1. The title of the book: Life of Pi, is pretty self-explanatory. The story is about Pi growing up, his beliefs, and then his journey on the Pacific Ocean where he struggles to survive. Giving you a glimpse of his future home and family, you can see what has become of Pi and the story of his life in the book itself.
2. Piscine Molitor Patel
This boy is the main character in the book. He is known to everyone as Pi, which is the name he gave himself at a new school after being sick of everyone calling him nasty names. 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. You get a view of his childhood in which he took up swimming and learnt to love it. When he becomes a teenager he talks about the different religions that he was interested in, which seems weird to others surrounding him as everyone usually just has one religion that they follow. You see that he has a very strong character and likes to learn new stuff and deepens himself in the history of certain things.
He doesn’t mention many friends in the story, which makes the reader believe he’s more of a loner and very independent. He’s a true individual and has an extremely strong soul, which is learnt as he makes his 227 days journey on the Pacific Ocean.
3. The story first takes place in Pondicherry, India. Pi’s father is the owner of the Pondicherry Zoo and there are also little parts that take place within the zoo.
The family leaves India on June 21st, 1977 and this is when they go aboard a Japanese ship named Tsimtsum. The rest of the story takes place on the Pacific Ocean where Pi lives on a lifeboat.
If the story didn’t take place at these places, it wouldn’t have been the story it is now. The places Pi goes to and what he experiences in those place, like his 227 days journey on the Pacific Ocean, makes this book so exciting and special.
4. The part that moved and shocked me the most was the part where the Japanese ship Tsimtsum carrying Pi and his family mysteriously sinks. Crew and passengers are lost at sea and Pi is the only survivor. He managed to survive due to being tossed into a lifeboat before the ship went under, where he was joined by some animals which were on the ship too. This part is the beginning of Pi’s journey on the Pacific ocean and moved and shocked me the most, because I can’t imagine myself being on a lifeboat with animals (which could by the way kill me) all alone in the Pacific Ocean, without anyone who could rescue us. I would be scared to death and wouldn’t know what to do unlike Pi who was very strong and handled everything very well.
5. Least favorite actor
My least favorite character is Pi’s dad, Santosh because he doesn’t support Pi. Pi’s dad runs a zoo and is least bothered about religion. He is often puzzled and worries about Pi’s believes in religion. Going through adolescence, Pi Patel seems to be passionate towards the idea of religion. However his father contradicts Pi’s passion. When Pi confessed to his father that he wanted to be baptized, his father questioned ‘Why do you want to pray outside? In fact, why do you want to pray at all?’ (page 72). By Pi’s father questioning Pi, we understand that Santosh doesn’t want Pi to believe in god. By the term ‘why do you pray at all’, we can infer that Pi’s dad doesn’t believe in religion. He feels that what Pi is doing is unusual. Pi’s dad is also not used to the concept of believing in two religion as he questions Pi ‘why do you pray outside’. Since Pi’s dad is not used to the concept of religion, he contradicts Pi’s view thus not supporting Pi. Pi’s father is not a supportive dad. I don’t like the fact that Santosh is not supporting Pi’s choices and is telling Pi to run his life the way Santosh wants it.
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