LIFE OF PI: CHAPTER SUMMARIES
CHAPTER 37 (pg 99 - 102)
● Simply stated that ship has sunken - hard fact, expressionless truth
● Image of chaos then created by everything “screaming” (line 3) as well as Pi’s desperate
calls to Richard Parker
● Mentions “Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu” (pg 99) - reference to his three
religions
● Desperately trying to encourage Richard Parker to swim to lifeboat
● Sound of whistle screeching adds to frantic atmosphere - first time whistle used with
Richard Parker - used later to try train him
● Seeks consolation and answers from RP - talks to him as if he understands
● “Tell me it's a bad dream” (pg 100) - doesn't want to accept nightmarish reality - starts
asking family where they are
● “Not wounded… intense pain” - reality setting in + knowledge of what he's lost
● “Every single thing I value in life has been destroyed”- doesn't understand why “no
explanation”
● Questions why there aren't answers for everything. Realizes reason can't provide the
answer to everything - it is limited & some questions have no answers. “Vast net so little
fish”
● Pi realizing his dependence on his faith and family won't save him now or provide him
the answers he desires.
● Undeniable will to survive found in all living beings:
○ RP nearly giving up - exhausted. Pi throws life buoy and RP tries again
○ “In hell yet afraid of immortality” - living in a hellish reality but still don't want to
die
● “Pull with your eyes” (pg 101) - help Pi by giving him strength through eyes
● “... together. Wait a second. Together?” - a sudden change in Pi’s behaviour and attitude
towards RP changes follows. He now has no desire to save RP and instead tries to get rid
of him, telling him to drown. Tone changes from encouraging to damning.
● RP manages to climb on board - speaks of will to survive. (Could be paralleled with Part 3
as Pi struggles to swim against the storm to the lifeboat as does RP. When Pi almost
gives up on trying and realizes there is nothing left for him to survive for is when in P2 he
changes his demeanour and tries to get rid of RP. The primal instinct to survive causes
him to push on through and is what gets RP onto the lifeboat.)
● “... next goat” (pg 101) - Ravi joked in P1 that Pi would be the next meal of the tiger…
● It is revealed for the first time that RP is a tiger - “wet, trembling, half-drowned, heaving
and coughing three-year-old adult Bengal tiger”
● “...eyes blazing… weapons drawn” - weak from storm but still animal instincts and ready
to attack
● Pi throws himself overboard to escape tiger - chooses to face raging sea instead. Could
be said to refer to Pi attempting to escape the whole nightmare.
CHAPTER 38
The chapter in one sentence: Pi describes the build-up to and sinking of the Tsimtsum
• Pi goes back in time from chapter 37, describing the sinking of the ship
• The ship has docked Manila and it sinks in the Pacific Ocean
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“the ship vanished into a pinprick hole on my map”
Pi described the ship as “indifferent” to what was going on around it.
“It moved with the slow massive confidence of a continent”
This created the idea that the ship was strong and stable
and when the ship did begin to sink, it left Pi slightly
disbelieving as he had seen the ship survive much worse
than the storm that sunk the ship.
The conditions that lead to the sinking of the ship were
mild “the gust would have upset umbrellas” this is ironic
as umbrellas are weak objects unlike the Tsimtsum and
these conditions are not as severe as others experienced
at sea.
Pi was woken up one night. This was unusual as he
“normally a sound sleeper and Normally he would have
gone back to sleep” and the fact that he was woken up creates a sense of unease in the
situation. Pi gets up and goes outside.
Pi felt safe and secure on the ship as he had seen it survive much worse conditions until
he spots the lifeboat not hanging straight.
The ship starts listing (leaning to one side) making Pi fall many times as Pi goes back
inside and finds water surging up from lower levels.
Pi rushes outside looking for crew members and hears the shrieking of monkeys and he
narrowly avoids getting trampled by a Wild Ox.
Pi is filled with relief when he finds some crew members and he felt safe in their trusted
hands up until the point that they threw him and a lifejacket overboard.
CHAPTER 39
The chapter in one sentence: Pi lands in the lifeboat and the Zebra joins him
• Pi lost his lifejacket but manged to hold onto the whistle
• The male Zebra, Grant jumped off the boat into the lifeboat.
• After that, the lifeboat hit the water
Chapter 40:
This chapter is a continuation from the end of chapter 37.
SUMMARY: Pi jumps overboard, clinging onto a buoy whilst surrounded by sharks, in order
to escape Richard Parker.
→ Important quote: “I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the Pacific, hanging on to
an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me.”
Pi describes how terrifying the water was and how the lifebuoy was the only thing that kept
him alive.
o “It was black and cold and in a rage. I felt as if I were at the bottom of a crumbling
well. Water kept crashing down on me. It stung my eyes. It pulled me down. I could
hardly breathe.”
o “If there hadn’t been the lifebuoy I wouldn’t have lasted a minute.”
Whilst in the water, Pi notices fifteen feet away a shark fin which led him to push himself up
on the lifebuoy by the end of the boat. After seeing that Richard Parker was at the bottom
of the lifeboat and the zebra’s head thrashing around, he fell back into the water.
o “It was a shark’s fin. An awful tingle, cold and liquid, went up and down my spine.” It
is interesting that his reaction is described as ‘cold and liquid’ as he is currently in
the cold Pacific Ocean. His emotional reaction and physical situation have
intertwined.
o “As I fell back into the water another shark’s fin glided right before me.” He has no
safe place to hide and is constantly surrounded by danger.
He instead decides to hang onto an oar jammed into the tarpaulin, feeling moderately
secure but not thinking at all (which, he reflects, helped him survive as “had I considered my
prospects in the light of reason, I surely would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping
that I might drown before being eaten.”)
o “But I don’t recall that I had a single thought during those first minutes of relative
safety.”
Pi eventually slips the lifebuoy over himself, making his position more comfortable.
o “But one terror at a time, Pacific before tiger”. This is very interesting if one
considers the second story he told – he would therefore rather deal with an ocean
than his savage, primitive, evil side.
THEME: Survival (and the will to survive)
→ His will to live overwhelms his reasoning and logical thinking – his situation is hopeless.
→ “Had I conserved my prospects in the light of reason, I surely would have given up and let
go of the oar...”
THEME: Boundaries
→ He is surrounded by a boundless ocean but is trapped on a small lifebuoy and oar.
→ He sets a boundary between himself and Richard Parker, choosing to stay off of the boat
then venture to the tiger’s territory.
IMAGERY/SYMBOLISM: Bright orange tarpaulin
→ Orange is associated with survival in Life of Pi. The tarpaulin, orange, will ultimately
become a haven for him, which helps him to survive.
CHAPTER 41:
The first paragraph seems to be quite important as the first night of his survival.
o “The elements allowed me to go on living. The lifeboat did not sink. Richard Parker
kept out of sight. The sharks prowled but did not lunge. The waves splashed but did
not pull me off.”
→ Earth: the lifeboat is his connection the earth, as it is a man-made item that
ultimately returns him to land.
→ Air: the waves (caused by the storm = wind)
→ Fire: Richard Parker (in Blake’s ‘The Tyger’, heat and fire is commonly associated –
“dare seize the fire, furnace, burnt the fire of thine eyes”.)
→ Water: the sharks in the ocean.
Pi watches the Tsimtsum sink, watching for other survivors, however “there was nothing”.
“I looked for my family, for survivors, for another lifeboat, for anything that might bring
me hope”. He seems to suddenly realise how hopeless his situation is, but his will to
survive outweighs this despair.
He becomes too sore to stay clinging to the oar, so decides to venture on the tarpaulin and
is surprised that Richard Parker remains hidden. He understands animals and their senses
and tries to use his knowledge to safely venture onto the tarpaulin, weighing reason over
fear.
• “Next to Richard Parker, I was deaf, blind and nose-dead.”
• “I had a chance so long as he did not sense me.”
He notices that the zebra is still alive too, though the back leg is gruesomely broken. Pi
admires the dying zebra’s beauty and wonders why Richard Parker hasn’t killed it yet.
• “It was a lovely animal.”
• “Of greater significance to me was the strange fact that Richard Parker had not killed
it.”
He understands why when a hyena appears from under the tarpaulin that had a badly torn
ear, “its healed jagged edge testimony to old violence.” Although the hyena is obviously
violent, Pi states that “it froze my blood – and then brought a slight measure of relief”. He
seems to prefer being stuck with a hyena than stuck with RP, which is interesting within
the context of the second story.
Pi believes that Richard Parker is no longer abroad because he understands that no two
alpha predators could be peacefully sharing such a small space.
“There couldn’t be both a hyena and a tiger in such a small space.”
Pi also doesn’t understand how the hyena could have gotten onboard, as hyenas cannot
swim. He concludes that the hyena must have been onboard all along and that the sailors
were not trying to save Pi, but rather using him as bait.
“They weren’t trying to save my life... They were using me as a fodder.”
Surprisingly, Pi has contradictory thoughts around this discover. He concluded that this
“good news was double” because “if it weren’t for this hyena, the sailors wouldn’t have
thrown me into the lifeboat and I would have stayed on the ship and drowned; and if I had
to share quarters with a wild animal, better the upfront ferocity of a dog than the power
and stealth of a cat.” NB – he therefore alludes to the fact that he would prefer to stay
with the French cook than his savage self.
Dawn breaks and Pi describes his surroundings, the empty Pacific Ocean, and that nothing in
the water brought him hope.
“I was either fixed on practical details of immediate survival or transfixed by pain,
weeping silently, my mouth open and my hands at my head.”
THEMES: Survival
→ Pi tests his survival instincts by venturing onto the tarpaulin.
THEMES: Boundaries
→ He tests the boundaries by venturing onto the lifeboat,
→ He understands the boundaries between himself and the alpha animals.
IMAGERY/SYMBOLISM: the animals
→ Tiger: associated with both positive and negative meanings (in Pi’s story, RP is a savage
animal but is the only thing keeping him alive). Unpredictable, but when you see a tiger
often it is a signal that you are overcoming obstacles and fears by reclaiming your place of
power.
→ Zebra: Symbolizes community, protection, freedom and family – thus, when the zebra
dies, Pi loses these traits around him.
→ Hyena: Scavenger nature, gluttony, uncleanliness and cowardice. In some cultures, they
are associated with demons.
CHAPTER 42+4 3
Focuses
on PI’s early days on the lifeboat.
CHAPTER 42
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At the start of Chapter 42 the orangutan, orange juice (who has been a “star” attraction
at the zoo and is a mother to two male orang-utans) floats up to the boat on a “raft” of
bananas and netting
Pi is feeling very negative and despondent; he uses words such as “nothing”, “lost”,
“lost” and “oblivion”
Pi takes the net as it may prove to be useful but he does not take the bananas.
Orange juice also appears to be in a state of shock.
CHAPTER 43
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He feels sure that help will come and that he will be rescued soon, reuniting him with his
family
He fears that orange juice is dying of shock
Pi is also anxious about the hyena which begins to whine and scream and has a burst of
frantic activity coming close to Pi and then he freezes.
It then begins to run in circles around the zebra which causes the boat to shake
Pi feels extremely threatened by the hyena
The hyena vomits because it is seasick and distressed
IMAGERY
• The imagery used in the two chapters directly revolve around Pi’s fear, hopelessness and
his terror of the predatory hyena.
• Martel uses repetition effectively “Nothing” suggests Pi’s sense of helplessness and his
sense of imminent (looming) ending (“our lives are over”)
• In chapter 43 features a powerful hyperbole, designated to build up the hope in Pi’s
mind of a dramatic rescue on a massive scale and ironically the opposite is true “red
lights were blinding’s” “alarm bells ringing” “eyes opening wide in horror” and in fact the
Tsimsum has sunk without trace so he won’t be rescued
THEMES
The themes that were raised in these two chapters relate mainly to survive.
SURVIVAL →In chapter 42 Pi is still taking in the enormity of what has happened and still
hopes to be reunited with his family
He is confused and afraid which is why he takes some comfort from the orangutan
He is learning already to grasp any potentially useful resources (for example the net)
STORY TELLING → Another survival aid, is Pi’s tendency to tell stories as a way of coping
with the terrible realities he faces. This is a coping strategy which allows him to re-frame the
traumatic things he had to witness.
CHAPTER 44
PLOT
● Pi spends the day perched on the oar, intensely bored.
● The first hours of the day are associated in his mind with the sound of the buzzing
flies
● Doesn’t know if the flies were already on the boat or came with the hyena but
observes that they all disappeared in 2 days:
o The hyena snapped at them and ate a number
o others might have been swept away to sea
o or died of old age
● Pi grows anxious due to the approaching evening as in the dark he will be invisible to
rescuers, and the animals might become active and aggressive.
● The night was moonless and dark, which was very overwhelming for Pi as he
expresses “I couldn't imagine lasting the night”.
● Pi hears snarls from the hyena, barking from the zebra and a repeated knocking
sound- he gets so scared that he relieves himself in his pants.
● He also hears sounds from underneath the boat and realises that the “battle for life”
is taking place in the ocean as well.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
● Pi is pessimistic in this chapter due to his fear of the night, he doesn’t believe that he
will last through the night.
● He is honest as he admits that he was so scared of the sounds he heard that he
relieved himself
● Pi is worrisome (but justly so) as he worries about the rescuers not seeing him in the
dark and the animals becoming aggressive.
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM
● Flies→ symbol of himself, he imagines being eaten by the hyena, swept away to sea
or dying of old-age. The imagery of the hyena snapping at the flies also displays the
savagery of the hyena, and paints the animal to be gory. Parallels to chef who eats
flies
● “I seemed to be floating in pure, abstract blackness.” → darkness is symbolic of the
emotional darkness that Pi finds himself in. He has lost everything, his family, his
new life.
● Pi spends three days and three nights on the extended oar. Christ- like?
THEMES
Survival
Pi sees his own struggle to survive reflected in all the animals who are partaking in the battle
for life around him. His father taught about the violence in nature and now he is
experiencing the savagery first hand. Pi is anxious and thinks about surviving through the
night.
CHAPTER 45
PLOT
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After a dark night, the sun finally emerges
and with it Pi’s hope of being rescued
returns.
He even imagines images of a “sweet
reunion” with his family:
o Ravi teasing him about acting like
Noah
o His father looking unshaven and
dishevelled
o His mother looking to the sky and
taking him into her arms
However the horizon lies empty
Looks into the lifeboat and sees that the
hyena had bitten off and was eating the
zebra’s broken leg
Pi feels anger and sadness for the creature but it’s short-lived as he then focuses on his
own survival
Says he feels bad about moving on so quickly but later remembers the zebra in all
prayers
He is surprised that the hyena hasn’t attacked Orange Juice
He finds humour is seeing OJ seasick as it is such a human quality
He then further muses and imagines a zoo enclosure with hyenas and orangutans living
harmoniously and a sign saying "Dear Public, Do not be afraid for the orang-utans! They
are in the trees because that is where they live, not because they are afraid of the
spotted hyenas. Come back at mealtime, or at sunset when they get thirsty, and you will
see them climbing down from their trees and moving about the grounds, absolutely
unmolested by the hyenas."
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Later in the afternoon, a hawksbill turtle floats by the boat, Pi tells it to go tell a ship he’s
there.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
● Pi imagines a zoo enclosure→ this demonstrates Pi’s ability to think creatively, he
needs to be imaginative (this quality will help him to solve problems later on).
● Pi is naive at the start of the chapter as he clings to the hope of a rescue soon but
this naivety is later crushed by the violence he witnesses on the boat (remember
when 2 kumars go to zoo and marvel at the Grant zebra’s beauty, Pi has to witness
this beauty being defiled by the greedy
hyena).
● Pi feels pity for zebra for a short time as his
survival mode kicks in, he later says that he
feels very sorry about this and that he does
not forget the zebra in any of his prayers.
● Despite the trauma he has been through, Pi
manages to find humour is seeing the human
quality of seasickness in OJ as he says he
laughs.
IMAGERY/SYMBOLISM
● OJ → symbol of hope for Pi, Orange Juice
provides a measure of emotional support that
helps him maintain hope in the face of horrific
tragedy. OJ is also representative of his
mother.
THEMES
Survival
Pi does not feel sorry for the zebra for long, as he starts to think about his own
survival. He kicks into animal mode as he works out how is going to make it out alive.
The witnessing of the hyena eating the zebra’s leg also highlights how animals do
what they do to survive. Connected with their extreme will to survive, Pi also starts
to see how differently animals can act when thrown out of their natural
environment.
Hope
Pi has a profound sense of hope at the beginning of the chapter, he has utter belief
that he will reunite with his parents and Ravi. He remarks that hope is like seeing
light in spite of darkness.
CHAPTER 46
The Chapter starts off with Pi stating that this (the second night at sea) was one of his worst
nights. As the sun starts to set, the sky fills with shades of red and orange which were
referred to as Hindu colours. He notices a great number of sharks and fish swimming near
the boat which increases his anxiety. Orange Juice sits up in the boat, also gazing out into
the water. Pi gives Orange juice human qualities in describing her profoundly sad
expression. She sees and acknowledges Pi, but didn't pay him much attention. Pi realises
Orange juice is searching for her two lost sons, just like how Pi is searching for his lost
family.
Suddenly the Hyena attacks the Zebra and bites a big chunk from its hide. The hyena slides
into the zebra’s wound and starts eating its insides while the zebra is still alive. The zebra
reared its head up, as if appealing to heaven. As the hyena digs into his meal, Orange Juice
becomes defensive and starts flashing her teeth and roaring at the hyena. He starts to growl
back and they fight verbally for a short while filling the air with sound. The fighting stops
when they both retreat. The sharks eventually swim away too, but the zebra suffers on. Pi is
horrified by all this. He finally acknowledges that his family is probably dead, and he sinks
into despair. He spends the night weeping as the hyena continues to eat.
THEME OF SURVIVAL: Just as with the tiger and goat , Pi again witnesses the savagery of
wild animals when they are faced with hunger or thrown out of their natural territories.
Even Orange Juice, the peaceful orangutan seems to suddenly lose her “humanity” and
become a dangerous animal.
The role of Orange Juice in this chapter was mostly to calm as she is an animal he played
with from his childhood. She also is an animal which Pi can relate to since they've both lost
their families in the shipwreck. Throughout the beginning of the chapter she seems a sort of
relief since she is closest to a human out of the wild and crazy animals that Pi is stuck with in
his lifeboat.
CHAPTER 47:
PLOT:
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Daybreak (Pi’s 3rd day at sea)
The zebra has a 2-foot-wide hole in its body and was still alive.
Orange Juice was in a dangerous mood.
The zebra dies by noon.
The Hyena and Orange Juice both get tense, which leads to the hyena jumping on
Orange Juice.
PI says that he had already given up on Orange Juice and believed that she had no
chance in surviving the fight.
Orange Juice thumps the hyena on the head and wins Round 1.
This thump made Pi’s heart melt with love and admiration and fear.
He then goes on about Orange Juices former life. He was a pet of an Indonesian
family and was discarded when he showed signs of violence.
Pi explains how violent orang-utan become when left to become depressed. Thought
Orange Juice lived a life where she was able to remain unaggressive.
Pi knows, however, that a female fruit-eating orang-utan doesn't stand a chance
against a carnivorous male hyena. If Orange Juice were a male she would be double
the size she is now and may have stood a chance against the hyena.
Round 2: The hyena gets a hold of Orange Juice's throat and kills Orange Juice. This is
upsetting.
Pi decides it's him or the hyena. He advances to the edge of the tarpaulin. The he
looks down. “Between my feet, under the bench, I beheld Richard Parker’s head.”
Night falls.
IMAGERY/SYMBOLISM:
• “Clouds that looked like bunched up, dirty cotton sheets” (128) → Clouds are
compared to crumpled, unwashed linen. Mood of despondency/ hopefulness/
misery is created
• “It has been left behind. The pet does not understand. It is as unprepared for this
jungle as its human siblings are. It waits around for their return, trying to quell the
panic rising in it. They do not return.” (130) This is a heartbreaking moment in the
novel. Pi discusses the stupidity of returning pets to the wild. How can the poor
creature survive? But Pi also comments – and this is the heartbreaking part – on his
own abandonment and the loss of his brother Ravi.
• “She looked like a simian Christ on the cross” (132)→The way that Orange Juice is
lying with her arms spread out in death and legs crossed is compared to the
crucifixion of Christ. This comparison shows Pi’s admiration of her bravery and
sacrifice in standing up to the hyena.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
• “I underestimated her. I underestimated her grit.” (129) Pi says this before he
explains Orange Juice’s back story or the fight that takes place, an example of
foreshadowing that works well in the novel. Orange Juice is determined and fierce
which is demonstrated in her fight with the hyena because even though she loses,
she fights with all her might until the death. If she had been a more advanced
species or a trained killer, like the hyena, she might have won.
• “It made my heart melt with love and admiration.” (142) Pi says this about Orange
Juice when she fights back to the hyena after he has underestimated her chance of
survival. This is an example of a rare good emotion felt while on the lifeboat. This
connects to the theme that hope and goodness can come in dire situations and the
motifs of animals as well.
CHAPTER 48:
● This chapter focuses on Richard Parker’s known background, how he received his
name and how he came to be a zoo animal in Mr Patel’s zoo in Pondicherry, India
● Pi tells the story of how a panther was terrorising a small district in Bangladesh,
attacking and savagely eating members of its community: “It had recently carried off
a little girl. All that was found of her was tiny hand with a henna pattern on the palm
and a few plastic bangles.” (pg 133)
● The Forest Department then called upon a professional hunter to capture or kill the
panther before it harmed anymore villagers and baited the animal with a goat.
● Instead of finding a goat, the hunter spotted a tiger and a young cub. The adult tiger
was shot with a sedative and the cub was found in a nearby bush.
● The two tigers were then sent off to the Pondicherry Zoo.
● The hunters name was Richard Parker and he ‘baptised’ the cub Thirsty.
● The shipping clerk messed up the paper work and swopped the cubs name for the
hunters name and vice versa.
CONTEXT:
● The previous chapter describes the intense and scary realisation Pi’s dangerous
situation on the lifeboat with his discovery of Richard Parkers presence and the
death of the other animals.
● This chapter offers a slight break from Pi’s current state of horror to offer some
information about the tiger.
● The chapter could be described as comical relief: “All the papers we received with the
cub clearly stated that its name was Richard Parker, that the hunter’s first name was
Thirsty and that his family name was None Given. Father had had a good chuckle
over the mix-up and Richard Parker’s name had stuck.” (pg 134)
CHAPTER 49:
● This chapter focuses back on Pi’s current situation on the lifeboat.
● Pi is weak and immobile, feeling physically and mentally slow.
● Due to this, Pi realises that he has not had anything to eat, drink or a minute of sleep in
the past three days.
● Pi also concludes after much mental deliberation that Richard Parkers presence on the
lifeboat is indeed reality and not a figment of his imagination.
● Pi: “You might think I lost hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt
much better.” (pg135)
● He compares this feeling to that of a tennis player playing a match where the moment
the player feels they have nothing to lose, relaxes and plays their best naturally.
● Pi is overcome with the feeling of thirst and this consumes his every thought.
● Pi: Look: Christ on the Cross died of suffocation, but His only complaint was that of thirst.
If thirst can be so taxing that even God Incarnate complains about it, imagine the effect
on a regular human. (pg136)
● Pi gathers his strength to search for some supplies on the boat, specifically water and
crawls to the middle of the boat.
● He describes this as “climbing the side of a volcano”(pg 136). This describes the intense
degree of weakness and dehydration that Pi is experiencing. This also describes the
danger that Pi is putting himself in by doing this.
● Pi does not see Richard Parker but can plainly see the hyena who was looking at Pi.
● Pi is no longer afraid of the hyena as that fear has been replaced with the fear of a
larger, more dangerous and more unpredictable animal.
● Pi becomes angry at the hyena calling it an “ugly, foul creature” (pg137)
● The hyena was not attacking Pi and Pi speculates that it may be because the hyena sees
him as an alpha male and that the hyena knows its place with the tiger around.
● Richard Parker’s presence saves Pi from the hyena: “jumping from the frying pan into the
fire.” (pg 138)
● Pi also concludes that the reason for Richard Parkers passivity is sedation and
seasickness as Pi’s father would often sedate a few animals to decrease their stress
levels.
● Pi quickly loses interest of this and focuses back on his desperation for water.
CHAPTER 50:
SUMMARY
● Pi examines the life boat and explains to the reader what the boat looks like
DETAILS
• The details Pi notices about the lifeboat can be seen as a vital and important to Pi's
survival
• Page 139 is where the colour orange is becoming more meaningful for Pi which
resembles the idea of survival and hope from Hinduism.
• The tarpaulin is half open and RP is hiding under the closed section and this can be seen
as that Pi’s primal part of himself is there and will be revealed as the story progresses.
The fact that RP is hiding away/not making his appearance shows how he has the
potential to show that primal side of himself but doesn’t yet.
Chapter 51:
SUMMARY:
● Pi goes into RP den and this is because he is overwhelmed by thirst and risks it to get
the supplies. Pi finds a locker filled with water and food and eats it frantically.
DETAILS:
● Pi eats the biscuit even though they contain animal fat, which shows that his primal
side is beginning to surface and by opening the tarpaulin, and revealing it shows the
same.
● Pi feared RP/that side of himself but at the same time he wouldn’t have survived
without him.
● Much like an animal he is on a mission to find food and is gone into survival mode.
● He only has 93 days of food and 124 days of water.
● Pi finds human necessities and is happy about it yet finding the supplies and eating
the biscuits with animal fat shows the first part of his civilized part of himself to go.
● Pi comes to the realization that to live he can't be overcome by fear and this is seen
when he goes into RP den to get the supplies.
Chapter 51:
SUMMARY:
● Pi lists everything in the boat.
DETAILS:
● He condenses all the elements that make up his ‘journey’ into a list.
● The list contains elements of survival, animals and religion/faith.
● By finding the locker of supplies gives him hope.
● 1 God = his idea that there is one God and all religions come from that one God.
CHAPTER 53 (PAGE 147 - 156)
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Pi gains strength (water, rest & food) and is able to realise situation he is in, and
recognises his seemingly inevitable death
He contemplates swimming away
Pi thinks that oncoming death with time to spare is worse than instant death as you can
see everything you’re losing — this reminds him of his family
However, the voice in his head motivates him and he puts his faith in God to survive
Words that Pi repeats: “I will” — this repetition shows Pi’s determination
Pi describes himself as one of the few who do not give up — “It may be nothing more
than life-hungry stupidity” — will to survive
Pi builds a raft out of fear of Richard Parker — using oars, life buoy and life jackets
Richard Parker kills the hyena without a fight, accepting his fate (which saves Pi’s life as
the hyena would’ve eaten him)
Pi personifies Richard Parker’s appearance: “formidable sideburns” & “stylish goatee”
He describes Richard Parker’s beauty and grace in a tone of admiration
Richard Parker has a noble, gentle side yet also has the power to destroy — reflects the
two sides of Pi in the second story
A rat appears and climbs onto Pi’s head.
Richard Parker approaches Pi and the rat. Pi prepares for death, but the tiger is
distracted by the softness of the tarpaulin and the rolling of the lifeboat.
Pi takes advantage of Richard Parkers moment of hesitation, grabbing the rat and
throwing it to the tiger (uses it as a diversion).
Richard Parker becomes satisfied, and also starts to each the hyena.
Pi also becomes aware of Richard Parker’s seasickness when he sees his vomit on the
floor.
By throwing the rat at Richard Parker and learning of his seasickness, Pi might have
come up with the idea of how to “tame” Richard Parker.
The raft worked on the water.
Raft: literally, Pi feels physically safe further away from the tiger, but he cannot cut the
rope as he can’t separate himself from the lifeboat. This suggests that Pi needs his
primal side in order to survive
Removing himself from the lifeboat allows him to retain his humanity / primal side
It was surrounded by sharks.
Pi faced the dilemma of possible death by sharks by staying on raft or possible death by
a tiger by climbing onto boat/
•
He felt vulnerable far away from boat, and preferred the boat — “Compared to the raft,
the lifeboat now seemed a haven of comfort and security” (page 155).
•
It began to rain, so Pi had to go to the boat to collect a blanket, the survival guide and a
rain catcher.
In the process, he slammed the door of the locker which disturbed Richard Parker
making Pi fearful.
•
CHAPTER 54
SUMMARY:
• Rains throughout the night, caught in a big storm
• Tries to collect water using the rain catcher
• As the storm intensifies, so does his anxiety
• Forces himself to drink rain
• Starts thinking about what he should do about Richard Parker
• Comes up with 6 plans, and decides on the last one: a war of attrition
• Tiny bit of hope ignites inside of him
THEMES:
• Survival: immediately thinks of catching the water when it starts raining, risks
being seen (and attacked) by Richard Parker in order to get the rain catcher
• Spends hours thinking of plans to deal with his imminent death, even though
being killed could be a way out of his “hell”
IMAGERY:
• The water that is washing over him during the storm could imply that it is
actually his despair and anxiety that is overwhelming him
CHAPTER 55
SUMMARY:
• Morning comes, even worse than the night because now he can see the pouring rain and
the towering waves
• Suddenly the storm stops and all traces of it vanish
• He remembers the words “plan number six”, but cannot remember what it means
• Sleeps and wakes up to a vast, “endless” ocean
• Begins to see that his raft that he thought was strong and protecting, is actually just “a
few sticks” held together by some ropes, which will not protect him against the power of
the ocean
• He sees the impossibility of surviving seems to reach its max
• As RP appears, he snaps back to focusing on the most important task: controlling RP
• “Fellow castaway” shows the link between Pi and RP
• Realises that plan 6 is not going to work and is left in a state of panic at the end of the
chapter
THEMES:
• SURVIVAL: The appearance of RP helps Pi to focus on one thing and not be
overwhelmed by the ocean around him and the inadequacy of his boat. This ultimately
helps him to survive, as he is not distracted by other, unavoidable factors
• Spends time focusing on his plans for survival, thinks through pros and cons and tries to
figure out the best way to live
CHAPTER 56
SUMMARY:
• Pi spends the chapter narrating his fear
• His fear involves him being stuck on a small lifeboat with a tiger, in the middle of the
ocean with diminishing food and water supplies
• He is terrified that fear will overpower him and destroy his chances of survival
IMAGERY:
• Personifies fear as an evil being that breaks your sprit
• Personifies the fight against fear as a war: fear is a strong army that defeats disbelief,
reason, the body, hope and trust
THEMES:
• SURVIVAL: working on a way to try and defeat fear. Pi will do this by facing his fear and
not letting it eat away at him
CHAPTER 57
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Richard Parker is sated, having drunk rainwater and feasted on the hyena. RP makes a
sound from his nostrils, sort of like a snort. Pi, recognises the sound: prusten. It is an
expression of "friendliness and harmless intentions” made by tigers. Domestic cats purr.
At this moment, Pi decides to try to tame Richard Parker. He uses a whistle and attempts
to prove his alpha status. “Plan Number Seven: Kim him Alive.”
Uses his imagination to create a circus scenario. Pi shouts across the water about the
“greatest show on earth,” standing and blowing the whistle, while rocking the boat, to
show his alpha status. He backs away and lies down in the bottom of the lifeboat.
Pi now has a reason to live — to tame Richard Parker and live peacefully with him — and
a constant distraction from the loss of his family and his own total isolation. Pi admits
that part of him is glad that Richard Parker is still alive, as he is a companion and a
distraction from grief and insanity. “It’s the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I
wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story.”
ACTIVE THEMES: Survival Boundaries
CHAPTER 58
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Pi looks at the British Royal Navy survival manual. Pi dries off and reads the survivor
manual he has found in the lifeboat locker.
He realizes that he needs to fish and create a shelter from the elements. It advises him
about what kinds of fish not to eat, to not drink urine, bird blood or sea water, and that
the horizon, when seen from near sea level, is only two and a half miles away.
Thirsty and hungry, he decides to go back to the lifeboat.
Pi resolves to continue with Richard Parker’s training regimen, to improve the raft, to
build himself a shelter, and to stop hoping for rescuers.
Pi now has work to keep him busy, which is his greatest defence against despair and
loneliness. Pi decides to stop hoping to be rescued, as watching the horizon is just a
waste of time and energy.
All these plans make him feel better. But then Pi looks out at the ocean, which seems
infinite. He realizes that he is totally alone, and he weeps.
ACTIVE THEMES Survival Theme
CHAPTER 59
o Pi (written by Martel) once again uses very factual and to the point writing to explain
and describe his situation→very thirsty and hungry
o Pi also notices that the lifeboat is rolling in a different direction→causes RP to become
seasick again→This will actually benefit Pi as this is how he trains RP and asserts his
dominance
o Since Pi has read the sea survival manual he understands the way in which the boat
should be in relation to the waves→”You see, waves and steady winds are usually
perpendicular to each other. So, if a boat is pushed by a wind but held back by a sea
anchor, it will turn until it offers the least resistance to the wind-that is, until it is in line
with it and at right angles to the waves, which makes for a front-to-back pitching that is
much more comfortable than a side-to-side rolling”
o Pi’s understanding of the direction the boat should be seems like an unimportant detail,
however he believes this was something that save himself and RP→THEME: The sheer
will of survival can overcome fear, depression and even reason (i.e.: he was
contemplating drinking his own urine)
o Things get raucous→COCKROACHES (last form of life he sees. This is actually quite
symbolic as these cockroaches, in all their awesomeness, are the last living things that Pi
sees→however, the cockroaches just suddenly throw themselves overboard and get
eaten by fish→so this is the complete opposite to Pi’s situation. He is trying to do
EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO SURVIVE and not get eaten by sea creatures or RP for
that matter.
o Pi climbs onto the lifeboat and discovers RP is underneath the tarpaulin where he has
urinated (this is RP way of marking his territory)→Pi notices this and devices a plan in
order to ensure his survival. Pi must mark his territory by pouring his urine over the
tarpaulin→asserts his territory
DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER→He marks his territory and this makes him feel good about
himself.
SYMBOLISM: Pi’s behaviour is starting to mimic RP (eg: urinating to mark his territory).
However, part of his humanity does resist→he contemplates drinking his urine (which is
what a hyena would do), but decides against it. (Page 172)
o This shows that Pi’s humanity is starting to somewhat dwindle/diminish, but he is still
able to preserve part of it.
o He eats some food rations→1/3 of the package→drinks old rain water: doesn’t really
care about the bacteria → only cares about surviving
o Something GOOD HAPPENS→Pi discovers solar still devices (cone and bag) that are in
the locker that turn salt water into fresh water through evaporation→He is doubtful
that they will work
o Starts working and improving his raft→fine attention to detail→This raft essentially
becomes a very important factor of his survival as he is in his own territory and not RP’s
o Describes the images of the ocean, sky and stars around him as he eats part of his food
rations (Pg. 174→second paragraph)→This could possibly be a COPING MECHANISM for
him, as he tries to find the beauty in the landscape and scenes around him, instead of
focusing on the stress and suffering he is enduring
o Pi’s busyness and RP peacefulness has drastically improved his mood of despair and
lifted his spirits
o Pi then hears some commotion and loud splashes around the boat→compares the sea
to a city (top of pg. 175)→very descriptive as this brings to light Pi’s gift of
STORYTELLING→this again could possibly be viewed as a COPING MECHANISM for Pi to
distract himself from his reality
o Chapter ends off on a happy note→Pi feels that “for the first time in five days” he has
felt a sense of calm that “glowed” inside him→Despite the harsh reality of his situation,
he as able to find some good→one could argue that this could possibly be because of his
strong sense of spirituality and religion that helped him
CHAPTER 60
SUMMARY
In this chapter Pi awakens during the night in wonder of the beauty and vastness of the
ocean and sky. He describes the “stars” that “shone with such fierce contained brilliance”.
One sees his appreciation for nature and the environment he’s in, despite his traumatic
situation. However, instead of feeling at peace, he feels overwhelmed by the setting and is
reminded of his suffering. He compares himself to Markandeya (from the Hindu religion),
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. Pi realizes his suffering is taking
place in the middle of an ocean, a vast, seemingly infinite setting. Instead of seeing himself
as the absolute centre of this setting, Pi believes the setting makes his suffering all the more
insignificant. Feeling inconsequential (insignificant) in the scheme of the universe, Pi prays
and goes back to sleep.
ANALYSIS
• Pi is beginning to see beyond his situation and starts to puts his situation into
perspective on a wider scale in terms of his surroundings
• The thing that scares Pi, is the fact that he’s terrified by his significantly small situation in
the big perspective of the overwhelming ‘big world’ that he floats upon
• Pi had not mentioned his faith for a few chapters but he finds comfort in recalling a story
from the Hindu faith and ends the chapter by reciting a Muslim prayer
• -Some suggest that Pi’s faith is linked to his will to live/hope (In the chapters where he
doesn’t mention faith, Pi is without hope)
• -The Hindu saint, Markandeya, was destined to die at the age of 16, (similar to Pi’s age)
However, his devotion to Shiva (God who creates universe, destroys earth) 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 to his faith 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.”
• One sees Pi’s will to live, however it differs from his ‘primal’ side. It comes out through
his faith
• Will to survive comes out very strong
CHAPTER 61
SUMMARY
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the next day Pi was feeling physically better even though he had not eaten a sufficient
amount in days
Pi attempts to catch fish in order to satisfy RP’s hunger (tries to find alternate sources of
food for RP so he doesn’t become the next meal)
-he uses the leather from one of his shoes as bait (for the bait and sink) although he is
unsuccessful
A turtle swims past the boat and Pi momentarily reaches to grab it (because he was
desperate and didn’t catch any fish) but realises what he was doing and pulls away in
“horror”
there is an voice inside Pi’s head (one can see it as his will to survive coming
out/savage/primal side fighting with him because Pi still has his humanity and old ways
with him)
The voice reminds him that if Pi does not overcome his past traditions (vegetarianism)
he will be the one eaten by the 450-pound tiger
the voice and “dialogue” is also very sarcastic and ‘rude’ to Pi to make him see the
severity of feeding the tiger
One starts to see that shift in Pi because it differs from his peaceful and passive
personality (this voice is determined, strong, forceful)
Pi is running out of ideas for his food situation with RP
He is smacked by something very hard and suspects it was RP finally coming to eat him
he somewhat accepts this fact “Go ahead Richard Parker, finish me off”
however it is a school of flying fish (ironic because he thought that the very thing that
hit him would kill him, but the fish were going to save his life and help his food
situation)
The fish were there because were swimming away from a larger dorado trying to eat it
the fish was fighting for their survival from the dorado but Pi and Richard Parker were
fighting for their own survival (eats the fish)
Pi also ends up catching the Dorado which could suggest and foreshadow that he will
overcome his own circumstances and survive (the thing that attacked the fish -fish
wanted to escape and survive from the dorado)
The difficulty came when Pi actually had to kill the fish
“A lifetime of peaceful vegetarianism stood between me and the wilful beheading
of a fish”
this is extremely difficult for Pi because again he still has much of his humanity left in
him
starts to see the primal side take over for survival and he cannot fight it off
“Tears flowing down my cheeks” (detailed description of him killing the fish in the
blanket)
-he accepts the fact that he is a killer
-he never forgets to pray for that fish
-compares himself to Cain (bible story Cain and Able, Cain murdered his brother)
However when he saw the fish it reminded him of the fish he saw in Pondicherry on a
commercial and standardized level (it lost its magic as part of the ‘scheme of creation’)
Overcoming that situation, Pi no longer has trouble killing
•
•
•
•
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he even realises the obscurity in the fact that he was weeping over killing the small fish,
now he had no trouble “vigorously” beating the dorado with a “hammerhead” and
feeling nothing (he even calls it “hunter’s pride)
he justifies his statement by saying that “A person can get used to anything, even
killing” (one can see Pi getting used to his primal side and no longer fights it off, he
accepts that he needs it in order to survive)
*Pi’s realization that he can quickly get used to anything is very important. In this way
Martel gradually lowers Pi’s humanity, as Pi gets used to new levels of savagery as his
desperation grows.
Pi was not even traumatised by the events but as he reflects he says he was rather
“excited”
he didn’t have to worry about the plight of his own situation because the fishing was a
good distraction
he eats his biscuits and water. Although Pi has accepted the primal side to him, he has
not fully let it take control yet (shreds of his humanity still intact)
*Someone also suggested that the colours of the fish remind Pi of the rainbow that Noah
saw after the storm on the Ark (shows how his faith has bettered his situation and things
were possible, with the release of the primal side)
THEMES: Survival and faith
CHAPTER 62
PLOT:
• Pi is having trouble sleeping, as he “slept in fits” (Page 185)
• He assesses Richard Parker’s situation – his degree of hunger and thirst – and concludes
that he “isn’t dangerously hungry” but “he would soon be thirsty” because there has
been little rain so his water supply must be running low.
• Pi goes on to say that there is another hot and rainless day ahead, and although there is
an abundance of water surrounding him, he could not drink any of it (salty). He is also
hesitant to share his water supplies with RP because water is scarce.
• He remembers that he had the solar sills to convert the salty water into fresh, drinkable
water. He is very doubtful of their ability to do this.
• He is pleasantly surprised when he brings up “a fat pouch.” Remembering the
instructions in the manual, he drains the remaining water from inside the cone.
• Pi tastes the water twice to make sure that it wasn’t salty, and afterwards he exclaims
“My sweet sea cow! You’ve produced, and how! What delicious milk.” In the Hindu faith,
the cow is a sacred animal, so by Pi referring to the solar sills as a “sweet sea cow,” he
worships God, as the holy animal has provided him with water to survive. We can clearly
see Pi’s devotion to God and his strong beliefs here. They also look like udders.
• After draining the pouch of every drop, he empties some into the fish bucket and adds a
bit of seawater to give RP.
• While putting the bucket on board for RP, Pi notices the gruesome state of the boat. He
describes the three dead carcasses and how they were piled on top of each other.
• Pi ties the bucket to the rings of the life raft, and throws two halves of fish towards RP to
attract his attention.
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•
After RP notices the bucket, he laps up the contents and it is soon empty.
Pi starts drawing parallels between a zoo enclosure and the boat, stating that both have
a sheltered area, a food stash, a lookout and a watering hole. This brings him comfort.
The day continues to climb in temperature and he continues fishing, without success. He
states that the only positive of the hot weather was the fact that the solar sills will
produce more drinking water.
In the ends, and Pi realises that it has been a week since the Tsimtsum sunk.
IMAGERY & SYMBOLISM:
• “I spied with my little eye a tiger.” (Page 186) – This is a game which was recommended
by the survival manual, and Pi dismissed it as boring, as fishing was a much better way to
pass time. Him playing this game could depict his sheer boredom, but it is said in a
playful manner. This means that he has not given up all hope, as he is still making
humorous comments.
THEMES:
• The will to survive – Pi is ecstatic when he discovers potable water, as he can continue
surviving on the raft. Without water he would have died.
• Pi’s religious beliefs – Pi refers to the solar sills as a “sweet sea cow,” which links into his
Hindu faith.
CHAPTER 63
PLOT:
• At the beginning of this chapter Pi mentions people and how long they survived out at
sea for, mentioning that he survived for 227 days (2 July 1977 – 14 February 1978) – the
longest time out of the lot. He states that the key thing to his survival was the fact that
he kept himself busy.
• Pi explains his daily routine, which is broken down into 5 times of the day. The only
constant that appears in every time period is his prayers. His ability to pray five times a
day for 227 days is remarkable, and it shows us that he really does have faith in God.
• In comparison, RP had no routine. He mostly just ate, drank and slept.
• Pi goes on to say that he gave up on trying to spot ships.
• He also states that he “made a point of forgetting” to keep track of time. Pi tells the
reader that instead of remembering days, he remembers “events, encounters and
routines,” but his “memories come in a jumble” so he isn’t able to put them in order.
“Time is an illusion that only makes us pant.”
THEMES:
• Religion
o Pi says prayers five times every day, showing his devotion to religion to the
reader. It also tells us that he remains the same person from Part 1, and from
his childhood (being curious and inquisitive in religion).
• The will to survive
o Pi has a structured routine that he follows daily, which enables him to keep
himself busy. He states earlier on that being busy is an essential part of
survival.
CHAPTER 64
PLOT:
• Pi’s clothes start to disintegrate over time due to the constant exposure to the wind,
sun and water.
• Due to his constantly wet body, he develops boils, which pop and make his skin
extremely sensitive. These are mostly located on his backside.
o It is ironic that he refers to his clothing becoming “gauze thin” because he
develops boils due to exposure to the elements, and gauze is placed over
sores to heal them. In this way his clothes cause the boils instead of healing
them.
• He lived naked for months, so his human self disappears with the disintegration of
his clothing.
THEMES:
• Suffering
o Pi has to deal with physically challenging encounters (e.g. His boils) as well as
emotional challenges (e.g. The fact that he is an orphan)
o The boils could represent the physical manifestation of his internal suffering.
CHAPTER 65
Pi expresses his struggle in trying to understand the complicated sea navigation manual due
to his very limited knowledge of sea currents, winds and stars. He states that the stars’
importance to him was aesthetic and spiritual, but not geographical. After a while, Pi
realizes navigation would be useless anyway, as he did not know where to go or have
control of where he was going, so he gave up his efforts of learning how to navigate.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
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•
Comes to terms with having no control of where he was going.
Does not lose hope due to inability to navigate.
IMAGERY / SYMBOLISM:
•
•
Pi tells us that the stars gave him a perspective of his “smallness” and a “feeling of
wonder.” He states that the stars gave him direction in a spiritual sense, but not in a
geographical sense.
The winds and currents controlling his movements create an image of helplessness,
but also freedom? Paradoxical?
THEMES:
• Survival and resilience
CHAPTER 66
Pi provides detailed explanations about how he fishes in different and even creative ways,
to catch different fish and turtles.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: He gains experience in fishing, which, along with increased
desperation, leads to more success. His increased desperation also encourages his primal
qualities become more and more prominent, while the vegetarian part of him gets set aside.
Pi states: “I descended to a level of savagery I never imagined possible.”
“The hours were long, the fish were small, and Richard Parker was forever hungry.” This is
an example of Pi’s determination and dedication to survive. Although he is becoming weak
and exhausted, he endures hard work and pain, and manages to maintain concentration in
order to feed himself and Richard Parker.
IMAGERY / SYMBOLISM:
•
•
Vivid descriptions of fishing equipment and his fishing methods.
When describing his catching of turtles, Pi states that the task that “demanded feats of
strength worthy of Hanuman.” (Hanuman is a half monkey, half man Hindu God,
portrayed as being very strong, powerful and brave). This shows the extent to which Pi
exerted himself.
THEMES:
•
Perseverance and mental strength. It would have been easy for Pi to let lethargy
overcome him, and to stop his exhausting efforts to survive.
CHAPTER 67
PLOT: Pi mentions the sea life that has grown on the underside of his raft. He snacks on the
animal life (mainly the crabs as they taste the best out of all of them) that have come to live
amongst the algae on the raft. The hull of the lifeboat also has life attached to it and Pi uses
the barnacles as a source of fluid and also as bait. He also explains how slow and boring his
days can sometimes be.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Although this chapter is mostly just explaining the sea life on
the lifeboat and raft, the way Pi explains how he eats the small sea animals as snacks
without going into the details of how he kills and eats them shows character development.
He is no longer concerned with or impacted by the killing of animals for food and survival.
He has become used to it and more primal. Pi seems to have accepted his circumstances
and has fallen into habitual activities and finds ways to distract himself. By seeing the
animals and plants living under the boat as a village one is still able to see that Pi entertains
and calms himself with his imagination.
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM: This chapter helps to show the length of time that Pi has spent on
this raft as one usually associates the growth of barnacles, for example, as something that
occurs on ships that spend a very long time travelling in the ocean. He says the sea life living
below him on his raft “went about with the civility of angels” this links with the theme of
religion. He uses this image to help with his anxiety as he feels comforted when observing
them go about life.
CHAPTER 68
PLOT: This chapter comes as a contrast (showing one of Pi’s mood swings) to the previous
chapter as Pi now explains how he hardly gets much sleep other than short periods of light
sleep because of how anxious he is. He then proceeds to explain how Richard Parker has
adapted to life on the boat and how he naps. There is a boundary between their two
experiences.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: pi seems to be envious of how relaxed Richard parker can
sometimes look. There seems to be a peacefulness in the way Richard parker behaves in
this chapter. Pi has become used to this lack of deep sleep and has been able to get by on
this without feeling incredibly exhausted. Pi’s anxiety seems slightly out of place as Richard
parker is described as quite peaceful which should put pi slightly at ease.
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM: The explanation of how Pi is sleeping and the way Richard parker
sleeps seems to create a divide between life on the life boat versus life on the life raft.
Richard Parker clearly seems to have the better option and the upper hand.
CHAPTER 69
PLOT: Pi explains in this chapter that he has used up most if not all of his flares and how by
the end of this he has lost hope of ever being found, realising that the only way he’d live
was if he found land himself. He then describes that the flares, once used, smelt like cumin.
The cumin made him imagine back home Pondicherry. Richard Parker is scared of the flares
being fired. Pi then explains how when the flares go off the light produced allows him to see
the fish beneath him.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Pi has realised that he is now the only one in control of his
survival, no one will be able to find him, further implying the theme of survival. Pi has
followed through with his plan of not waiting for rescuers, mentioned in chapter 57 Pi’s
imagination helps bring him away from the feeling of hopelessness and remind him of a life
worth living for as he starts to imagine his home in India whenever a flare is used up. He still
finds a positive aspect during a tough time
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM: The idea of a school of fish being around the raft, visible when Pi
releases a flare, could create the idea that although Pi is losing hope and resources and will
need to fend for himself there is abundant sea life that he could eat if he manages to catch
them. Although he feels like he might not survive the sea is actually a place full of life.
CHAPTER 70 AND 71
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM:
• The turtle
• The whistle
THEMES:
• The will to live/ determination
• Basic Survival
• Boundaries
CHAPTER 70:
Chapter 70 starts with Pi describing how he killed his first hawksbill sea turtle. It was too
large and heavy to deal with on the raft, so he has to pull it onto the tarpaulin of the
lifeboat. Richard Parker growls but allows it as the weather was extremely hot. The survival
manual had suggested that turtle blood was good to drink “good, nutritious, salt free drink”
promised by the survival manual. So, Pi goes about the gruesome and difficult business of
butchering the turtle. He drinks all the turtle’s blood and throws the rest to Richard Parker.
Pi decides that he needs to “carve out” more territory for himself and train Richard Parker
to allow him on the lifeboat more often.
As Pi and Richard Parker move physically closer – with Pi deciding to live on the lifeboat
more in case he should have to venture onto the tiger’s territory in rough weather – Martel
emphasizes in another way that Pi becomes more animal- as he has this constant quest for
survival. He has quickly gone from weeping over a flying fish to butchering and drinking all
the blood from a sea turtle.
Pi describes how his fishing ability improved as time passed. He started to use his cargo net
as a lure, which attracted fish to his raft. He also realized it was easy to catch turtles,
although not at all easy to haul them aboard. The underside of the raft became a small sea
community, which Pi used for snacks and as something to watch to calm his nerves.
The first time that Pi kills a sea turtle, it is because the survival manual recommends their
blood for drinking. Richard Parker has started to tolerate Pi on the tarpaulin when it is hot
out, but Pi is tired of having to fear him, and decides it is time to impose himself and carve
out his own territory.
He adjusts to killing surprisingly quickly—the flying fish that he very reluctantly and very
unhappily kills to use as bait catches him a dorado, which he beats to death. He eventually is
driven to kill a sea turtle, which he finds to be wonderful and one of his favourite foods.
CHAPTER 71:
The training of Richard Parker is order to spend more time on the life boat. PI dominates
Richard Parker mentally as shown by him staring Richard Parker down. Pi felt power as
Richard Parker depended on him for survival. Pi longs for comfort and realizes that without
him being able to stay on the life boat, he would die.
Pi presents a list of training suggestions for taming a wild animal at sea. He suggests using a
sea anchor to make the lifeboat roll in the way that makes (Richard Parker) feel seasick.
Then one should blow a whistle furiously and stomp, and when the animal steps onto your
new territory, blow the whistle more and makes the lifeboat roll. The animal will then
associate its nausea with the sound of the whistle. Pi suggests making the boat roll until the
animal is vomiting, but then to stop. He says to repeat this routine until the animal learns to
retreat at the whistle.
The lifeboat now becomes a sort of zoo enclosure or tiger cage, and Pi adapts his training
methods to this environment. The essentials of animal taming that he outlined before are
still the same, though – he shows confidence and takes dominative action, and repeats the
lesson over and over until the animal learns.
As Pi grows more carnivorous, he comes to realize that he must tame Richard Parker. He
begins the training that he has devised so that he can have his own territory on the lifeboat
and feel relatively safe there. Although it is not easy and is highly dangerous, he eventually
manages to mark out his own territory and exert a certain amount of dominance over
Richard Parker.
The whistle becomes very important in chapter 71 as it again symbolises survival and shows
that without the whistle he wouldn’t be able to train Richard parker.
The danger of loneliness also rears its head. Pi’s isolation is so extreme that he finds comfort
in the sea-life communities that come to grow around his raft. Part of Pi’s desire to train,
rather than kill, Richard Parker comes from his deep loneliness—although Richard Parker is
not much of a companion, he distracts Pi from his greater troubles, and in this takes on a
great importance.
CHAPTER 72
● Shield of turtle shell - “do soldiers ever get to choose their ordnance?” (weapon) - Pi
considers himself a soldier in a battle/war against Richard Parker
● “vomited a short guttural roar and charged…” - grotesque image of aggression coming
from within RP
● “Beside myself with terror” - fear of RP + water; “frantic strokes” - Pi is in a crazed and
erratic state of mind
● “Trembling” - shaken and unsettled by events - result of adrenaline during battle with
RP
● Pi catches another turtle and makes another shield after RP knocks him and his shield
overboard. He attempts again to train RP, determined to succeed. (Note Pi leaves out all
details of killing the turtles to get their shells - perhaps this is his way of not
acknowledging the full act going against his vegetarian beliefs in his own mind) &
despite previously not wanting to eat the turtles, he puts aside his moral vegetarianism
in order to survive - has developed and no longer is too affected
● Pi refers to continuing to try and tame RP and says it was “... not an act of insanity or a
covert suicide attempt, but a simple necessity..” - Pi feels he has to do this. He sees only
two options:
○ 1. tame RP and succeed in showing him who is in charge of the lifeboat by
asserting his dominance
○ 2. die when RP wants to come aboard one day
● Pi refers to taming RP as his “apprenticeship” - he sees this as his job/skill to develop and
master
● Pi mentions how tigers and all animals “do not favour violence” to settle a score - when
they do get violent/fight, they do so with the intent to kill and the acceptance that they
may be killed (all or nothing; they will fight to the death)
● Pi attempted 4 times with 4 different shields (4 turtles killed) - shows he was not
successful in training RP
● Pi says he was “terrified before, during and after” the interaction with RP - rush of
adrenalin and fear
● Pi eventually learns RP signals (all tigers give warning if they want to attack) - ears, eyes,
whiskers, teeth, tail, throat- he learned how to approach RP (in this way he adapted)
● Turn:: “then I made my point…” - after learning and having RP make his point, Pi takes
charge and turns the situation in his own favour and now uses a fifth shield which
remains for the rest of RP’s training - their relationship has developed
● The instinct and will to survive drove Pi to continue to attempt to train RP despite the
great risk involved
Nausea = pi’s weapon (rocking boat + whistle sound)
CHAPTER 73
● Pi wishes desperately for a book - a long “never-ending story” to occupy and distract
him - to satisfy this intense longing for a story he creates his own (2nd story = made
up story of tiger etc)
● (Now addressing author) Found bible in Canadian hotel room - wept - overwhelmed
because his long-lasting desire for a book has been met and he is now comforted by
holy scripture and God - he finds salvation
● Pi sent a contribution to Gideon's (the people who supply the Bibles to hotels) as
finding the Bible offered him such salvation and comfort - he encouraged them to
continue and include other sacred writings (reference to his multiple religions) to
offer salvation to others too.
● Pi says he “cannot think of a better way to spread the faith”- not by cohesion or
commandment but by the simple book of scripture greeting you
● On the boat he reread the survival manual to keep him occupy and attempt to fulfill
wish for book to read. He wrote diaries - very small writing so as not to run out of
paper
○ Time in his diary is captured not as on a calendar but several days or weeks
on a page - could suggest time is merged on the lifeboat and on the pages as
the days don't have any distinction.
○ Pi says he writes value practical things - keeping himself occupied.
THEMES of storytelling, perseverance, survival, and
CHAPTER 74
This chapter is all about Pi and his connection to religion.
•
(theme- religion) Pi practices his different religious rituals
• Solitary masses without priests or communion hosts
• Darshan without murits
• Pujas with turtle meat for prasad
• Acts of devotion to Allah without knowing where Mecca was
•
These religious rituals brought him comfort but they were still difficult as having “Faith
in God is an opening up” and this requires trust in God. However Pi does feel angry and
alone and feel like his heart would sink to the bottom of the ocean.
(theme-religion) Pi says many things aloud in an attempt to lift his spirits. He shouts
“This is Gods Hat”, “this is Gods Attire”, “this is Gods Cat” and many others. He says this
to remind himself of his devotion to his religions.
His faith in God does falter as he says that Gods hat and attire are unravelling and falling
apart, Gods cat (Richard Parker) is in danger, Gods ark is a jail and Gods ear wasn’t
listening.
Pi has another mood swing from highly praising God to total despair.
o Felt like he was in hell
But God will always remain.
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CHAPTER 75
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Pi estimated that the day in this chapter was his mothers birthday
In Chapter 63, Pi says he didn’t count days or months but he is aware that today is
approximately his mothers birthday. This shows that he is actually aware of the time and
day.
CHAPTER 76
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Pi describes the task of removing Richard Parkers faeces- which he describes as a “risky
operation”
Pi’s knowledge of zoo’s and animal behaviour is crucial in this chapter as he knows that
leaving faeces in an animals enclosure will invite parasites and the opportunity for the
animal to eat them and become ill.
Pi notes that Richard Parker becomes constipated and so his task of clearing the faeces
only occurred once a month.
o The first time that Richard Parker relieved himself- he tried to hide it
o This is important as hiding displaying faeces is a sign of submission.
o Pi picks up the faeces and smells them all while keeping eye contact with Richard
Parker. Pi knows that what is psychological bullying to get the upper hand as the
Super- alpha male in the boat. This works as Richard Parker doesn’t stare back at
him.
At the end of the chapter Pi comments on the fact that he too is constipated and
describes his monthly relieving is a long-drawn and painful event that left him
exhausted.
CHAPTER 77:
SUMMARY: Pi’s body starts to deteriorate from starvation once the biscuits run out and he
out of desperation he tries to eat Richard Parker’s feces.
Pi reduces his rationing of biscuits to two biscuits every 8 hours. Due to his starvation, he
begins to obsessively fantasize about Indian food.
• “I was continuously hungry. I thought about food obsessively.”
• “My fantasy meal grew to be the size of India.”
His fantasy meal: (he uses cities of India as a reference to portion sizes)
• Dhal soup
• Hot chapattis
• Rice
• Sambars
• Ice cream
• They are all fresh and plentiful, the oven and frying pan is at the perfect temperature,
proportions bang on, nothing ever burnt or undercooked, too hot or too cold.
• Everything is perfect.
This obsession with food can be seen manifesting in his later life, as the author has
previously described Pi’s craftiness with his meals.
Pi’s appetite increases and his view on raw fish and turtles change. He begins to eat them
without the thought of the animal’s liveliness and sees these sea animals as a “great
delicacy” and a “treat”. Turtles became his favourite dish.
Pi reflects on how it is strange how he once looked upon turtles as such a magnificent dish,
however, to him, it was. He describes how nothing can beat the taste of each element of a
turtle. Pi even ate contents of a turtle’s stomach.
• “It seems impossible to imagine that there was a time when I looked upon a live sea
turtle as a ten-course meal of great delicacy, a blessed respite from fish.”
• “No cardamom payasam I ever tasted was as sweet or as rich as creamy turtle eggs
or curled turtle fat.”
• “I was at the mercy of turtle meat and smiles.”
How turtle shells were handy to Pi: “I couldn’t have done without them.”
• Served as shields
• Cutting boards for fish
• Bowls for mixing good
• Protection from the sun (he lay beneath them)
By the time the biscuits were finished, Pi could eat anything except salt.
“My body developed a revulsion for salt that I still experience to this day.”
Before his system hadn’t learned to live with hunger, Pi tried to eat Richard Parker’s feces.
He watered the ball, but couldn’t eat it because he realized there was no nutrition
embedded in it.
• “Right away I had food in mind, not animal hygiene.”
• “I felt deep gratitude towards Richard Parker.”
THEMES: Survival
→ Pi, once a vegetarian, now comes to see fish and turtles as delicacies. His will to survive
outweighs his consciousness and even when reflecting, he does not seem to feel guilty at
this stage as he understood it helped him survive.
→ Similarly, Pi’s will to live outweighs his hygiene, as he was disappointed when the feces
provided nothing for him.
IMAGERY/SYMBOLISM: the sea animals
→ Flying fish: emotional freedom (could this symbolize how his emotions towards animals
have changed?)
→ Dorado: According to a website, “Martel uses the dorado to symbolize the strength hope
brings him using of Pi’s faith: Christianity.”
→ Sea turtle: Patience, wisdom, endurance and good luck. Pi was patient on the
lifeboat, had high endurance, used his wisdom to survive and luck came to him
CHAPTER 78
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In this chapter Pi launches into an analysis of the castaway’s loneliness. In the
beginning of the chapter he describes the changing skies and seas he faces
Which leads to extreme emotions and discussion of boredom and terror; the two
opposites Pi often feels simultaneously
Pi describes his life as “a game with few pieces”
He is a victim of contradictions, his life as a castaway is a life of opposites. EXAMPLE
→ He wishes to be wet when it is hot but wishes to be dry when it rains.
His name is mathematical circle
He does not care anymore.
Life on a life boat isn’t much of a life. He doesn’t have any more pieces left. It is an
end of a game, the stakes are high. Fighting against the sea, sky and own feelings.
You do an away with certain moral and values
CHAPTER 79:
● Chapter basically deals with his
interaction with sharks
● Very detailed descriptions of
sharks
● He says “they never really
troubled us” → shows that he
views him and RP as a team now.
● He says the sharks were like
“curmudgeonly (bad- tempered)
old friends” → highlights that Pi
has sunk deep into such a large
extent of loneliness that he is
willing to call sharks his
companions
● Uses adjectives such as “surprising brilliance” and “shimmered beautifully” to describe
sharks which have positive connotations but also adjectives such as “frightening” which
has negative connotations
● Compares their fins to war banners → fins evoke same nervous reaction as an
approaching enemy team
● Says that sharks made being in the water feel like you were trespassing on a property
that has a sign saying beware of the dog→ shows how uncomfortable Pi feels in the
water + hesitation to go on the water
● Pi describes how he catches his first shark impulsively, swings shark right onto RP’s
territory
● He says he can report to zoologists that a tiger uses its paws to strike at a shark not its
jaws
● Pi says that each blow of RP’s would break every bone in human, break furniture into a
hundred splinters or more, and turn part of a house into rubble → shows how powerful
he is
● This was the one time that he realised RP was not perfect at killing. RP puts his paws in
the shark's mouth, shark closes his mouth. → This reminds Pi that the tiger can make
mistakes, and it isn’t a perfect creature.
● RP lets out a full roar. Pi felt a blast of hot air hit his body. The air visible shook, like on a
road on a hot day, quavering. Pi can easily imagine a ship's watch 150 miles away
reporting he heard a cat's meow from three o' clock. He felt the roar in his gut for days.
But a shark is conventionally deaf, so all he feels is a vibration → RP does not know
about the marine life (like Pi only knows a lot about the zoo)
● The shark turns into a butchered mess→ It is interesting enough because at the
beginning of the chapter, he describes a mako as a beautiful fish with indigo coloured
skin, but at the end, one is a bloody mess.
● RP’s paws were damaged because the sharks skin is like sandpaper, with minute
tubercles
● Pi is upset that the shark does have a fluidy vertebrae, but he likes the crunchy
cartilage→ eating cartilage must be something so despicable to Pi, shows how far he has
come in order to survive
● Says he cuts heads off baby with hatchets like turtles and stabs their eyes in→ shows
how he has adapted, he shows no remorse like he did for the first fish he killed.
Describes killing in a matter of fact style
● Pups → defenceless
CHAPTER 80
The chapter starts off with Pi and Richard Parker in the middle of a storm of flying fish.
Richard Parker was actively swatting at them while Pi hid behind a turtle shell. Suddenly a
huge dorado fish jumps into the boat while trying to catch the flying fish. Pi picks up the fish,
rejoicing thanking “Matsya” who was an earthly form of the god Vinshnu, but then he
notices Richard Parker is no longer interested in the flying fish but rather with the fish in Pi’s
hand. He was in a crouched position meaning he was about to pounce. Pi thought that this
was going to be the end, he didn't even have time to blow his whistle. In a moment of
insanity brought on by hunger - where food was bigger than survival at this point - Pi looked
Richard Parker straight in the eyes. Any zookeeper will tell you that a tiger will not attack
until its victims looks away or turns its head. The stare lasted for a couple of seconds both
fighting for authority and status but then Richard Parker licked his nose and averted his
gaze. Pi had won. From that time on he spent more time on the lifeboat, even going so far
as to sleep on the tarpaulin with his back to Richard Parker.
Pi shows his confidence in this chapter when he catches the dorado, Richard Parker expects
him to hand over his food, but Pi stands his ground because he is so desperate for the fish
himself. This was a good thing because it established Pi as the one with the power, but it
could have ended horribly.
THEME of survival and boundaries: Pi’s acceptance of inevitable death leads him to take a
rash action that ends up saving him from Richard Parker.
CHAPTER 81
In thinking back Pi admits that his survival is hard to believe, but he explains how he
maintained his dominance over Richard Parker. He attributes his survival with Richard
Parker to two things, Richard Parker's tendency toward seasickness and the fact that Pi
provided all his food and water. Richard Parker was used to this kind of treatment at the
zoo. He would not have survived had it not been for Pi providing for him. These actions
gifted Pi with the power over him. But the only proof of Pi’s story is that he lived to tell it.
In this chapter, Pi explains how his survival depended on gaining power. As we read at the
beginning of the book, gaining power was about conquering his will and finding that he had
a strong will to live. To live, he had to gain power over the tiger, which he has been able to
do by making the tiger dependent on him.
THEME of survival: Earlier on in the book Pi already addressed the validity of his story by
explaining his childhood at the zoo and the different ways he knows to train animals, but
now he admits that many people might doubt him about his surviving the Pacific with a
tiger.
CHAPTER 82:
Pi gathers extra water from rain and the solar stills in bags, and he worries constantly that
the bags will break. He adds seawater to Richard Parker’s water, but even so they both
barely survive. Whenever Pi catches food he always gives the tiger most of it. In his hunger
Pi starts eating his food while it is still alive, and one day he notices that he is wolfing down
the meat in the same manner as Richard Parker.
“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 221
Pi becomes more beast-like. Much more like Richard Parker.
CHAPTER 83:
One day a huge storm comes and the waves turn into mountains. Pi is forced to leave the
raft for the lifeboat, and he unrolls the tarpaulin and gets under it, lying flat on the bench
farthest from Richard Parker. He gradually closes the tarpaulin over both himself and the
tiger, as the life boat rides the huge waves with steep inclines and declines. Waves crash
onto the tarpaulin and pummel Pi’s body. The storm lasts for a day and a night.
At dawn the storm has subsided and Pi emerges. He notices that the raft has disappeared,
leaving only two oars and a life jacket, and he is devastated by this. None of Pi’s water bags
split, and Richard Parker is disgruntled but alive. Pi mends the torn tarpaulin, and then bails
the water out of the boat and finds his precious orange training whistle.
• Despite Pi’s best efforts and his survival equipment, he is still totally at the mercy of
nature. The storm is without reason or mercy, and for Pi it is a great setback. The loss
of the raft means that Pi must truly enforce his territory on the lifeboat.
CHAPTER 84
● Pi feels splashes from either side of the boat while going in and out of sleeping and
daydreaming
● He discovers this is a whale right under and next to the boat
● Pi anthropomorphised the whale and other whales naming them Tomphoo,
Mumphoo and Stimphoo
● He is hoping they communicate to help him be rescued by communicating with one
another
● Also describes beautiful and seemingly happy dolphins but still considered eating
them but only did not because they never got close to the gaff and were too big and
strong
● he discloses that he saw 6 birds in total, twice being an albatross. He looked at them
in awe and wonder. Appreciating God’s creation.
● Anthropomorphised and religious connection as he thought of the birds as angels
who were announcing nearby land
● He tries to catch a short tailed shearwater but was unsuccessful and let go of the bait
and simply flew away
● He caught one bird, a masked booby which was large and snow white and Pi
described this bird as fearless
● Pi offers this bird a piece of a dorado and the bird pecks at it from the palm of its
hand
● Abruptly Pi breaks its neck and plucks its feathers off but its skin came off with it
making Pi tear the bird apart.
● He is disappointed at the lack of meat the bird has and in comparison to dorado flesh
says they are very similar
● Gory. Eats every part of the bird, even the birds last meal being small fish. This shows
his desperation and savagery
● he gives the left overs to RP consisting of feathers and bone
● days later feathers are still seen floating
● the birds did not announce land
CHAPTER 85:
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Pi notices lighting and distant thunder and compares the day which is so dark to be like
night.
Pi describes the lightning as being a “great celestial tree” which reiterates his faith and
religion.
Pi has a different reaction the lightning compared to Richard Parker. Richard Parker is
lying flat on the floor of the boat. His limbs spared out and Pi notices that he is
trembling. Pi sees the lightning has something that pulls him out of his “limited mortal
ways” and puts him in a state of “exalted wonder” which means he is extremely happy.
This can once again been seen that when he talks about faith and religion, with the
“celestial tree”, he has a sense of hope.
“Everything was either pure white light or pure black shadow” this statement can be
compared to Pi who goes through days where he has immense hope and others he
retreats into himself and has no hope whatsoever.
He explains how the lighting appeared so quickly but vanished just as fast which once
again a parallel can be draw with his hope. How his hope can disappear just as quickly as
it appeared.
Pi brings his religion and faith back into the equation by saying “Praise be to Allah, Lord
of All Worlds, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Ruler of Judgement Day!” and the reason
he could be chosen Allah in this situation because lightning is a natural phenomenon and
can be seen as miraculous. In the beginning of the novel Pi states how in the Muslim
faith simple things within nature is seen as being a miracle.
•
Pi states that one of the few times during this ordeal he has felt genuine happiness when
he had the close encounter with electrocution and third degree burns.
CHAPTER 86:
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The chapter starts off with Pi shouted “Richard Parker, a ship!” which overwhelms him
with happiness because it gives him a sense of hope of being rescued and surviving this
ordeal. He says that by seeing the ship “all hurt and frustration fell away and he
positively blazed with joy”
He exerts his happiness but the logic sets in when he begins to start questioning what he
should do if the ship passed too far away to see him and whether or not he should
launch a flare or not in order for them to see him.
His religion is brought up again when he begins to pray and thanking God, “Oh I thank
you, Lord Ganesha! Blessed be you in all your manifestations, Allah-Brahman!”
Pi’s hope comes out when he begins to wonder whether his family is still alive and
survived the sinking of the Tsimstum and had made it to Canada and were waiting for
news about him. He then goes on to thinking about what his house looks like in
Winnipeg and what spices grow there and what his courtyard may look like.
“There’s no peace like a peace of an inner courtyard on a sunny day” and this can link to
his life boat and how to him it has become his home and how the ocean is his “little”
courtyard.
The whole time the oil tanker had been coming right for Pi’s lifeboat and he then began
to question when it was going to stop/turn sharply but then he comes to the realization
that the ship was in fact bearing down on them. Pi begins to row out the way of the ship
after questioning whether to use a flare or not but instead rows out the way of
oncoming ship.
Pi decides to fire a flare but instead of it catching the attention of the crew on the ship it
ricocheted off the side of the ship because he aimed it poorly.
It can been seen that Pi has been out of civilisation for so long that the sound of the ship
was awesome and stunned him into silence because of its mechanical noises and he is so
used to the natural sounds of the ocean.
The ship doesn’t notice Pi in the lifeboat and sails off into the horizon and just becomes
a speck to Pi. This fills Pi with the emotions of “longing, hurt, anguish and loneliness”.
Richard Parker was still looking in the direction of the ship in the distance but he doesn’t
know what happened, all he knows is that “something stressful and momentous had just
happened” but it was out the limits of his understanding.
Richard Parker just settles down again and took another nap and resumes back into the
everyday life of being a drift at sea.
CHAPTER 87 (PAGE 233)
SUMMARY
Pi develops a method of slightly asphyxiating himself (preventing sufficient oxygen from
entering his lungs). He takes a piece of cloth, called his “dream rag”, wets it with seawater,
and drapes it over his face as he rests. This cloth, along with his current state allows him to
easily fall into a pleasant daze. He has strange thoughts and dreams in this meditative state,
and time seems to pass by more swiftly. His feelings also improve after the daze.
ANALYSIS
• This shows Pi’s strong desire to escape his reality
• The dream rag shows Pi’s interest in storytelling and how he chooses a pleasant fiction
over a cruel & boring reality
o The daze he experiences may link back to his religion which is the
“pleasant fiction”, as opposed to a having no religion which is a “cruel & boring
reality”
CHAPTER 88 (PAGE 233 - 234)
SUMMARY:
The lifeboat drifts into a mass of floating trash surrounded by yellow foam. Pi picks
out an empty wine bottle. There is a refrigerator, but all the food inside is rotten. Pi
writes a message about his situation, seals it in the bottle, and throws it back into
the water.
ANALYSIS
• Pi gets a sign from humanity, but it is only trash and waste
• Pi attempts to communicate with the outside world. This as well as still believing his
family is alive shows he still has hope (last paragraphs page 234)
• The rotten lamb can be symbolic of Pi, who is no longer innocent like a lamb, but
rotten due to the killer he has become
Chapter 89
•
Everything on the boat begins to fall apart and Pi and Richard Parker’s wellbeing is
deteriorating
Shows how Pi’s hopes for survival is dwindling, as all of the orange items become
“whitish orange”, not the same desire for survival as there once was
Both are starving and dying due to the heat and lack of food and water
Makes more use of his dream rag
Pi begins to sleep a lot, starts imitating Richard Parker more and more, becoming very
animalistic
Last diary entry, he says he is going to die, still survives much longer
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Chapter 90 PART A
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Pi realises that Richard Parker has gone blind after he throws him half a dorado and
it hits RP in the face
Pi begins to feel his eyes stinging, and goes completely blind the next day
Once he loses his sight, his other senses increase in intensity and his extreme
suffering begins
He comes to the conclusion that he can no longer take care of RP, feels more regret
in RP’s death than he does in his own
He finishes his water supply and says goodbye to RP
•
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As he is waiting for his death, he hears a voice, but believes he is hallucinating
He cannot see the voice, due to his blindness, but carries on talking to this voice,
which has a heavy, weary rasp
The two start talking about food and all the things Pi would eat if he was in India
Pi’s list is completely vegetarian, but as the other voice begins to speak, it lists many
meat based foods, but mainly ones made from the scraps of the animal, including
the tongue, stomach and brains
Pi asks the voice whether it would eat a carrot, and this is when Pi decides that this
voice is RP
He asks if the voice has ever killed a man, to which it replies yes, a man and a woman
This shows the link between the voice and the French cook, who killed the Thai sailor
and Pi’s mother, Gita
CHAPTER 90 PART B
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Physical blindness = moral blindness
Pi realizes that the voice has a French accent, which doesn’t make sense because
Richard Parker is an Indian tiger. He realizes that it doesn’t belong to Richard Parker at
all, but instead to another castaway. The voice disappears for a while and Pi falls into a
daze.
The man says that he has no food either, and reveals that he too is blind. They both
start weeping. Pi offers to tell the man a story, but the man says he has no use for it.
Unlike Pi, the castaway rejects hearing a story to distract himself from reality.
The castaway finally asks for Pi’s story, which is about a banana falling to the ground and
making someone feel better. Pi’s “story” is hardly a story at all. It shows that in his state
the ideas of fresh fruit and genuine happiness seem like outlandish fantasies.
Pi’s conversation with the castaway rambles on and implies that Pi is hallucinating the
whole thing — even within the context of the possibly-fictional animal story.
The man wants to trade with Pi, and offers his leather boot. He describes it in great
detail but then admits that there is no boot after all, as he ate it long ago. Pi paddles his
boat towards the castaway’s, and finally they join their boats with a rope.
Man suddenly tries to kill Pi, threatening to eat his flesh. Richard Parker kills him. Pi is
traumatized by the castaway’s dying scream, and the “terrible cost” of Richard Parker,
which was that Pi should live at the expense of another man’s life. Pi says that
something died in him then that has never come back.
This moment is especially pitiful if Richard Parker is in fact an aspect of Pi himself. The
“terrible cost” of indulging this bestial part of his soul is that he is willing to kill others to
save his own life. If the human story is the true one, then this scene could be Pi
declaring his guilt over the cook’s death without actually naming the deed. The story
could be one of Pi reliving his sublimated guilt.
The direct interactions in these chapters allow Pi to reassert his vegetarianism, his
morality, and his need for affection and companionship.
CHAPTER 91
Very short chapter
BASICALLY…
• Pi climbs onto the fellow castaway’s boat→refers to it as “climbing aboard my
brother’s boat” (pg. 249)→One could say that Pi is yearning for a human connection,
something he has been deprived of for an extremely long time.
• “Brother”→loving image of kindliness→contrast to the violence, pain and savagery he
has been surrounded by
• His vision slowly returns, as this happens he realizes that RP has eaten away at the
castaway’s body as the castaway tried to attack and eat Pi, while at the same time
stepping into RP’s territory)
• This is something that is really hard for Pi to see →”I saw such a vision that I nearly
wished I had remained blind” (pg. 250)
• Pi cries a lot as even though by RP killing the castaway it saved his life, Pi now feels
alone again→again there is irony because the crying actually helps his vision
return→the pain and suffering Pi feels inflicted by RP did essentially, indirectly help
him
• Pi makes a confession that he used the castaways flesh as bait and ate some of out of
extreme hunger (THEME OF SURVIVAL)→He tries to back up his actions by saying “I
mean small pieces” and “They slipped into my mouth nearly unnoticed.” (pg.
250)→shows that he is still trying to maintain a sliver of his humanity
CHAPTER 92
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Pi and RP reach an island, which Pi refers to as “an exceptional botanical discovery” (pg.
250)→At first Pi doesn’t believe what he sees as he believes it is a hallucination
He is stern is saying that he still tells this part of the story because “it happened” to him
Closely examines the island→discovers it is densely packed with algae
Compares the colour of the island (Green) to his Islam and it is his favourite
colour→THEME OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELGION→a coping mechanism he utilizes to
keep hope throughout the ordeal
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Finally believes the island is real→Uses his nose to “judge the land” (pg. 252)
He gasps and whimpers “My God! My God!” →Just cannot believe that after all this
time, he has finally found solid ground
“Richard Parker! Land! Land! We are saved”→Use of “we” shows that Pi believes he and
RP are in this ordeal together
Discovers the algae and eats it→One would think this would not be pleasant to eat, but
Pi is thoroughly enjoying the meal→”Saliva forcefully oozed through the dry pastiness of
my mouth” (pg. 253)→THEME OF SURVIVAL & DESPARATION→Shows the
savagery→One could argue that he is still quite animalistic
He gives a very detailed, mysterious explanation about the algae→Once again brings
light to Pi’s COPING MECHANISM of STORYTELLING
He then leans up against a tree and weeps→completely overwhelmed with the emotion
of finding some food and ultimately hope after his ordeal
He also worshiped God by raising up his hand and “exalting” his heart to Allah→ THEME
OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELGION
RP eventually gets off the lifeboat→Pi compares his gait to that of a “new-born
cub”→This draws a PARELLEL & SIMILARITY between Pi & RP
When Pi got off the lifeboat he was also very weak, his legs were swollen and his feet
were extremely sore→”I attempted to stay on my feet. Blood rushed away from my
head. The ground shook violently.”→It is almost as if Pi is learning to walk again after
being on the lifeboat for such a long time
Pi decides that he will sleep on the lifeboat tonight→needs to maintain his territory
He says “there was the nervous tension arising from my sudden change of
fortunes”→resonates with someone being pushed out of their comfort zone, though Pi
has been pushed much further than his limits
He awakes during the night with the intense urge to defecate
In the morning he feels very refreshed and a lot stronger→spends the next 2 days
regaining his strength
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT DURING THE EARLY DAYS ON THE ISLAND:
o Pi is starting to become physically and mentally stronger through regaining his
strength
CHAPTER 92 (PAGES 257-264)*PI ON CARNIVOROUS ISLAND
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Pi’s fear of RP immediately returns when RP runs out from the trees, at full strength and
speed, toward Pi
o according to Pi a ‘fear’ that cannot be ‘trained away’ is the direct approach of a
known killer +vertigo and a sudden noise (fact and personal opinion) (shows how
scared he really was)
o just like Pi, RP was rested, fed and regained most of his strength (returns to former
self)
o runs with a purpose
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o blows whistle numerous times, he no longer responds
o unexpectedly runs into ocean and not directly at Pi (shows instinctive nature of
suspecting danger, foreshadows what’s to come
o Pi has just trained RP and RP was dependent on Pi for food and water, thus Pi has
power and control over RP, however Pi could lose his dominance and ‘alpha’ status
as RP can now hunt and survive and roam the island without Pi (can gain his own
dominance back again, no longer a need to be submissive)
*sees tiger as a dangerous wild cat again, sudden realization and questions as to how he
actually survived with this 450-pund Bengal tiger
o however, becomes calm when does look at reality and establish the fact that he had
been with a tiger for 7 months
Pi explores the island and finds meerkats and numerous (identical sized) fresh water
ponds
o description of origin and physiology of meerkat reiterates his tertiary studies of
zoology (detailed description makes the reader feel that this island was not a figment
of his imagination/hallucination but something that that was real and strange theme of storytelling)
o interestingly the thousands of meerkats jump into the ponds (unusual for their
species to not be fearful of water)
o sees dorados appearing dead on the surface of water (salt water fish in fresh water
pond)
*algae desalinate water -Pi doesn’t question why the algae does this. He simply laughs
and jumps back into the pond. Pi usually had an instinctive inquisitive nature but he is so
satisfied/grateful in the moment he does not question the strange ecology of the island.
*the strangeness and sinister aspects of the island are becoming more and more evident
to the reader but because of Pi’s desperate (state of mind) situation he ignores these
signs
Imagery of meerkats bending down reminds him of Muslims bending down in a mosque
to pray
*lots of green imagery on island -green colour of Muslim faith
*Pi would have not survived if he had seen the island (restores him physically, regains
strength, linked to hope)
Pi washes in the fresh water to get every crystal of salt off his body (that tainted him) escapism.
o “taint” means traces of undesirable or bad qualities (wanted to remove the
experiences that he committed under his primal survival nature
o Pi wants to rid himself from his experiences in the Pacific Ocean and wants to
“clean” himself from all the wrong and harm he has done as a vegetarian and man of
strong faith
o “The effect of bathing in pure, salt-free water was more than I can put into words”
o he felt that his soul was corroded with salt. Salt=ocean. Pieces of his soul were
chipped/knocked away the more savage he become as time went on in the ocean
Pi sees RP killing the meerkats. He has eaten enough to become satisfied, however he
continues killing them in a very gruesome manner (at his leisure)
o meerkats don’t run away, they are not used to having a predator on the island
(meekness ruled)
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o After such a long period of starvation, the tiger’s hunting instinct runs wild.
o Pi says that there is a separate urge for animals to eat and to kill so RP has pent up
hunting instinct and now lashing out
*”He was far away. There was no danger to me. At least for the moment”
o Pi has somewhat separated himself from RP (primal side) because he has everything
he needs to survive on the island (he can eat the algae etc.). He doesn’t need the
primal side of RP at the moment.
Pi decided to clean the boat of its human (French castaway) and animal remains
o although he cleans it he still does not step into RP’s territory
o even though he cleaned what he could, he couldn’t get rid of the smell and smears.
Pi will try to get rid of all his experiences and block out the horrific trauma but there
will always be traces left with him that he will never be able to erase
o that he removes any proof of his story’s truth or the ordeals he has faced and things
he has done to survive.
Pi grows stronger -he physically becomes healthier and states that he had “returned to
life”
Walks around island and establishes that it is around 7 miles in diameter and 20 miles in
circumference (in order to work out circumference need the value of Pi to work this out)
Pi plainly describes what he notices about the island in a scientific sense
-no living creatures besides meerkats and algae (foreshadows and builds tension to
what Pi will discover about the island)
CHAPTER 92 (Page 265 – end)
PLOT
• Days pass and Pi starts feeling better – his stiffness starts going away. A storm hits
the island, and is barely affected by the disturbance. Pi starts to think about the
ecosystem on the island, noting that only meerkats, algae and trees are on the island
(Other than the fish and sharks in the ponds). Pi then discovers that the trees are
actually part of the algae itself. Pi thinks that the island is a huge free-floating organism
that is not rooted to the earth.
• One day Pi is exploring the forest when he comes across Richard Parker. He begins to
continue training him and soon he trains RP to jump through a hoop of branches. Pi
decides to sleep on the island, and climbs up a tree to sleep.
• Pi completes making his “bed”, and meerkats start running to climb trees. They cover Pi
and fall asleep. The next morning they go back into the fields. Pi sleeps in the tree every
night and uses the meerkats as a blanket and a pillow.
• Pi wakes up one night and sees dead fish floating in one of the ponds, but no meerkats
go to eat them. This all disappear. Pi contemplates the nature of the island due to the
strange situation.
• Pi comes across a tree that seems to bear fruit. He picks one and pulls away its layers. He
discovers a human tooth at the centre of the “fruit”, and picks more fruit finding more
teeth. It is at this point that the adult Pi interrupts and states that he wished he never
found the tree or examined its fruit too closely.
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Pi begins to develop a theory about the island, and tests it that night. First he drops a
meerkat from the tree and he hears it cry I pain and immediately climb back up. He then
steps down and allows his feet to touch the algae, and he experiences a burning pain.
It is at this point that he realises a few things:
o The island is carnivorous.
o The algae floor becomes acidic and deadly at night, consuming the fish it has
attracted into its ponds.
o The island devoured the castaway before him, leaving only teeth behind.
He feels betrayed and angry by the true nature of the island.
o This is the “loss of innocence” moment for the algae island, and parallels the
scene in the Biblical Garden of Eden. The island also seems like a paradise at first,
but when Pi eats of the “forbidden fruit” (i.e. He opens up a “fruit” off of the tree
to find a tooth) he gains knowledge, and must leave the Garden.
The next morning Pi decides to leave the island as he would prefer searching for land
instead of living “half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death” on the carnivorous
island. Pi restocks his supplies by filling the lifeboat with dead fish, meerkats and algae.
He waits for RP to come before leaving.
IMAGERY/SYMBOLISM:
• The algae island keeps growing stranger and more surreal. Its details are so mysterious
that it seems like it must be a hallucination or a made-up story, but at the same time Pi’s
attention to detail in describing this place suggests that it may be a reality.
• RP has been Pi’s test of faith as he has constantly been a threat to Pi. Pi’s ability to train
RP may depict the fact that RP is now less wild and more domesticated.
• The meerkats know about the island’s deadly nature, yet they ignore it because of the
food, shelter and comfort it provides. Similarly Pi is tempted to stay on the island
forever, but choses to not avoid the truth, and purposefully blind him to the island’s
nature.
• The island is a symbol of fantasy, false hope and faith for Pi. The two are related, as they
both involve avoiding harsh reality to indulge in something evil but comfortable.
• Pi chooses the hard but righteous path, refusing to give in to “spiritual death” and
hallucinations of despair. Though he is depressed about returning to the lifeboat, his exit
from the algae island is a sign that he still has hope of returning to humanity and
himself.
Chapter 93
Pi’s built-in determination to live is the only thing keeping him alive at this point. His
mentality makes him unable to let go of life, despite his suffering, which is emphasised in
this chapter.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
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Pi remains faithful in God, who is his only resolve at this point. This is the most
healthy way for Pi to deal with this situation, when he is suffering so much. Easier to
turn to higher power that dwell on situation. Faith provides refuge and distraction.
Emphasises the role faith plays in Pi’s ultimate survival.
IMAGERY / SYMBOLISM:
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Pi describes his situation as, “as pointless as the weather.” Just as Pi is helpless in his
situation as a castaway, the weather can’t be controlled.
This time period of his time at sea is so unbearable that he does not walk to think
back on it or talk about it in detail. This explains why the chapter is so short.
THEMES: The themes of survival and faith come together in this character.
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Suffering
Relentlessness
CHAPTER 94
Pi arrives on the coast of Mexico. He manages to guide the boat onto the shore using the
anchors to steer him, despite being so weak that he fears drowning in two feet of water.
Richard Parker leaves Pi without any closure. This hurts Pi deeply and for the rest of his life
as he has unspoken words for Richard Parker. Pi does not like how his nickname is infinite.
This, as well as the novel being written in exactly 100 chapters, emphasise how important
closure is to him. When Richard Parker leaves, Pi’s grief of his family’s death becomes
worse, to the point that he almost believes that God has abandoned him.
Pi is taken in by some people who lived in a village near the Mexico coast. They cleaned and
fed him. From this point Pi’s recovery starts, he is taken to the hospital, then to his foster
mother, and then to the University of Toronto. Pi expresses great gratitude towards the
people who made this journey an easy one.
IMAGERY / SYMBOLISM:
• Describes his life from the hospital to the university of Toronto “one long, easy corridor”
he had to walk down. This image strongly contrasts with his surroundings as a
castaway. He appreciates the security of the confinement.
• “They came up to me with their hands covering their noses and mouths.” This indicates
primal conditions on the lifeboat, rotting of meat, little or no hygiene maintenance.
• Pi compares the beach on the Mexican coast to the cheek of God. Although Pi states that
he “barely had the strength to be happy about it,” this description of the beach
shows the sense of relief and happiness that the beach brings to Pi.
THEMES:
• Salvation
• Generosity
CHAPTER 95
PLOT: This chapter, the first of Part 3 is in italics indicating it is the authors words. In it he
explains the dialogue he had with Mr Okamoto and Mr Chiba both sent by the Maritime
Department in the Japanese Ministry of transport to talk to the lone survivor, Piscine
Molitor Patel, of the Tsimtsum. The infirmary was in Tomatlan which they misunderstood as
Tomatan and ended up getting lost and rerouted on their way there and their rental car
broke down.
The author receives tape recordings from the interview between the investigators and Pi
and acknowledges them in this chapter – thanking them.
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM: The investigators getting lost and travelling all over the place to
finally find Pi can be symbolic of Pi’s overall journey and how Pi who was initially meant to
go to Canada (the inspectors thought they had to go to Tomatan) and how pi actually ended
up in Mexico (the inspectors had to go to Tomatlan). The investigators car breaking down a
few times on the way to get to Pi can be linked to how Pi had everything of his wither away
on the lifeboat (clothes, tarpaulin etc.) “cannibalised” used to describe the use of the car
parts linking to first story and how Pi became a cannibal?
Their travels are described in a way that it took very long for them to reach Pi (41 hours)
similarly Pi was on the lifeboat for a very long time.
CHAPTER 96
PLOT: This is the introductory part of the interview between the investigators and Pi Patel,
recorded and translated by the author. They make simple conversation before starting and
Pi gets offered a cookie
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM: the investigators don’t seem very considerate towards Pi
sometimes. This might just be because as the reader, knowing what Pi has gone through, we
in a way take offence to some of the comments they make. Pi doesn’t seem to be that
effected. Mr Okamoto makes the comment he is “so tired” (although he’s not saying this to
Pi) we know that Pi is far more exhausted than he is. The paradox between their answer to
Pi’s question about their trip – “we had a beautiful trip, Its was a beautiful drive” and Pi’s
answer – “I had a terrible trip” creates a divide and shows the reader what different worlds
the two are from and how their experiences are different
CHAPTER 97
PLOT: this chapter is the shortest. It says “The Story”
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM: this can be seen to act as a title. It could also build tension. Maybe
“THE” makes it seem like this story, the one with the tiger, is the one in Pi’s head and the
one he has made his story and he believes this is THE true STORY. At this point the reader
only knows this first story and therefore it works to refer to it as THE, one and only story.
CHAPTER 98
PLOT: the investigators don’t believe Pi’s first story but pretend to just so they don’t lose
him as it is their job to return with the answers and a report. Pi asks for a cookie and they
leave for a while
IMAGERY/ SYMBOLISM: Pi doesn’t actually eat the cookies but hides them away and keeps
them. This links to the theme of survival as Pi still feels he has to store food for later when
he needs it. This primal behaviour shows the reader how effected by the ordeal Pi was.
CHAPTER 99 up to page 290:
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The investigators start by picking at details, which leads to some humorous scenes and
Pi defending his story in its every aspect. Eventually they get around to the larger idea
here, which is about learning to process and improve an unbearable reality through
storytelling.
Pi cleverly turns Okamoto’s criticism against him, In his defence Pi now starts to refer to
his story in a manner similar to a religious believer, defending the “unseen” against
arguments of reason.
We now see that Pi’s digressions and musings of Part One have not only foreshadowed
his training of Richard Parker, but also acted as supports and precedents for the
believability of his animal story.
The bananas- don’t float, pi says they do- the investigators try the bananas and they do
end up floating.
Pi repeats his phrasing from Part One almost exactly in describing the “laughability” of
finding a tiger in a Mexican jungle, when so many wild animals effectively hide in big
cities.
Pi now expands his survival story to become a more obvious metaphor for religious faith
and the power of fiction.
The ship’s details seem unimportant to the story, but their very unimportance
contributes to the religious metaphor – Pi’s journey as a castaway is not professionally
important to the officials, so they must make a personal decision in believing or
disbelieving his story.
The reader has been totally invested in Pi’s narrative up to this point, but now its
implausibility suddenly becomes very likely. The meerkat bones are unidentifiable and Pi
cleaned out the rest of the remains, so the truth about Pi’s ordeal is basically
unknowable and unprovable – just like the existence of God.
This new story of what happened on the lifeboat, with its gruesome details and heart
breaking intimacy, rings very close to being real. A reader could deduce that perhaps Pi
Patel was so traumatized by his experience on the lifeboat with his mother, the cook,
and the crewman that he recast these individuals as animals in order to avoid having to
process such a terrible experience.
“a dry yeast less story, a story which won’t make you see higher or further”
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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.