LIFE OF PI

Written in 2001 by Yann Martel, the story or a young Indian Boy, his journey across the
Atlantic and how he finds God in the most dire of circumstances.

SUMMARY
Pi Patel is born in Pondicherry, a small village in India. His father, Santosh Patel,
is the owner of a Zoo and mother, Gita Patel, a house wife. He is born a Hindu and
adopts Christianity and Islam at a young age. Due to this he receives much ridicule in
Pondicherry. For many years the government homicides in India at the time trouble Pi's
father and finally, when Pi is 16, they push him to the point of moving. Santosh sells off
there Zoo and its animals and charters a cargo ship, The Tsimtsum, so they can move
to Canada. During the voyage The Tsimtsum sink and Pi is stuck on lifeboat for 277
days. When he finally finds salvation he is sought out by the owners of the Tsimtsum
and interviewed about the events leading up to and after the sinking of The Tsimtsum.
He tells the Interviewers 2 stories.
STORY 1
The first is a fantastical narrative which entails him being stuck with a tiger, hyena,
orangutan and zebra on the boat. The animals slowly kill each other off until only Pi and
the tiger, named Richard Parker, remain. In this version of the story he explains how he
would fish and feed both himself and Richard Parker and he eventually becomes the
Alpha male on the boat and makes the hungry Richard Parker fear him. They eventually
reach the shores of Mexico at which point Richard Parker runs off into the Mexican
jungle and is never seen again.

The interviewers, Atsuro Chiba and Tomohiro Okamoto, do not believe this story and
pester him until he finally tells a second story.
STORY 2
In the second story he narrates his life on the lifeboat which involves him being stuck
with not animals but instead his mother, the ships cook and a sailor with a broken leg. In
this story everyone except him slowly dies or is killed. The people in this version of the
story share characteristics of an animal in the animal story, the zebra had a broken leg
like the sailor, the hyena was a cannibal and killed the sailor and orangutan like the chef
killed the sailor and Pi's mother in the human story, the orangutan was motherly and
protective like Pi's mom. That leaves the tiger which killed the Hyena, just as Pi killed
the chef in this second story. The tiger was representative of Pi's will to survive.

The interviewers finally come to conclusion that the second story was true, and
decided that the cause of the sinking will never be explained. Before they leave, Pi asks
them which story they prefer and they both agree the story with the animals was better
and though they do not believe it both interviewers agree that the story with the animals
made for a better tale.

Characters
PI PATEL
The protagonist of the story is Piscine Molitor Patel, otherwise known as Pi Patel, a
young Indian boy who grew up in Pondicherry, a small village in India. His father was a
zookeeper and mother a housewife. He Had one sibling, his brother Ravi. He is named
after a pool in France. He is a devout Christian, Muslim and Hindu. He is not very
athletic but is a very bright student.
RAVI PATEL
Ravi Patel is Pi's older brother. He is the opposite of Pi, athletic but not smart. Also,
he is not very religious and often taunts Pi for his strange religious regime. He dies
when the Tsimtsum sinks on there voyage to Canada.
SANTOSH PATEL
Pi's father and the owner of the Pondicherry zoo. He also is not religious and due to a
political struggle in India decides to move his entire family to Canada. He also dies on
the voyage.
GITA PATEL
Pi's mother who is always trying to make Pi read. She is sad to leave her country and
also dies on the voyage to Canada. She does not however die on the boat but makes it
on to the lifeboat and dies protecting Pi. In Pi's animal version of his survival story she is
represented by the orangutan.
FRANCIS ADIRUBASAMY
A longtime friend of the Patel family. He picked Pi's name and taught him to swim.
SATISH KUMAR
Pi's teacher, he suffered from polio in the past and is an atheist. Despite Pi being
extremely religious he gets along with his atheistic teacher.
FATHER MARTIN
A Catholic priest Pi meets on an vacation. He is the man who introduces Pi to
Christianity and converts him.
SATISH KUMAR
 A Muslim bread maker who Pi see praying one day. Upon seeing him pray Pi starts
talking to him and eventually embraces Islam as a result of Satish Kumar's Guidance.

*** though they share a name he is not the same man as Pi's teacher.
HINDU PANDIT
The last of the three religious leaders in Pi's life. Pi was born a Hindu and the Pandit
is who guides Pi is the ways of a Hindu.
RICHARD PARKER
In Pi's fantastical narrative he represents Pi himself and his will to survive. He kills the
Hyena and is eventually tamed by Pi. In reality he is never truly present on the boat. Pi
claims that he owes his survival to Richard Parker.
HYENA/COOK
In the animal story the Hyena kills the oranguntan and the horse. He is presenting the
cook from real life who kill Pi's mother and the sailor with the broken leg.
ORANGE JUICE
Represents Pi's mother on the boat. Orange juice dies fighting the Hyena after he
kills the sailor. in the human story Pi's mother dies protecting Pi from the Cook after he
kills the Zebra.
ZEBRA/SAILOR
Breaks his leg jumping onto the life boat. He represents a sailor who suffered the
same injury. In the animal story he is killed and eaten by the Hyena and in the human
story he is killed and eating by the cook.
TOMOHIRO OKAMOTO
Works for the company that owns the Tsimtsum. He comes with his partner Atsuro
Chiba to interview Pi about the events that led to the sinking of the Tsimtsum.
ATSURO CHIBA
Assistant of Tomohiro Okamoto. He makes alot of mistakes during the interview and
causes Tomohiro to get annoyed at his inexperience.
 Conflict
MAN VS. SELF
Throughout the novel Pi is at a constant struggle with himself. He must decide what
is more important to him, surviving or staying true to himself. To face this inner conflict
with himself he creates a scapegoat to do what he cannot make himself do that is
Richard Parker. When he is forced to kill the chef in order to survive he forces himself to
think that it is Richard Parker that does it and not him. Even though Pi is becoming
Physically weak he refuses to become mentally weak as that would cause him to lose
faith in God. This is because if he mentally stops believing he will survive he
is subconsciously thinking God is not there.

MAN VS. SOCIETY

Pi is forced to fight society at a very young age when he begins to practice multiple
religions. He must practice at time when others won’t see him because he is often
harassed and kicked out of temples when the priests see him. He must face all this
discrimination simply because he believes in more than one religion and that is not
acceptable in the society in which he lives.
MAN VS. NATURE
When Pi leaves for Canada with his family and the Tsimtsum sinks Pi is left stranded
at sea in a Life Boat. He must then face the harsh conditions at sea and fight against
the elements in order to survive, he faces hunger, dehydration from the sun all while he
is surrounded by an ocean full of fish. Ultimately nature takes everything from Pi
including his family, and his family's fortune.

SYMBOLS
PI'S NAME
In the novel the circumstances Pi comes across are incomprehensibly dire and
impossible to relate to. Pi, as a mathematical term, is a irrational number with a
nearly never ending amount of decimals. It is so long that the human mind cannot
understand it and it is simply written as 3.14. Pi's name represents the very story and
the circumstances he faces.
RICHARD PARKER
Richard Parker is a symbol of Pi's will to survive. Pi, who is normally peaceful and
religious, cannot face that he murdered a man and ate a man. Therefore
he separates his will to survive form himself in his fantastical narrative in order to stop
himself from facing reality.
ORANGE
Orange represents hope, as Richard Parker (Pi's will to survive), the whistle he tames
him with and the life buoy on which he fishes are all orange and these are the things
that allowed Pi to survive.
OCEAN
As Pi has lost everything during the sinking of the Tsimtsum he must start anew. This
is represented by the ocean which symbolizes a baptism, cleansing or a rebirth/fresh
start.
ARCHETYPE
PI
Pi's story follows the structure of a hero's journey. He is set out a journey, faces many
ordeal, overcomes all obstacles and finds his reward (he finds god), and he sets back
into society.

Theme

THE PURPOSE OF RELIGIOUS STORYTELLING

The entire novel is a story about Pi surviving in a lifeboat with hungry animals. But at
the end we learn that the animals were never there and in fact he had been stuck with
other humans who died. This shows that he created the animal story to comfort himself
and avoid facing the harsh reality in which his mother was eaten and he killed a man,
proving that religious storytelling is used as a comforting mechanism by Pi Patel to
protect his psyche.
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Throughout the novel god is referenced repeatedly by Pi, who is devoutly religious.
But seeing the horrors that occur, such as the horrible death of his mother, makes the
reader wonder where was god when all this was happening? In the end Pi asks the
reader to choose between the two tails and in essence is asking whether you prefer to
believe in God or the dry truth.
MAN'S FIERCE WILL TO SURVIVE
Pi Patel, who is a peaceful and religious boy, murders a man and begins to eat meat
in order to survive. If he had been asked as a child if he was capable of either of those
actions he would have denied it. This clearly shows that man has a fierce will to survive
and will do anything when its existence is threatened. In the story Pi's will to survive is
represented by Richard Parker, a Tiger.

A LITTLE ABOUT YANN MARTEL

Yann Martel was born on June 25th 1963 in Salamanca Spain. He was the son of
Nicole Perron (mother) and Emile Martel (father). He was raised in many places such as
Costa Rica, Mexico, France and Canada. He went to high school at Trinity College
School in Port Hope, Ontario. Life of Pi was his fourth novel and it was published in
2001. He has 7 published novels namely Seven Stories(1993), The Facts Behind the
Helsinki Roccamatios(1993), Self(1996), Life of Pi (2001), We Ate the Children Last
(2004), Beatrice and Virgil (2010) and 101 Letters to a Prime Minister: The Complete
Letters to Stephen Harper (2012) .