1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

2. Time & Place The story is set in the 1970s
It takes place around the time when India becomes communist and is ruled by a dicator.
Pi’s family decide to leave Pondicherry
Emigrate to Canada for a better life
Most of the story takes place on an orange life boat in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean

3. How Pi Got His Name, PISCINE MOLITOR PATEL
As an interesting example of marked language, Martel starts this survival-at-sea story with a water-related story of how Pi got his name.
Pi explains, “I was named after a swimming pool. Quite peculiar considering my parents never took to water.” (pages 11-12) (Note the foreshadowing.)
Mamaji, Pi’s father’s business partner and friend of the family, was a world class swimming champion, and his favorite swimming pool was the Piscine Molitor in Paris where he had competed in the Olympics.

4. In school, Piscine had trouble with his strange name
In school, Piscine had trouble with his strange name. Some people thought that he was an Indian Sikh by the name of “P. Singh.”
Pi’s classmates called him Pissing Patel, and they would ask “Where’s Pissing? I’ve got to go,” or they would say, “You’re facing the wall. Are you Pissing?”
After these taunts, “the sound would disappear, but the hurt would linger, like the smell of piss long after it has evaporated.”
Even the teachers would forget to use his full name and would call on him with “Yes, Pissing” (p ).

5. This lasted through all the years at St. Joseph’s elementary school.
On the first day at Petit Séminaire (high school), when it came time for each student to announce his name, Piscine went to the chalkboard and wrote:
MY NAME IS
PISCINE MOLITOR PATEL,
KNOWN TO ALL AS
PI PATEL (Martel 20-23).

6. For good measure, he added
π =
Then he drew a large circle and sliced it in two “with a diameter to evoke the basic lesson of geometry.” (pp )
Pi’s older brother teased him for being so fond of yellow that he changed his name to Lemon Pie.

7. The Family’s Grand Adventure
Pi’s father decides the family should emigrate to Canada.
So Pi, his parents, his older brother Ravi, and the most valuable of the zoo animals prepare to sail across the Pacific Ocean aboard the Tsimtsum, a Panamaniaan-registered Japanese cargo ship.
Again Martel uses names to indicate the mother’s hesitation just before boarding.

8. Names Connected to India
Pi’s mother, dressed in her most beautiful sari, is sad to be leaving India. She points to a cigarette wallah and earnestly asks, “Should we get a pack or two?”
Her husband, responds, “They have tobacco in Canada, And why do you want to buy cigarettes? We don’t smoke” (p ).
Martel regularly used Indian names as a reminder that he is telling a story about a family from Pondicherry, India.
Pi wistfully explains: “Yes, they have tobacco in Canada—but do they have Gold Flake cigarettes? Do they have Arun ice cream? Are the bicycles Heroes? Are the televisions Onidas? Are the cars Ambassadors? Are the bookshops Higginbothams?”
Such… were the questions that swirled in Pi’s Mother’s mind as she contemplated buying cigarettes (Martel 90-91).

9. But Alas, the family doesn’t make it to Canada
But Alas, the family doesn’t make it to Canada. The great ship sinks into the Pacific with “a sound like a great metallic burp.
Pi had been awake and so made it to a life boat.
From the lifeboat Pi saw something, and cried, “Richard Parker, is that you? It’s so hard to see. Oh, that this rain would stop! Richard Parker? Richard Parker? Yes, it is you!”

10. The Arrival of RICHARD PARKER
Pi is a Christian, but he is also a Muslim and a Hindu, and when he first sees Richard Parker, he shouts “Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you, Richard Parker!”
“I could see his head. He was struggling to stay at the surface of the water…. He had seen me. He looked panic-stricken. He started swimming my way. The water about him was shifting wildly. He looked small and helpless.”
“Richard Parker, can you believe what has happened to us? Tell me it’s a bad dream. Tell me it’s not real. Tell me I’m still in my bunk on the Tsimtsum… and I’ll soon wake up from this nightmare.” (p. 97).
Pi suddenly realizes that he does not want to share his future with Richard Parker even though Richard Parker is the only familiar thing Pi sees swimming in the water. Richard Parker is a 450 pound Bengal Tiger. By the time Pi comprehends what this means, he has already thrown out a life buoy and the tiger is pulling himself onto the boat, and so begins the “real” survival story.

11. Orange Juice, A More Welcome Survivor comes floating in on a great bunch of bananas
In his excitement, Pi cries “Oh blessed Great Mother, Pondicherry fertility goddess, provider of milk and love, wondrous arm spread of comfort, terror of ticks, picker-up of crying ones, are you to witness this tragedy too?”

12. The Zebra, The Hyena
Zebra: Wounded from the jump into the lifeboat, because he missed the tarpaulin
The Hyena

13. Conflict, climax, resolution
The main conflict of the story is the fight for survival, with very little food and exposure to the elements.
The ultimate climax of the story was when Pi conquered Richard Parker and showed him who the boss was. By doing so Pi conquered his fear of being all alone and was not afraid to face his fears anymore.
The resolution finally occured when Pi is rescued and walks off onto land in Mexico.
After approx 200 days of survival, Pi tells his story to the journalists.

14. Symbolism/ Theme Orange Hope and Survival
Whistle, lifebuoy, life jacket
Orange Juice
Richard Parker
Tarpaulin
Hinduism
Survival
Pi made a lot of things out of objects he found in the boat, i.e. anchor out of tarpauline and metal rungs.
Made a raft
He also found out he could eat many different kinds of fish.

15. Representation Orange Juice- Pi’s mother The zebra- a sailor
The hyena- the cook
Richard Parker- Is a real tiger, but wasn’t really there with Pi on the boat. Just an idea in his head, representing fear.