Life of Pi: Author ’ s Note

Life of Pi: Author’s Note HKASL ~ Literature in English

Summary • The brief, italicized section: • With some background on the book’s author • Written himself into the text as a character • 1996: second trip to India ~ He flew to Bombay to rejuvenate his mind after learning about the less than favorable response to his first two books • Plans: to write a novel about Portugal • Failed to materialize the book ~ hopeless and dejected about his prospects

Summary • Arrived in the town of Pondicherry after a period of wandering • Pondicherry ~ once controlled by the French Empire • Become self-governing decades ago • The author met by chance a man named Francis Adirubasamy in a local coffee shop • Francis offered to tell him a story

Summary • The author called up Mr. Patel [Pi] back in his native Canada • Mr. Patel agreed to meet with him and tell him his own version of the story • Showed the author documents, including his old diary and ancient newspaper clippings about his ordeal • Supporting documents received from the Japanese Ministry of Transport • Author: to write up Mr. Patel’s account using Mr. Patel’s own voice and looking through his eyes. Any mistakes, he states, are the author’s own.

Analysis • It clues us into the book’s origins • It blurs the boundary between fact and fiction • Claim: the text is nonfiction • In the tradition of picaresque novels • Example:Don Quixote • Masquerading as fact even though they are obviously works of imagination • Harsh realities of life — poverty, illness, and so on — are treated in a wry, ironic, and even humorous way • Serious commentary made by the narrator on everything, from religion to politics • Mock-journalistic introduction: the intersection of fact and fiction in his literary world

Analysis • Central theme of the book: storytelling • Two not-so-successful books before • Struck by inspiration during a visit to India • Did Yann Martel really meet Francis Adirubasamy in a coffee shop? • Does Pi Patel really exist? • No • Martel: creating an imaginary scenario to delight and entice his readers • Foundation for the novel’s central theme: • Storytelling as a way to get around telling the boring or upsetting or uninteresting truth

Analysis • Balanced structurally by Part Three: another short section concerned with creating the impression that this entire book is a work of nonfiction • To suspend our disbelief and invest ourselves more fully in the story we are about to read

Life of Pi: Chapters 1 – 6

Summary • Beginning: Pi’s declaration ~ his great suffering, leaving him despondent • The nature of his suffering and its source are not yet clear to the reader • Pi as a very good student in his religious and zoological studies • His religious studies thesis: aspects of Isaac Luria’s cosmogony theory • Pi’s Speaking about sloths at length and his observation: • Their very survival ensured by their slow and dull lifestyle • Disappearance into the background • Now working, Pi misses India and loves Canada, and he misses someone named Richard Parker.

Summary • Pi’s stay at a hospital in Mexico • Treated exceptionally well • His ailments—anemia, fluid retention, dark urine, broken skin • Up and walking in about a week’s time • Fainted the first time he turned on a water tap and heard the water rushing forth • How he felt wounded when a waiter in an Indian restaurant in Canada criticized him for using his fingers to eat. • Narrative briefly switched to the author’s point of view: • Describing Pi as a small, gray-haired, middle-aged man, who talks quickly and directly

Summary • Pi’s narrative: his reflections on his boyhood in India • Named after a pool • Learned to swim from a family friend, Francis Adirubasamy, whom Pi calls Mamaji • Mamaji: • A champion swimmer when he was young • Instilled in Pi a love for the ritualistic nature of swimming • His favorite pool in the world: the Piscine Molitor in Paris [it is after that pool that Pi received his unusual name]

Summary • Pi’s father: used to run the Pondicherry Zoo • Pi grew up thinking the zoo was paradise • The ritualistic habits of zoo creatures: • The alarm-clock precision of the roaring lions • The howler monkeys • The songs that are birds’ daily rites • Defended zoos against those who would rather the animals were kept in the wild • Wild creatures: at the mercy of nature • Zoo creatures: a life of luxury and constancy • Pondicherry Zoo is now shut down • Many people now hold both zoos and religions in disrepute.

Summary • Teasing Pi received as a child because of his full name, Piscine • Other school children turned into Pissing • Trained his classmates and teachers to call him Pi: • by writing it on the chalkboard of each of his classrooms • Briefly switched back to the voice of the author: Pi’s kitchen in Canada is extremely well-stocked

Analysis • Foreshadowing something devastating and extraordinary • Approaching that nameless event from the outside in, • Providing information about Pi’s life before and after before getting to the heart of the tragedy itself • Building up the suspense • Allowing us to get to know Pi as a normal boy and a fully fleshed out character, not just as a victim of circumstance • Drawing readers firmly into the story ~ we want to know: • Who is Richard Parker? • What happened to him? • Pi’s memories of India

Analysis • Pi’s reference of his thesis on sixteenth-century Kabbalist Isaac Luria’s cosmogony theory: very important to the book as a whole • Luria’s theory of creation: • God contracted to make room for the universe • This contraction: Tsimtsum • Followed by light, carried in five vessels • Shattered vessels causing the sparks of light to sink into matter • God reordered them into five figures, which became the dimensions of our created reality • Foreshadowing the main event to come: • Sinking of the ship, the Tsimtsum • Giving Pi the room to create his own version of the events that follow • Five figures that make up reality for Luria ~ five characters on the lifeboat (including Pi himself) shape Pi’s story [reality Vs. imagination]

Analysis • Zoo: an important place in Pi’s memory • Pi’s belief system shaped by growing up in a zoo • Knowing about animal nature • Imbued in him the meaning of freedom • Zoos are places of habit: • Chores that the keepers must perform every day • Examples: feeding and cleaning the animals and their cages • Animal rituals

Analysis • Pi establishes early on the orderliness of the zoo and the comforting sense of regularity it gives him • Animals prefer the consistency of zoo life • Similarly humans accustom themselves to the rituals and abundance of modern society [their own sort of zoo] • Zoo animals rarely run away: they enjoy the abundant water and food • Life in the wild: a constant battle for survival + a race against the odds and other creatures • Death: a constant presence and possibility • All of us living in modern society: zoo creatures • Defanged and protected from the wilderness waiting for us beyond the enclosure walls • Walls from which Pi will soon be freed

Analysis • Explanations of Pi’s name • As much text as his philosophizing about zoos • The watery associations of Piscine Molitor’s full name: • Piscine: • “Pool” in French • A derivation with pisces, or fish • Pi learns how to swim from Francis Adirubasamy • He gravitates toward water

Analysis • Pi’s name: • Two functions in the text: • Emphasizing the idea that a very strong swimmer like Pi might realistically have survived in the ocean after a shipwreck • Pi as an odd name that is has the ring of allegory, positioning Pi as a mythic or fabled character • The literal, mathematic symbol pi: • An almost impossibly long number whose combinations never repeat • Symbolizing Pi’s long journey, with all its variations

Analysis • Amount of energy that Pi devotes to the ideas of rituals and routine in the lives of zoo creatures: • Repetition he used to train his schoolmates and teachers into calling him Pi • Leaps up during roll call • Writes his full name on the blackboard • Underlines his preferred nickname, Pi • Speaks it aloud • Carries out this act in each classroom, during every roll call • To the point where his fellow students start to follow along • Indication: humans = animals • Repetition proves to be a very effective teacher

Life of Pi: Author ’ s Note