Life Of Pi- Spectacular Summary

 Overview

• The novel’s outstanding first part takes us on Pi’s journey before the dreaded shipwreck.
• Pi is an inquisitive boy who is amazed with the world and its many wonders.

• Throughout his journey, we see how Pi’s home life indirectly prepares him for the tragic struggles that lie ahead of him.
• Much emphasis is placed on his passion for religion and his
  strong relationship with God.
• His experience as a zookeeper’s son is another critical component for his survival in part two, as it educates him on how to handle animals and their wild behaviour.

On a unique note

• The opening author’s note is rather peculiar in comparison to the traditional author’s note. Yann Martel has written himself into the text as a character, using italics to indicate the voicing of this character.
• The telling of a story within a story creates a divinely unusual frame narrative. 

• The only frames we experience in part one, however, consist of Yann Martel, the writer of the author’s note and Pi’s childhood voice.

Radical Religions

• Pi’s unusual view on religion is slowly explained as Yann Martel describes the series of events that lead to Pi’s love for not one, but three different religious practices.

  

• In one suspenseful event, all three of Pi’s religious mentors stumble onto his path at the same time. After much defensive outrage from the ‘three wise men’, Pi declares that he is a faithful believer in all three religions, saying, "Bapu Gandhi said, 'All religions are true.' I just want to love God."

Super science

• Although he is unquestionably faithful to all three of his chosen religions, Pi also expresses a healthy passion for science.
• Satish Kumar (Pi’s biology teacher) is an atheist polio survivor who inspires Pi to study zoology in college.
• Although he is a science-lover, Pi does not agree with Kumar’s atheist view that religion is darkness, saying, “Darkness is the last thing that religion is. Religion is light.”

Soothing sloth

While growing up in the Pondicherry Zoo, Pi spent many a happy 

hour observing and interacting with a variety of weird and 

wonderful animals. He expressed a particular interest, however, in 

the three-toed sloth. He portrays the sloth as, “calm, quiet and 

introspective”, describing soothing effect that it has on him. He 

goes on to describe their many weaknesses, such as their dulled 

senses. He says, “On a scale of 2 to 10, where 2 represents unusual 

dullness and 10 extreme acuity, Beebe (1926) gave the sloth's 

senses of taste, touch, sight and hearing a rating of 2, and its sense 

of smell a rating of 3.” Considering how slow the sloth is, and how 

dulled their senses are, it is a miracle that they survive at all! Their 

existence- despite all odds- is a wonder in itself. The sloth’s very 

being is proof that it is possible to survive, despite vulnerability. It 

is a message that gives Pi hope and contributes toward his 

miraculous survival in part two.

Sources

http://www.gradesaver.com/life-of-pi/q-and-a/what-does-the-sloth-symbolize-to-pi-112147


http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-does-pi-describe-sloth-beautiful-example-66137


https://sites.google.com/site/15lifeofpi1/chapters/chapter-1


http://www.shmoop.com/life-of-pi/religion-quotes.html


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi


http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lifeofpi/themes.html