Life of Pi
An Introduction
BIOGRAPHY

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963.

Parents were Canadian and travelled around the
world.

Yann travelled a great deal internationally while he
was growing up, because his parents worked for
the Canadian Foreign Service.

His father was a diplomat as well as a recognized
Quebecois poet.

As a result of his father's job, Martel grew up in
Alaska, British Columbia, Costa Rica, France,
Ontario and Mexico.

He has continued traveling as an adult, spending
time in Iran, Turkey and India.

After studying philosophy at Trent University and
while doing various odd jobs—tree planting,
dishwashing, working as a security guard—he
began to write.
Biography Continued…

He is the prize-winning author of The Facts Behind the Helsinki
Roccamatios, a collection of short stories, and Self, a novel, both
published internationally.

He has been living off his writing since the age of 27.

He divides his time between yoga, writing and volunteering in a palliative
care unit.

Yann Martel lives in Montreal.

He was a writer in residence in Saskatoon for the fall of 2003. (A writer
holding a temporary residential post in an academic establishment, in
order to share his or her professional insights.)

Life of Pi started with six months in India visiting mosques, temples,
churches and zoos, before Martel took a year to read religious texts and
castaway stories.

Martel then got down to writing - which took another two years.
On Faith
 "Fanatics do not have faith -
they have belief. With faith you
let go. You trust. Whereas with
belief you cling." Then the
novelist comes through. "One of
the things I discovered, reading
the founding texts of Islam,
Christianity, Hinduism - a good
religion works like a good novel:
it makes you suspend your
disbelief."
Martel during an interview with The
Guardian
Interview With Yann Martel
 Take notes on Martel’s
thoughts on Religious
Extremism, Faith, Fear
and Hope.
 He also speaks of his
novel’s comparison with
“Max and the Cats”.
 What are his thoughts on
that?
 http://www.npr.org/tem
plates/story/story.php?st
oryId=878087
Consider…
 Yann Martel said in an interview, “The theme
of this novel can be summarized in three
lines. Life is a story. You can choose your
story. And a story with an imaginative overlay
is the better story.”
 To help us understand what Martel’s
statement means we must first decide what
a story is. Are some stories more believable
than others? Does this matter? When a story
is told what makes it entertaining?
About the Novel
Martel tells a story both striking and
unique, the life story of Piscine Patel.
In forming the story of his protagonist
Martel relies on the following ideas:
 Religious notions
 Imaginative
 Fact/Fiction
 The Better Story
Theme
 “I have a story that will make you
believe in God”
This is a powerful statement.
What/Who is God? What does it
mean to believe? What clues might
this statement provide about the
novel?
To Tell a Truth
Which story is true?
I went to the grocery store on the weekend
and purchased tomatoes, lettuce, frozen
vegetables and chicken. While at the
grocery store I bumped into my
neighbour who was picking up groceries
for her sons 2nd birthday party the next
day. When I was done grabbing all the
groceries I needed, I drove home and
put them away.
Which Story is True
I went to the grocery store on the weekend and
purchased tomatoes, lettuce, frozen vegetables
and chicken breast. While at the grocery store I
bumped into my neighbour who told me
something or someone had broken into her
house and had stolen all the food out of her
fridge and cabinets. There was a huge mess as
the person or thing made itself at home while
opening and eating yogurt, cans of sauce and
juice as there was food everywhere. When she
went outside to look for evidence of a robber all
she found were huge paw tracks. I now lock all
doors and windows and keep my food well
hidden.
Truth
 Which story is true?
 Which makes the better story?
Suspension of Disbelief
“
Suspension of disbelief” is a literary term coined by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge in 1817 in his autobiography:
“In this idea originated the plan of the ‘Lyrical Ballads’; in
which it was agreed, that my endeavors should be directed to
persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as
to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and semblance
of truth sufficient to the procure for these shadows of imagination
that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes
poetic faith.”
In other words, we put aside out doubts and submerse ourselves in
the fiction. We temporarily believe the events and characters that
would otherwise seem incredible. This allows us to fully experience
and appreciate what the author is attempting to convey.
Magical Realism
 Magical Realism is a genre of literature where what we would
consider to be extraordinary is presented as reality. It is serious
fiction, which means it is not fantasy, nor is it escapist. It helps us
to name our world and see our place in it. It conveys or explores
truth.
 Magical Realism tells stories from the perspective of
people who live in our world, but experience a
different reality from ours. For example, if there is a
ghost in a story of Magical Realism, the ghost is not an
element of fantasy, but a manifestation of the reality
of people who believe in and have “real” experiences
of ghosts.
 When reading Magical Realism, you feel that the story is real,
even though you know logically it cannot happen. The magical
and the ordinary are on and the same.
Motifs & Themes To
Discover…
Survival
Religion
Faith vs. Belief
Magic Realism
Frame Narratives
Ritual…
Things to Discover Cont’d…
 Territory
 Dominance
 Hunger and Thirst
 Life and Death
 Truth vs. Lies
 Fantasy vs. Reality
 Colour Motifs
 Pi
Critical Concepts:
 Freudian Theory:
1) Conscious and Unconscious Mind
2) Personality Theory
 Jungian Theory:
1) Shadow Self and
Individuation