1. Life of Pi: Part Two (The Pacific Ocean) ~ Chapters 37–42
HKASL ~ Literature in English

2. Summary
The ship sinks
Pi finds himself in a lifeboat in the utter chaos
A Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker:
In the water, near drowning
Urges Pi to save himself
Boards the lifeboat
Pi:
Realizes the danger in sharing a tiny space with a vicious animal
Throws himself into the roiling water

3. Summary Back a few moments: just before the sinking of the Tsimtsum
A loud noise, perhaps an explosion, wakes Pi
Tries to wake Ravi so they can go exploring together
Ravi stays asleep
Pi passes his parents’ cabin door and climbs up to the main deck
Raining
The boat:
Listing considerably to one side
Making awful groaning noises
Pi:
Begins to feel afraid
Trying to run back down to where his family is
The stairwell is full of water

4. Summary Going back up to the main deck… Pi hears animals shrieking
Three Chinese crewmen put a life jacket on him
Throw him over the side of the ship
He falls forty feet before landing on a tarpaulin partially covering a lifeboat hanging from the ship’s side
A Grant’s zebra jumps into the lifeboat after him, smashing down onto a bench
The lifeboat falls into the water

5. Summary Just after Pi jumps from the lifeboat into the water
To escape Richard Parker
A shark cuts through the water nearby
Pi:
Terrified
Sees only the zebra, not the tiger in the boat
Slips back into the water but sees another shark
Quickly hoists himself up onto an oar hanging off the edge of the ship
Dangles a few feet above the water, holding on for dear life

6. Summary The ship continues to sink… It disappears
No other survivors (as Pi can tell)
Pi’s making decision that he needs to change position…
To prevent further soreness
To help him spot other lifeboats
Pi:
Climbs up onto the lifeboat’s tarpaulin cover (he believes Richard Parker is hiding under)
Frightened
Expects the tiger to appear and attack him at any moment
The tiger stays hidden
The zebra is still alive, but with a severely broken back leg

7. Summary A hyena appears… Pi’s conclusion:
Richard Parker must have drowned
A tiger and hyena could not both be on the lifeboat at the same time
He himself as bait for the hyena by the crew members
Hoping to clear the lifeboat for themselves
Fearful of the hyena…
The upfront aggression of a dog: preferable to the slyness and stealth of a jungle cat (Richard Parker)

8. Summary An orangutan came… Named Orange Juice
A star animal at the Pondicherry Zoo
Mother of two male orangutans
Floats up to the lifeboat on a raft of bananas tangled up in a net
Boards the lifeboat in shock
Pi saves the net but the bananas sink

9. Analysis
The strongest message: The fierce, unrelenting power with which life will fight to stave off death
Close calls and near-fatal incidents
Life continually surprises us with its might and will power:
Pi: survives his forty-foot fall through the air and lands unharmed on the lifeboat’s spongy tarpaulin cover
Zebra: survives a much less graceful fall and a broken leg
Richard Parker:, swims through turbulent ocean waters to clamber aboard a lifeboat in a state of shock and panic
Orange Juice: magically appears out of nowhere to join this group of survivors

10. Analysis
“Had I considered my prospects in light of reason, I surely would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping that I might drown before being eaten.” :
The sheer will to live outweighs logical thought
Pi clings to the oar, and to life
Stark contrast to the loss of lives — both human and animal — that the Tsimtsum’s sinking caused

11. Analysis Appearance of Orange Juice
The most humanlike of all the creatures that manage to board the lifeboat
Emphasizing the loss of human life
A maternal figure: having given birth to two boys at the Pondicherry Zoo
The striking parallel between Orange Juice and Mrs. Patel (Both have two sons)

12. Analysis
Pi’s untenable position: the turning point in an adolescent boy’s life
Having to navigate the rough waters: the security of family life Vs. the independence of adulthood
Difficulty of growing up
Teasing from childhood friends
existential questioning of early adolescence
Pi’s hesitation and walking past his parents’ cabin door just before the sinking of the Tsimtsum: his desire to become independent
The loss of his family: A inconsolable and uncertain Pi
Muscle aches Vs. Emotional pain: Pi must figure out how to fend for himself in a lonely, confusing, and even violent world