English Modern American Literature Part 4
The Life of Pi : Study Guide : CHAPTERS 92 - 100
Name:
Vocabulary: Use the contextual cues to predict the meaning of the highlighted vocabulary word.
1. “I felt satisfaction because such a geology confirmed that I was right, that this island was a
chimera, a play of the mind” (ch. 92, p. 257).
chimera:
2. “Its shore could not be called a beach, there being neither sand nor pebbles, and there was no
pounding of surf either, since the waves that fell upon the island simply vanished into its
porosity” (ch. 92, p. 257).
porosity:
3. “It came to my olfactory sense, full and fresh, overwhelming: the smell of vegetation” (ch.
92, p. 258).
olfactory:
4. “Either there was soil deeper down, or this species of tree was a remarkable instance of a
commensal or a parasite” (ch. 92, p. 260).
commensal:
5 “The cordate leaves were large and broad, and ended in a single point” (ch. 92, p. 260).
cordate:
6. “I have read that there are two fears that cannot be trained out of us: the startle reaction upon
hearing an unexpected noise, and vertigo” (ch. 92, p. 263).
vertigo:
7. “But it was the meerkats that impressed themselves most indelibly on my mind” (ch. 92, p.
265).
meerkats:
8. “It is an agile and keen–sighted creature, diurnal and social in habits, and feeding in its
native range—the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa—on, among other things, scorpions, to
whose venom it is completely immune” (ch. 92, p. 265).
diurnal:
9. “Meerkats were jumping up and down in a state of great ferment” (ch. 92, p. 267).
ferment:
10. “I felt even my soul had been corroded by salt” (ch. 92, p. 268).
corroded:
11. “My running became smooth and unselfconscious, a source of euphoria” (Chapter 92, p.
269).
euphoria:
12. “The storm, and the resulting minor earthquakes, did not perturb the meerkats in
the least” (ch. 92, p. 271).
perturb:
13. “It is this: that the island was not an island in the conventional sense of the term—that is, a
small landmass rooted to the floor of the ocean—but was rather a free-floating organism, a ball
of algae of leviathan proportions” (ch. 92, pp. 271–71).
leviathan:
14. “I always made sure I was there before him, copiously marking my territory with urine so
that he didn’t forget who was who and what was whose” (ch. 92, p. 272).
copiously:
15. “These trees were without a doubt the gates into a meerkat arboreal city with more bustle in
it than Calcutta” (ch. 92, p. 278).
arboreal:
16. “It was now the size of a rambutan” (ch. 92, p. 280).
rambutan:
17. “Their car broke down and the mechanic who fixed it surreptitiously cannibalized the
motor of parts, putting in used parts instead, for the replacement of which they had to pay the
rental company and which resulted in the car breaking down a second time, on their way back”
(ch. 95, pp. 289–90).
surreptitiously:
cannibalized:
18. “What follows are excerpts from the verbatim transcript” (ch. 95, p. 290).
verbatim:
19. “’He’s a bonsai master’” (ch. 99, p. 294).
bonsai:
20. “’If you took the city of Tokyo and turned it upside down and shook it, you’d be amazed at
all the animals that would fall out: badgers, wolves, boa constrictors, Komodo dragons,
crocodiles, ostriches, baboons, capybaras, wild boars, leopards, manatees, ruminants in untold
numbers’” (ch. 99, p. 297).
capybaras:
21. “’Huge. Teeth like this! Claws like scimitars!’” (ch. 99, p. 298).
scimitars:
Study Questions : Using the information from Chapters 92 &93, answer the following:
1. We know from the outset that the island is empirically impossible. Why then do we believe it
as readers?
2. The island seems to be entirely vegetarian. Why?
3. Like most things too good to be true, the island is, too. How does it show its true colors?
4. What might the island and its true nature symbolize?
6. “Nothing distracted the meerkats from their little lives of pond staring and algae nibbling” (ch.
92, p 269). Is Pi talking about meerkats or human nature in this passage?
7. As Pi begins to rejuvenate on the island, so, too, does Richard Parker. Why?
Study Questions : Using the information from Chapter 94, answer the following:
1. After more than seven months, Pi reaches land. Richard Parker disappears into the forest
immediately. Why no goodbyes?
2. Pi says, “It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go” (p. 285).
Discuss the truth of these words.
Study Questions : Using the information from Chapters 95 through 100, answer the
following:
1. How is the trip of Mr. Tomohiro Okamoto and Mr. Atsuro Chiba of the Japanese Ministry of
Transport to visit Pi in the hospital a “comedy of errors”?
2. In many ways, these chapters are the most humorous part of the novel. On what premise does
this humor rely?
3. Why is chapter 97 only two words?
4. What do the floating bananas and the cultivated bonsai trees illustrate?
5. How does the bonsai tree story remind the reader of the two Mr. Kumars?
6. What is the significance of Mr. Okamoto saying, “‘The cook on the Tsimtsum was a
Frenchman’” (ch. 99, p. 299).
7. Pi tells the “real” story at last. Why do Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba ultimately report Pi’s
original story—with animals—instead?
Questions for Essay and Discussion: Pick ONE of the following discussion questions to
answer.
1. Pi says, “I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must
give things a meaningful shape” (Chapter 94, p. 285). How important are form and structure to
people’s happiness?
2. Pi says to Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba, “‘If you stumble at mere believability, what are you
living for? Isn’t love hard to believe?’” (ch. 99, p. 297). Discuss this in the context of faith and
storytelling.
3. Discuss the idea that Richard Parker is part of Pi and necessary for his survival on the lifeboat.
4. In the beginning of the book, Martel insists that this is a story “to make you believe in God”
(author’s note, p. xi). Do you agree or disagree with this assertion?
Vocabulary: Give the dictionary definitions for each of the following vocabulary words
chimera:
porosity:
olfactory:
commensal:
cordate:
vertigo:
meerkats:
diurnal:
ferment:
corroded:
euphoria:
perturb:
leviathan:
copiously:
arboreal:
rambutan:
surreptitiously:
cannibalized:
verbatim:
bonsai:
capybaras:
scimitars: