(p.xi) What about the tape would make one a believer in God?
3. Pi states “I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.” (p. 19) How is this statement borne out in his descriptions of zoos and of religion?
4. “I learned the lesson that an animal is an animal, essentially and practically removed from us, twice: once with Father and once with Richard Parker” (p. 31). How does Pi learn this lesson with Richard Parker?
5. After describing Pi’s relationship with his four year old daughter, the narrator remarks, “This story has a happy ending.” (p. 93) Do you think this scene reveals anything about the “ending” of Pi’s adventure at sea and the question of which telling of the story is the “true” one?
6. Discuss how Pi’s early education and experience, as revealed to the reader, prepare him to survive on the open sea with a tiger in his lifeboat. Is anything missing?
7. After describing his initial panic when he fled the lifeboat in fear of Richard Parker, Pi notes “It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me to peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness.” (p. 162) In light of this statement, discuss the evolving relationship between Pi and the tiger throughout the novel.
8. Is Pi’s religious faith apparent during the part of the novel dealing with his ordeal at sea? Discuss how.
9. Pi’s Muslim guide, a Sufi mystic, and his biology teacher, an atheistic Communist, have the same name and he refers to them as “the prophets of my Indian youth.” (p. 61) Do you think the identical naming of the two “prophets” is meant to suggest anything about the relationship between atheism and faith? Are there other things in the book that make similar suggestions?
10. Does the episode of the living island cast doubt on the “truth” of Pi’s first story? Does it confirm some of the truths of that story?
11. As long as Pi is aware of the nature of the living island, it poses no real danger to him. Why, then, is he so horrified to discover that it is carnivorous?
12. Does Pi survive only by virtue of determination, physical strength, and intelligence, or does luck or the hand of God intervene to save him at times?
13. Chapter 87 describes a practice Pi develops that he says “amounts to gentle asphyxiation” (p. 236) Does this practice seem consistent with Pi’s character and religious beliefs?
14. After telling his second story, Pi asks the Japanese investigators which they believe, “the story with animals or the story without animals?” When they reply that they prefer the story with animals he says, “Thank you. And so it goes with God.” (p. 317). What do you think he means?
15. What do you think Yann Martel would say if you asked whether Life of Pi is based on a true story?
16. Is Pi Richard Parker? Is Richard Parker god? Is Pi god? Are you god?