Title: LIFE OF PI
Genre: FICTION: FANTASY, DRAMA, ADVENTURE
Characters:
Piscine
Molitor "Pi" Patel
Piscine
Molitor "Pi" Patel is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. He
was named after a swimming pool in Paris,
despite the fact that neither his father nor his mother particularly liked
swimming. The story is told as a narrative from the perspective of a
middle-aged Pi, now married and with his own family, and living in Canada. At
the time of main events of the story, he is sixteen years old. He recounts the
story of his life and his 227-day journey on a lifeboat when his ship sinks in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean during a voyage to North America
Richard Parker
Richard Parker is a tiger that is stranded on the lifeboat with Pi when the
ship sinks. The tiger lives on the lifeboat with Pi and is kept alive with the
food and water Pi delivers. Richard Parker develops a relationship with Pi that
allows them to coexist in their struggle.
In the novel, a hunter who captured a tiger was named Richard Parker. He
intended to name the tiger Thirsty, because of the tiger's long time drinking
when he was found. In confusion when it was time for Richard Parker to catch a
train ride to find Thirsty a home, the woman at the ticket counter thought the
tiger's name was Richard Parker, and the hunter's name was Thirsty, with his
last name being "None Given." Pi and his father found the story so
amusing, they kept the name for the tiger, who lived at the zoo
Setting:
The novel is a work of fiction set in the summer of 1977 that draws on
places and historical events in India. The Patel household's discussions of the
political situation refer to historical events. Pondicherry is a former French
colony in India. It does have an
Indian Coffee House
and
Botanical Gardens.
The Botanical Garden has a toy train track. The garden does not have a zoo. It
had one in the 1970s, but did not have any animals bigger than deer. The
Botanical Garden has a small aquarium.
Munnar, the destination for the Patel family's vacation,
is a small but popular hill station in
Kerala.
Madurai, also referenced
in the novel, is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site in
Tamil Nadu.
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.
[8]
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." 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:
THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME
Symbolism:
Pi
Piscine Molitor Patel’s preferred moniker is more
than just a shortened version of his given name. Indeed, the word Pi carries a
host of relevant associations. It is a letter in the Greek alphabet that also
contains alpha andomega, terms used in the book to denote dominant and
submissive creatures. Pi is also an irrational mathematical number, used to
calculate distance in a circle. Often shortened to 3.14, pi has so many decimal
places that the human mind can’t accurately comprehend it, just as, the book argues,
some realities are too difficult or troubling to face. These associations
establish the character Pi as more than just a realistic protagonist; he also
is an allegorical figure with multiple layers of meaning.
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. The color of the tiger is orange
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?
- it tells about the person who struggling to survive in his journey in life.
2. Among the characters, to whom can you relate to?
-PI PATEL
3. Which part of the presentation struck you the
most? Why?
-When they reached into the island where Richard Parker find his habitat and he never turns back to Pi so he cried.
4. What is the movie’s message?
-It is how we accept God, how we are able to keep our trust and faith in Him. Whatever challenges and problems we faced, face it and keep believing in Him.
5. Did I like this in general? Why?
-YES because it tells the reality in life.
6. Did I agree with the main theme/purpose? Why or
why not?
-YES, because in life there's positive and negative effects that we'll gonna experience and
how we are able to manage the obstacles in our lives.
7. What specifically did I like/dislike? Why?
-I specifically like the part when the big waves and storms attack them in the middle of the sea, it tested their faith and there friendships between Him and Richard Parker.
8. Are there any aspects of theme which are left
ambiguous at the end? Why?
-when Pi finds a flower where inside of it there's a teeth of a human, he thinks that this island is not safe to stay.
9. How does this film relate to the things that are
happening in your life?
-The film relate to the things that are happening to my life by means of accepting the things which is not meant to be, and accepting all the challenges in my life. keep believing in Him 'cause He will never leaves me hanging. Nothing is impossible to God. =)
