Life of Pi Study Guide

It is easy to see why Yann Martel's 2001 novel, Life of Pi, was widely praised and went on to become an international bestseller. Martel tells a story both striking and unique, the life story of Piscine Patel. When he was growing up in India as the son of a zookeeper, Piscine was teased unmercifully for his name, so he shortened it to Pi, as in the mathematical symbol π. This change of name is only the first of several fascinating changes Pi experiences. Some are more or less under his control, like his pursuit of truth by simultaneously studying Christianity Hinduism, and Islam. Some, like his father's decision to move the family to Canada, are not under Pi's control, especially when the ship carrying the Patel family sinks and Pi is stranded in a lifeboat with only a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a 450-pound tiger for company.

The bulk of this fascinating, colorful novel focuses on Pi's struggles to survive and to make sense of this dehumanizing condition in which he finds himself. Every setting, from India to the lifeboat and on to Mexico once Pi is rescued, is vividly rendered. Martel has an eye for vivid details and piles them on, making this novel a joy to read and supremely easy to imagine.

Life of Pi Summary

Life of Pi is the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi, who at the age of sixteen survived for 227 days on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean. Pi’s story begins with an account of his childhood in Pondicherry India where his father is the head of the Pondicherry Zoo. Pi is a deeply spiritual person who, after learning the teachings of Hinduism Islam and Catholicism, creates his own spiritual practice from all three traditions. Pi is equally enthralled with science, influenced not only by his agnostic father but also by his biology teacher, a confirmed atheist. While Pi’s scientific and religious influences exclude one other and even while the different religions he embraces are also mutually exclusive, Pi himself is able to integrate these seemingly disparate systems of thought into his daily life.

In 1977, Pi’s family departs Pondicherry for Toronto to avoid the brewing civil unrest in India, taking many of the zoo animals with them aboard the Tsintsum, a Japanese cargo ship. The ship inexplicably sinks, and Pi finds himself alone in the Pacific Ocean in a 26-foot lifeboat with a crippled zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a male Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. No one else survives. Before the... » Complete Life of Pi Summary