Notes and Background Information

Life of Pi

Setting

Information about Pondicherry

■ India was a British colony for nearly 200 years.

■ However, Pondicherry was once the capital of French India and so it retains its French culture.

Places in Pondicherry

Place de la Republic Pondicherry Seafront

Aurobindo Ashram

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

■ In 1975 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of charges related to her 1971 election campaign.

■ Because of unrest in India, she kept ruling and declared a “state of emergency”—this time period known as the “Emergency” period. It lasted 18 months and ended in March 1977.

■ It was a controversial time period because she took away peoples’ rights and jailed her opponents—yet India was economically successful.

■ In Life of Pi, Pi’s father gets nervous about the possibility of Gandhi taking over his business—and so this causes him to make the decision to move to Canada.

Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)

■ The protagonist of the story■ Piscine is the narrator for most of the novel, and his

account of his seven months at sea forms the bulk of the story.

■ He gets his unusual name from the French word for pool—and, more specifically, from a pool in Paris in which a close family friend, Francis Adirubasamy, loved to swim.

■ A student of zoology and religion, Pi is very interested and intrigued by the habits and characteristics of animals and people.

The Author

■ Narrator of the (fictitious) Author’s Note. He inserts himself into the narrative at several points throughout the text.

■ Though the author who pens the Author’s Note never identifies himself by name, there are many clues that indicate it is Life of Pi author Yann Martel himself.

■ Thinly disguised: Martel lives in Canada, has published two books, and was inspired to write Pi’s life story during a trip to India.

Francis Adirubasamy

■ Elderly man who tells the author Pi’s story during a chance meeting at a Pondicherry coffee shop.

■ Adirubasamy taught Pi, as a child, to swim and gave him his unusual moniker.

■ He arranges for the Author to meet Pi in person, to get a first-hand account of his strange and compelling tale.

■ Pi calls Adirubasamy Mamaji, an Indian term meaning respected uncle.

Pi’s Family

■ Ravi is Pi’s popular older brother, who prefers sports to schoolwork.

■ He teases Pi about his devotion to three different religions

■ Santosh Patel is Pi’s father, who runs the Pondicherry Zoo.

■ He worries a lot and teaches his sons to fear animals.■ Raised a Hindu but not a religious man. He is

puzzled by Pi’s interest in three religions.■ Difficult conditions in India prompt Santosh to move

the family to Canada.

More Family Members …

■ Gita Patel is Pi’s beloved mother and protector.

■ She loves books and encourages Pi to read widely.

■ Raised a Hindu with a Baptist education, Gita does not subscribe to any religion and questions Pi’s religious declarations.

■ Gita speaks her mind and lets Santosh know when she disagrees with his parenting ideas.

Satish Kumar

■ Pi’s atheist Biology teacher at Petit Seminaire, a secondary school in Pondicherry.

■ Satish, a polio survivor, is an odd-looking man with a triangular-shaped body.

■ His devotion to the power of scientific inquiry and explanation inspires Pi to study zoology in college.

Father Martin

■ Catholic priest who introduces Pi to Christianity after Pi wanders into his church.

■ Father Martin preaches a message of love.

■ Father Martin, the Muslim Mr. Kumar, and the Hindu Pandit disagree about whose religion Pi should practice.

Satish Kumar (yes, again!)

■ A plain-featured Muslim mystic with the same name as Pi’s Biology teacher.

■ Mr. Kumar works in a bakery.

■ Like the “other” Mr. Kumar, this man has a strong effect on Pi’s academic plans; his faith leads Pi to study religion at college.

Themes

■ The will to survive■ The limits of human endurance■ Depravity and civility in human

instinct (what humans will do to survive)

■ Nature of religious belief(s)■ Importance of storytelling ■ Finding purpose in life and

terrible experiences

Motifs

■ Territorial dominance

■ Hunger and thirst

■ Routine and ritual

Symbols

■ Pi (the number)

■ The color orange

■ Many more we will discuss as book is read

Point of View

■ Yann Martel wrote Life of Pi in a first person perspective.

■ Pi Patel tells his own story: life through his childhood, including 227 intriguing days spent on a life raft.

■ As a traditional first person narrative, the information that the narrator knows -- the reader also knows. This is altered a little in Life of Pi because the story is recounted after the event so wisdom and hindsight are also a part of the novel.

Narrative Structure

■ Frame story: The fake Author’s Note frames the rest of the story.

■ After the Author’s Note, Life of Pi is written in three sections■ the first is Pi’s childhood synopsis■ the second is the 227-day journey across the ocean to

North America■ the third is his experience with the reporters

■ These formal elements help to define the different aspects of Pi’s character development — and other things we will discuss.

Purpose of Narrative Structure

■ Martel uses the form of the novel to delineate different parts of Pi’s developmental process (or the developmental process in general).

■ In this way, the theme is gradually introduced to the reader.

■ The reader can endure the same journey that Pi encounters.

■ The form of the novel is key to understanding the novel.

Part One

■ The first section describes Pi as a little boy in both physical and developmental terms.

■ In this section, Martel describes a young boy amazed with the world and all that is in it.

Part Two

■ The next section of the novel is dedicated to the main mode of character development.

■ This aspect of the novel describes the origin of Pi’s transformation.

Part Three

■ The last section of the novel represents Pi’s ultimate maturation, in which he is able to articulate life’s importance.

■ It is in this section that the theme of the novel is communicated to the reader.

Verisimilitude

■ Verisimilitude: likeness to the truth i.e. resemblance of a fictitious work to a real event even if it is a far-fetched one■ events should be plausible to the extent that

readers consider them credible enough to be able to relate them somehow to experiences of real life

■ just because something can be described as having verisimilitude does not mean that it is true, only that merely appears to or seems to be true

Suspension of disbelief

■ Suspension of disbelief: temporary acceptance of events or characters ordinarily seen as incredible

■ Readers accept events as real in order to fully experience what the artist is attempting to convey

Anthropomorphism

■ Anthropomorphism: technique in which a writer ascribes human traits, ambitions, emotions or entire behavior to animals, non-human beings, natural phenomena or objects. ■ Personification is the act of giving human

characteristics to animals or objects to create imagery, while anthropomorphism aims to make an animal or object behave and appear like they are human beings.