Title: LIFE OF Pi
Genre: FICTION- FANTASY ; Allegory; fable
Characters: Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) - The protagonist of the story. Piscine is the narrator for most of the novel, and his account of his seven months at sea forms the bulk of the story. He gets his unusual name from the French word for pool—and, more specifically, from a pool in Paris in which a close family friend, Francis Adirubasamy, loved to swim. A student of zoology and religion, Pi is deeply intrigued by the habits and characteristics of animals and people.
Richard Parker - The Royal Bengal tiger with whom Pi shares his lifeboat. His captor, Richard Parker, named him Thirsty, but a shipping clerk made a mistake and reversed their names. From then on, at the Pondicherry Zoo, he was known as Richard Parker. Weighing 450 pounds and about nine feet long, he kills the hyena on the lifeboat and the blind cannibal. With Pi, however, Richard Parker acts as an omega, or submissive, animal, respecting Pi’s dominance.
Francis Adirubasamy - The elderly man who tells the author Pi’s story during a chance meeting in a Pondicherry coffee shop. He taught Pi to swim as a child and bestowed upon him his unusual moniker. He arranges for the author to meet Pi in person, so as to get a first-person account of his strange and compelling tale. Pi calls him Mamaji, an Indian term that means respected uncle.
Ravi -
Pi’s
older brother. Ravi prefers sports to schoolwork and is quite popular.
He teases his younger brother mercilessly over his devotion to three
religions.
Santosh Patel -
Pi’s
father. He once owned a Madras hotel, but because of his deep interest
in animals decided to run the Pondicherry Zoo. A worrier by nature,
he teaches his sons not only to care for and control wild animals, but
to fear them. Though raised a Hindu, he is not religious and is
puzzled by Pi’s adoption of numerous religions. The difficult conditions
in India lead him to move his family to Canada.
Gita Patel -
Pi’s
beloved mother and protector. A book lover, she encourages Pi to
read widely. Raised Hindu with a Baptist education, she does not
subscribe to any religion and questions Pi’s religious declarations.
She speaks her mind, letting her husband know when she disagrees
with his parenting techniques. When Pi relates another version of
his story to his rescuers, she takes the place of Orange Juice on
the lifeboat.
Satish Kumar -
Pi’s
atheistic biology teacher at Petit Séminaire, a secondary school
in Pondicherry. A polio survivor, he is an odd-looking man, with
a body shaped like a triangle. His devotion to the power of scientific
inquiry and explanation inspires Pi to study zoology in college.
Father Martin -
The
Catholic priest who introduces Pi to Christianity after Pi wanders
into his church. He preaches a message of love. He, the Muslim Mr.
Kumar, and the Hindu pandit disagree about whose religion Pi should
practice.
Satish Kumar -
A
plain-featured Muslim mystic with the same name as Pi’s biology
teacher. He works in a bakery. Like the other Mr. Kumar, this one
has a strong effect on Pi’s academic plans: his faith leads Pi to
study religion at college.
The Hindu Pandit -
One of three important religious figures in the novel.
Never given a name, he is outraged when Pi, who was raised Hindu,
begins practicing other religions. He and the other two religious
leaders are quieted somewhat by Pi’s declaration that he just wants
to love God.
The Hyena -
An
ugly, intensely violent animal. He controls the lifeboat before
Richard Parker emerges.
The Zebra -
A
beautiful male Grant’s zebra. He breaks his leg jumping into the
lifeboat. The hyena torments him and eats him alive.
Orange Juice -
The
maternal orangutan that floats to the lifeboat on a raft of bananas.
She suffers almost humanlike bouts of loneliness and seasickness.
When the hyena attacks her, she fights back valiantly but is nonetheless
killed and decapitated.
The Blind Frenchman -
A fellow castaway whom Pi meets by chance in the
middle of the ocean. Driven by hunger and desperation, he tries
to kill and cannibalize Pi, but Richard Parker kills him first.
Tomohiro Okamoto -
An official from the Maritime Department of the Japanese
Ministry of Transport, who is investigating the sinking of the Japanese Tsimtsum. Along
with his assistant, Atsuro Chiba, Okamoto interviews Pi for three
hours and is highly skeptical of his first account.
Atsuro Chiba -
Okamoto’s
assistant. Chiba is the more naïve and trusting of the two Japanese
officials, and his inexperience at conducting interviews gets on
his superior’s nerves. Chiba agrees with Pi that the version of
his ordeal with animals is the better than the one with people.
The Cook -
The
human counterpart to the hyena in Pi’s second story. He is rude
and violent and hoards food on the lifeboat. After he kills the
sailor and Pi’s mother, Pi stabs him and he dies.
The Sailor -
The
human counterpart to the zebra in Pi’s second story. He is young,
beautiful, and exotic. He speaks only Chinese and is very sad and
lonely in the lifeboat. He broke his leg jumping off the ship, and
it becomes infected. The cook cuts off the leg, and the sailor dies slowly.
Setting: INDIA, PACIFIC OCEAN, MEXICO and CANADA
Plot:Life of Pi is divided into three sections. In the first
section, the main character, Pi, an adult, reminisces about his
childhood. He was named Piscine Molitor Patel after a swimming pool in France. He changes his name to "Pi"
when he begins secondary school, because he is tired of being taunted
with the nickname "Pissing Patel". His father owns a zoo in Pondicherry,
providing Pi with a relatively affluent lifestyle and some
understanding of animal psychology.
Pi is raised a Hindu, but as a fourteen-year-old he is introduced to Christianity and Islam, and starts to follow all three religions as he "just wants to love God."[9][10] He tries to understand God through the lens of each religion and comes to recognize benefits in each one.
Eventually, his family decides to sell their zoo over a land dispute with the government, and sell the animals to various zoos around the world before emigrating to Canada. In the second part of the novel, Pi's family embarks on a Japanese freighter to Canada carrying some of the animals from their zoo, but a few days out of port, the ship meets a storm and sinks, resulting in his family's death. During the storm, Pi escapes death in a small lifeboat with a spotted hyena, an injured Grant's zebra, and an orangutan.
As Pi strives to survive among the animals, the hyena kills the zebra, then the orangutan, much to Pi's distress. At this point, it is discovered that a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker had been hiding under the boat's tarpaulin; it kills and eats the hyena. Frightened, Pi constructs a small raft out of flotation devices, tethers it to the boat, and retreats to it. He delivers some of the fish and water he harvests to Richard Parker to keep him satisfied, conditioning Richard Parker not to threaten him by rocking the boat and causing seasickness while blowing a whistle. Eventually, Richard Parker learns to tolerate Pi's presence and they both live in the boat.
Pi recounts various events while adrift, including discovering an island of carnivorous algae inhabited by meerkats. After 227 days, the lifeboat washes up onto the coast of Mexico and Richard Parker immediately escapes into the nearby jungle.
In the third part of the novel, two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport speak to Pi to ascertain why the ship sank. When they do not believe his story, he tells an alternative story of human brutality, in which Pi was adrift on a lifeboat with his mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and the ship's cook, who killed the sailor and Pi's mother and cut them up to use as bait and food. Parallels to Pi's first story lead the Japanese officials to believe that the orangutan represents his mother, the zebra represents the sailor, the hyena represents the cook, and Richard Parker is Pi himself.
After giving all the relevant information, Pi asks which of the two stories they prefer. Since the officials cannot prove which story is true and neither is relevant to the reasons behind the shipwreck, they choose the story with the animals. Pi thanks them and says, "and so it goes with God".
Pi is raised a Hindu, but as a fourteen-year-old he is introduced to Christianity and Islam, and starts to follow all three religions as he "just wants to love God."[9][10] He tries to understand God through the lens of each religion and comes to recognize benefits in each one.
Eventually, his family decides to sell their zoo over a land dispute with the government, and sell the animals to various zoos around the world before emigrating to Canada. In the second part of the novel, Pi's family embarks on a Japanese freighter to Canada carrying some of the animals from their zoo, but a few days out of port, the ship meets a storm and sinks, resulting in his family's death. During the storm, Pi escapes death in a small lifeboat with a spotted hyena, an injured Grant's zebra, and an orangutan.
As Pi strives to survive among the animals, the hyena kills the zebra, then the orangutan, much to Pi's distress. At this point, it is discovered that a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker had been hiding under the boat's tarpaulin; it kills and eats the hyena. Frightened, Pi constructs a small raft out of flotation devices, tethers it to the boat, and retreats to it. He delivers some of the fish and water he harvests to Richard Parker to keep him satisfied, conditioning Richard Parker not to threaten him by rocking the boat and causing seasickness while blowing a whistle. Eventually, Richard Parker learns to tolerate Pi's presence and they both live in the boat.
Pi recounts various events while adrift, including discovering an island of carnivorous algae inhabited by meerkats. After 227 days, the lifeboat washes up onto the coast of Mexico and Richard Parker immediately escapes into the nearby jungle.
In the third part of the novel, two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport speak to Pi to ascertain why the ship sank. When they do not believe his story, he tells an alternative story of human brutality, in which Pi was adrift on a lifeboat with his mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and the ship's cook, who killed the sailor and Pi's mother and cut them up to use as bait and food. Parallels to Pi's first story lead the Japanese officials to believe that the orangutan represents his mother, the zebra represents the sailor, the hyena represents the cook, and Richard Parker is Pi himself.
After giving all the relevant information, Pi asks which of the two stories they prefer. Since the officials cannot prove which story is true and neither is relevant to the reasons behind the shipwreck, they choose the story with the animals. Pi thanks them and says, "and so it goes with God".
Theme:
Religion
At times, Life of Pi reads like a defense of religion.
Has science proved religion wrong? Here's a protagonist who believes
passionately in both zoology and religion. What about the fact of
multiple faiths? Don't these faiths contradict each other, cause wars,
and other problems? Here's a protagonist who is Muslim, Christian, and
Hindu – all at the same time. The book defends not only the common
spirit behind these three religions, but the rituals and ceremonies of
each. It's as if all three religions find harmonious common ground in
this character. Seems unlikely, but then again, the protagonist argues
passionately that the miraculous happens in our darkest moments.
9. How does this film relate to the things that are happening in your life?
It is all about perseverance and faith. The faith that enables us to make a leap into the dark; the teachings of animals; the fierce and tranquil sides of nature; and the powerful instinct we all have for survival. This spiritually alluring film can bring you to a transformed appreciation for the baffling, curious, and inexplicable dimensions of life and the world around you.
Man and the Natural World
There's an interesting blurring of divisions between man and the natural world in Life of Pi.
Human beings become more animalistic; animals become more human. The
novel warns against projecting human values onto the animal world.
However, the novel also admits it's impossible to experience anything
without a way-of-being. The trick, therefore, is to make concessions to
other species. Animals in the zoo, while essentially retaining their
instincts, take on certain domestic, human-like traits. Human beings in
the wild, while still retaining a few human traits, become more
animalistic. Through this exchange human beings may learn – dare we say
it – a spiritual truth or two about themselves and the natural world.
Fear
If we have nothing to fear but fear itself, what about the
fear of fear itself? Does that count as two fears or is it still one
fear? It's this type of mind game our protagonist has to avoid on the
lifeboat. Pi has to fight against being crippled by fear, as he goes
about the everyday business of survival. He definitely has a lot of
things to be afraid of – bone-crunching waves, man-eating sharks, and
conniving tigers, to name a few. Of course, fear also takes on an
existential component in the novel, meaning that Pi also has to deal
with the terror of isolation, meaninglessness, and boredom. When faced
with the latter types of emptiness, maybe fighting off sharks and tigers
doesn't sound so bad.
Primarily, the island serves as an initial symbol of hope, but when Pi learns of its acidic properties that kill surrounding fish, he immediately evacuates. There doesn't always have to be a point to mentions in literature, it just serves as a drastically new setting and plot twist, and also provides Pi with some amazing observations, such as a colony of meerkats that live among the trees and a species of algae that is very hazardous. Some people go as far to say that it represents Pi's savage nature, because he kills animals mercilessly, sometimes taking more than is necessary for his survival, and the island does the same. I had to read this for summer as well, and that is what I got out of it. I don't necessarily agree that the island is a direct parallel to Pi.
1. What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole?
The title, of course, refers to our protagonist Pi, whose full name is Piscine Molitor Patel. Pi's name has a few rich associations in the novel. For starters, there's π, the "elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe" . There's also the glorious Parisian swimming pool, the Piscine Molitor, which apparently made a lasting impression on Pi's uncle, Mamaji. So far so good: a mysterious, mathematical oddity and the favorite swimming pool of Pi's spiritual and aquatic guru .
The Title simply relates to the main character who experienced the journey of his life, to know his life deeper and made him realize that He is not alone despite of the hardship and to believe even though situation isn't willing to help.
2. Among the characters, to whom can you relate to?
Pi - He is the main character. Firstly because He is also a teenager and what HE can feel is mostly the same as me. He shows what reality is and what ways you can decide to give up or continue to fly and grow.
3. Which part of the presentation struck you the most? why?
It is when He was changed the attitude of the tiger -Richard Parker feed him, the challenged for him to make everything fine despite of the claws and danger he might have and esp. the biggest test of friendship.
4. What is the movie's message?
The movie's message is to never lose faith despite everything went wrong,just believe in yourself and to up above to guide you for all the obstacles life is offering you.
5. Did I like this in general? Why?
Yes , because it relates to all of us esp. youth to make the most of everything in life. Taking care of the environment while they are still existing since they are gift from GOD and as a young person I will learn to he;p surrounding well take cared. In general, it Strengthens my Faith in GOD despite of those unwanted happenings.
6. Did I agree with the theme/purpose Why? or Why not?
Yes,.Life of Pi is a story about struggling to survive through seemingly insurmountable odds.
Stories and religious beliefs are also linked in Life of Pi because Pi asserts that both require faith on the part of the listener or devotee. Surprisingly for such a religious boy, Pi admires atheists. To him, the important thing is to believe in something, and Pi can appreciate an atheist’s ability to believe in the absence of God with no concrete proof of that absence. Pi has nothing but disdain, however, for agnostics, who claim that it is impossible to know either way, and who therefore refrain from making a definitive statement on the question of God.
7. What specifically did I like/dislike?Why?
about the faith (the life boat), on the other hand, is tossed about by the sea and bleached and cooked by the sun (the harsh realities of real life). In the lifeboat, Pi comes close to capsizing and drowning. Not so on the island of religion. In fact, the "island, coated with such tightly woven, rubbery vegetation, was an ideal place to relearn how to walk. I could fall any which way, it was impossible to hurt myself." Religion was just what Pi needed after the spiritual crisis when he had gone blind and lost his way in the previous chapter, and his animal savagery sacrificed another spiritual seeker who had lost his own way (the Frenchman, adrift in his own boat, devoured by Richard Parker.) It was this crisis, in fact, which had lead to Pi's tearful repenting and regaining of his sight which allowed him to find the island in the first place.
8. Are there any aspects of theme which are left ambiguous at the end? Why?
For me, the most powerful moment of the Life of Pi is when Pi finally make landfall and the tiger disappears into the forest without so much as a backwards glance. It’s such a simple, graceful expression of man’s desire to project humanity onto an indifferent universe. Moments like that only serve to make the clumsy, forced ambiguity of the ending all the more frustrating.
Madness
You knew we were going to say this: madness is a little complicated in Life of Pi.
Is faith a form of madness? Is the madness that causes animals to leave
a warm, secure home the same as the madness of murder and cannibalism?
Is the predator-prey relationship, so common in both natural and
man-made worlds, a form of madness? Of course, like the good novelist he
is, Martel leaves most of these questions open. If believing in
beautiful stories, and in fictions that guide and explain our lives,
counts as madness, then Martel suggests a little madness will do us a
lot of good.
Symbolism:
THE ALGAE ISLANDSymbolism:
Primarily, the island serves as an initial symbol of hope, but when Pi learns of its acidic properties that kill surrounding fish, he immediately evacuates. There doesn't always have to be a point to mentions in literature, it just serves as a drastically new setting and plot twist, and also provides Pi with some amazing observations, such as a colony of meerkats that live among the trees and a species of algae that is very hazardous. Some people go as far to say that it represents Pi's savage nature, because he kills animals mercilessly, sometimes taking more than is necessary for his survival, and the island does the same. I had to read this for summer as well, and that is what I got out of it. I don't necessarily agree that the island is a direct parallel to Pi.
1. What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole?
The title, of course, refers to our protagonist Pi, whose full name is Piscine Molitor Patel. Pi's name has a few rich associations in the novel. For starters, there's π, the "elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe" . There's also the glorious Parisian swimming pool, the Piscine Molitor, which apparently made a lasting impression on Pi's uncle, Mamaji. So far so good: a mysterious, mathematical oddity and the favorite swimming pool of Pi's spiritual and aquatic guru .
The Title simply relates to the main character who experienced the journey of his life, to know his life deeper and made him realize that He is not alone despite of the hardship and to believe even though situation isn't willing to help.
2. Among the characters, to whom can you relate to?
Pi - He is the main character. Firstly because He is also a teenager and what HE can feel is mostly the same as me. He shows what reality is and what ways you can decide to give up or continue to fly and grow.
3. Which part of the presentation struck you the most? why?
It is when He was changed the attitude of the tiger -Richard Parker feed him, the challenged for him to make everything fine despite of the claws and danger he might have and esp. the biggest test of friendship.
4. What is the movie's message?
The movie's message is to never lose faith despite everything went wrong,just believe in yourself and to up above to guide you for all the obstacles life is offering you.
5. Did I like this in general? Why?
Yes , because it relates to all of us esp. youth to make the most of everything in life. Taking care of the environment while they are still existing since they are gift from GOD and as a young person I will learn to he;p surrounding well take cared. In general, it Strengthens my Faith in GOD despite of those unwanted happenings.
6. Did I agree with the theme/purpose Why? or Why not?
Yes,.Life of Pi is a story about struggling to survive through seemingly insurmountable odds.
Stories and religious beliefs are also linked in Life of Pi because Pi asserts that both require faith on the part of the listener or devotee. Surprisingly for such a religious boy, Pi admires atheists. To him, the important thing is to believe in something, and Pi can appreciate an atheist’s ability to believe in the absence of God with no concrete proof of that absence. Pi has nothing but disdain, however, for agnostics, who claim that it is impossible to know either way, and who therefore refrain from making a definitive statement on the question of God.
7. What specifically did I like/dislike?Why?
about the faith (the life boat), on the other hand, is tossed about by the sea and bleached and cooked by the sun (the harsh realities of real life). In the lifeboat, Pi comes close to capsizing and drowning. Not so on the island of religion. In fact, the "island, coated with such tightly woven, rubbery vegetation, was an ideal place to relearn how to walk. I could fall any which way, it was impossible to hurt myself." Religion was just what Pi needed after the spiritual crisis when he had gone blind and lost his way in the previous chapter, and his animal savagery sacrificed another spiritual seeker who had lost his own way (the Frenchman, adrift in his own boat, devoured by Richard Parker.) It was this crisis, in fact, which had lead to Pi's tearful repenting and regaining of his sight which allowed him to find the island in the first place.
8. Are there any aspects of theme which are left ambiguous at the end? Why?
For me, the most powerful moment of the Life of Pi is when Pi finally make landfall and the tiger disappears into the forest without so much as a backwards glance. It’s such a simple, graceful expression of man’s desire to project humanity onto an indifferent universe. Moments like that only serve to make the clumsy, forced ambiguity of the ending all the more frustrating.
9. How does this film relate to the things that are happening in your life?
It is all about perseverance and faith. The faith that enables us to make a leap into the dark; the teachings of animals; the fierce and tranquil sides of nature; and the powerful instinct we all have for survival. This spiritually alluring film can bring you to a transformed appreciation for the baffling, curious, and inexplicable dimensions of life and the world around you.
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