1. Life of Pi
By Yann Martel
FRAME NARRATIVE

2. What is a FRAME NARRATIVE?
In a nutshell, a frame narrative is a “story within a story”
You are probably familiar with this technique, but if you just watched the movie, you may not realize how many frames exist in this story

3. Examples of FRAME NARRATIVES...
Titanic – (the movie) the story of “Old Rose” revisiting the site of the Titanic “bookends” the love story of Jack and “Young Rose” onboard the ship in 1912
Forrest Gump – Forrest (in the present) is telling his life story (of Forrest in the past) to various citizens on the park bench
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) & Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) are two famous Frame Narratives
Can you think of any others?

4. Another way to view FRAME NARRATIVES...
We can look at frame narratives as a diagram
For example, with Titanic:
“Old Rose”
Love story of “Young Rose” and Jack

5. FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi
Martel uses a FRAME NARRATIVE
Martel is the “real” author of the novel, Life of Pi…
The story begins with an Author’s Note, narrated by an anonymous author figure
This creates the illusion that the book is fact/real, when in fact it is FICTIONAL
Why do you think he may have done this?
b/c it pulls us into the world of imagination and blurs the boundary between fantasy and reality by inserting himself in the story.

6. FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi
The italicized passages are the voice of an anonymous author who is writing a story, told in Pi’s own words
These passages provide a description of how he learned about Pi, as well as his interviews with Pi in the present day.
So... when does Pi develop his story for the first time? Was it on the boat?

7. FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi
The story has THREE narrative “layers” (plus a “mystery” layer...)
The author of the novel itself, Yann Martel
The “author” of the Author’s Note (who is talking about meeting with Francis (Mamaji) Adirubasamy and interviewing “real” Pi while researching for the novel
Piscine Molitor Patel in present day who is narrating the story of his younger self and his survival
There is one more narrative layer or “voice” to this story that is yet to be discovered. See if you can figure it out …

8. FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi
Now that we have all the layers or “voices” for our FRAME NARRATIVE, draw a diagram to represent them in your notes. We will see this device again this year.
Yann Martel
Author’s Note
Pi Patel the Narrator ?

9. So what is the PURPOSE of a FRAME NARRATIVE?
The shifts in point of view (POV) serve to create a sense of verisimilitude
Verisimilitude – the appearance of something to be real or true – when what we are reading appears to be true
However, a Frame Narrative can also cause us to question the first person point of view
Why should we be careful with 1st person POV?

10. PURPOSE of a FRAME NARRATIVE?
Even fantasy or sci-fi novels/stories which deal with impossible (or very improbable) events can possess verisimilitude if the reader is willing to suspend their disbelief
Willing suspension of disbelief – when a reader/viewer temporarily and willingly sets aside their beliefs about reality in order to enjoy the “make-believe” of a play, novel, poem or movie
e.g. We can watch Harry Potter without feeling “gullible” as long as we, the audience, set aside our sense of what is “real” for the duration of the movie.

11. FIN