Plot Summary Pi made a list of the supplies available on the lifeboat. Pi expresses his anxiety regarding the fact that he is trapped in a lifeboat with two potentially dangerous carnivores. Pi is astonished by the fact that Richard Parker suddenly slaughtered the hyena. Pi is conceiving multiple schemes to rid the lifeboat of Richard Parker. Pi’s plotting of Richard Parker’s death continues. Pi finally comes to the realization that killing Richard Parker, his only companion will result in further suffering.

Important Quotes “Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours becomes clear to you (163).” “I will beat the odds as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine (163).”

Important Quotes cont’d “We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end. It’s not a question of courage (164).” “I felt like a prisoner being pushed off a plank by pirates (181).”

Important Quotes cont’d “Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you’ve defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you (179).” “It was not a question of him or me, but of him and me (181).”

Irony “The hyena died neither whining nor whimpering, and Richard Parker killed without a sound (166).” “It was Richard Parker who calmed me down. It is the iron of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare even say wholeness (179).”

Irony cont’d “Richard Parker did it again, this time with a rolling of the head. He looked exactly as if he were asking me a question (181).”

Imagery & Figurative Language “His body, bright brownish orange streaked with black vertical stripes was incomparably beautiful, matched with a tailor’s eye for harmony by his pure white chest and underside and the black rings of his long tail (167).” “Every hair on me was standing up, shrieking with fear (168).”

Imagery & Figurative Language “Richard Parker opened his maw and the squealing rat disappeared into it like a baseball into a catcher’s mitt (169).” “On the rain catcher the rain made a drumming sound, and around me, coming from the darkness beyond, it made a hissing sound, as if I were at the centre of a great nest of angry snakes (173).”