Title: LIFE of PI
Genre: FICTION
Characters: Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel 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 meansrespected 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.
Settings: Life of Pi began in the wide-open spaces of childhood – in Pi's heady exploration of science and religion. We hear more and more about Indira Gandhi and the worsening of the political situation in India. India seems totalitarian, confining. The family leaves. Finally, after the shipwreck, Pi ends up in a lifeboat with a man-killing beast. You can't get any more claustrophobic than that. But Pi also dedicates himself to religious rituals on the boat. He cares for a creature who'd like nothing more than to eat him. He has a few spiritual insights and experiences wonder. Everything Pi learned as a boy about zoos and religion comes together in the practice of survival. And the relationship most would consider dangerous, possibly bloody, turns out to be one of true friendship. You might be able to say Pi experiences something like freedom on a twenty-six foot long boat.
Plot: Part One is narrated in the first person by Pi. Pi narrates from an advanced age, looking back at his earlier life as a high school and college student in Toronto, then even further back to his boyhood in Pondicherry. He explains that he has suffered intensely and found solace in religion and zoology. He describes how Francis Adirubasamy, a close business associate of his father’s and a competitive swimming champion, taught him to swim and bestowed upon him his unusual name. Pi is named after the Piscine Molitor, a Parisian swimming club with two pools that Adirubasamy used to frequent. We learn that Pi’s father once ran the Pondicherry Zoo, teaching Pi and his brother, Ravi, about the dangerous nature of animals by feeding a live goat to a tiger before their young eyes. Pi, brought up as a Hindu, discovers Christianity, then Islam, choosing to practice all three religions simultaneously. Motivated by India’s political strife, Pi’s parents decide to move the family to Canada; on June 21, 1977, they set sail in a cargo ship, along with a crew and many cages full of zoo creatures.
At the beginning of Part Two, the ship is beginning to sink. Pi clings to a lifeboat and encourages a tiger, Richard Parker, to join him. Then, realizing his mistake in bringing a wild animal aboard, Pi leaps into the ocean. The narrative jumps back in time as Pi describes the explosive noise and chaos of the sinking: crewmembers throw him into a lifeboat, where he soon finds himself alone with a zebra, an orangutan, and a hyena, all seemingly in shock. His family is gone. The storm subsides and Pi contemplates his difficult situation. The hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan, and then—to Pi’s intense surprise—Richard Parker reveals himself: the tiger has been in the bottom of the lifeboat all along. Soon the tiger kills the hyena, and Pi and Richard Parker are alone together at sea. Pi subsists on canned water and filtered seawater, emergency rations, and freshly caught sea life. He also provides for the tiger, whom he masters and trains.
The days pass slowly and the lifeboat’s passengers coexist warily. During a bout of temporary blindness brought on by dehydration, Pi has a run-in with another blind castaway. The two discuss food and tether their boats to one another. When the blind man attacks Pi, intending to eat him, Richard Parker kills him. Not long after, the boat pulls up to a strange island of trees that grow directly out of vegetation, without any soil. Pi and Richard Parker stay here for a time, sleeping in their boat and exploring the island during the day. Pi discovers a huge colony of meerkats who sleep in the trees and freshwater ponds. One day, Pi finds human teeth in a tree’s fruit and comes to the conclusion that the island eats people. He and Richard Parker head back out to sea, finally washing ashore on a Mexican beach. Richard Parker runs off, and villagers take Pi to a hospital.
In Part Three, two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport interview Pi about his time at sea, hoping to shed light on the fate of the doomed ship. Pi tells the story as above, but it does not fully satisfy the skeptical men. So he tells it again, this time replacing the animals with humans: a ravenous cook instead of a hyena, a sailor instead of a zebra, and his mother instead of the orangutan. The officials note that the two stories match and that the second is far likelier. In their final report, they commend Pi for living so long with an adult tiger.
Theme: A journey to survive
Symbolism:
The Color Orange
In Life of Pi, the color orange symbolizes hope and survival. Just before the scene in which the Tsimtsum sinks, the narrator describes visiting the adult Pi at his home in Canada and meeting his family. Pi’s daughter, Usha, carries an orange cat. This moment assures the reader that the end of the story, if not happy, will not be a complete tragedy, since Pi is guaranteed to survive the catastrophe and father children of his own. The little orange cat recalls the big orange cat, Richard Parker, who helps Pi survive during his227 days at sea. As the Tsimtsum sinks, Chinese crewmen give Pi a lifejacket with an orange whistle; on the boat, he finds an orange lifebuoy. The whistle, buoy, and tiger all help Pi survive, just as Orange Juice the orangutan provides a measure of emotional support that helps the boy maintain hope in the face of horrific tragedy.
1. What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole?
the title mean in the film, tells about the Struggles, hope, faith and friendship of PI.
2. Among the characters, to whom can you relate to? of course Pi. because as a student I've been encountered lots of problems in life. but keep on hoping and praying for overcoming my challenges in life.
3. Which part of the presentation struck you the most? 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.
4. What is the movie’s message? it may not make you believe in God, but it puts up a mirror to let you see where you stand on the matter. And the reflection is gorgeous.
5. Did I like this in general? Why? I think this was an excellent and gripping film and worthwhile seeing for older children, teenagers and adults. Most of all, it is about a young Hindu boy’s spiritual journey, and for me the main theme is how he grew to give complete surrender to God for control of his present and future. There is a wonderful balance of humour with the tragedy and suspense in the film. The joke about his name is slightly vulgar, but funny all the same, and so typical of some little boys. I totally understand some people’s concerns about the different religions mentioned, and there is a slight leaning toward the idea that all religions are equal. However, as his father says in the movie—you have to choose one road and to choose all of them is to have nothing!
6. Did I agree with the main theme/purpose? Why or why not? Yes, because the movie enlightens the viewer that every one of us is facing difficulties in life. We should learn how to go on with flow of life. and live life to the fullest.
7. What specifically did I like/dislike? Why? Full of symbolism, the harsh ravages of loss, survival, and hope. It was a stunning and thoughtful movie, and, again, it is not meant to promote Christianity, but to tell a story and to explore the nature of faith.
8. Are there any aspects of theme which are left ambiguous at the end? Why? I think my difficulty has to do with the way ambiguity is imposed on the material rather than growing organically out of it. It makes sense for the investigators to doubt the tall tale, but after spending ninety minutes experiencing every detail of his journey it doesn’t play to have Pi offer up his grim twist on The Wizard of Oz’s“It was all a dream” ending. I hear the author speaking here, not Pi. Reducing the story to such a blunt metaphor causes the allegory to overwhelm the narrative when it should be humming beneath the surface. When that happens I disengage emotionally and it becomes an intellectual exercise in connecting the symbolic dots.
9. How does this film relate to the things that are happening in your life?
The movie invites you to believe in all kinds of marvelous things, but it also may cause you to doubt what you see with your own eyes. or even to wonder if, in the end, you have seen anything at all about life and whether anything we experience is really our own. it determines how we live our lives, leading to many miracles that can happen? The movie clearly depicts so with a regular boy stuck in a shipwreck for days and still having miraculously survived.
