Life of Pi – Introductory Discussion Topics
1. Share some thoughts about your first impressions of Pi as a character. What do you like about him? What’s
you’re curious to learn more about him?
2. I thought this was a book about a kid and a tiger at sea—why is there so much about religion (especially in
the early parts of the story)?
3. There’s something even more curious about how Pi seems to practice or follow every form of religion.
What do you think Martell is up to here?
4. Then again, Pi ends up becoming a professor of philosophy rather than a priest or disciple etc. What other
scientific, mathematical, and practical pursuits influence his early development and Bildungsroman?
5. Growing up at the zoo is also connected to both sides of Pi’s identity, the religious and the practical.
Discuss how this unique setting establishes his character on symbolical levels (on the one hand) and
practical levels (on the other).
6. The book goes into Pi’s upbringing at the zoo in even more detail, adding Professor Pi’s long argument
about the benefits of zoo life over life in the wild. Why do you think Martell begins the book this
way? What’s he foreshadowing about Pi’s time sharing the life boat with the animals?
7. Finally, connect the book title Life of Pi to this quote from chapter 1: “The reason death sticks
so closely to life isn’t biological necessity—it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love
with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing
only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud” (6).