by Emily Gee

Created on: August 12, 2008

On the surface Life of Pi is a fantasy novel featuring a young boy, Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel, who is the only survivor when the ship he is travelling on sinks in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Or at least he is the only human survivor. Struggling aboard a life raft, Pi finds himself sharing it with a hyena and an injured zebra, part of the menagerie of animals he father was transporting from their home in Pondicherry to a zoo in Winnipeg. Shortly after, this strange crew is further increased when Pi spots Richard Parker, a 450 Bengal tiger and, in a moment of madness, helps him aboard. Realising his mistake Pi throws himself overboard, only to be overcome with an even greater fear of what might lie in wait in the dark depths of the ocean.

Deciding that his only hope of survival still lies with the lifeboat, Pi drags himself back aboard, praying that as long as he sits quietly on top of the tarpaulin, then Richard Parker may spare him. It is shortly after this that yet another animal makes an appearance; Orange juice, an orang-utan, who is floating nearby on a raft of netted bananas and quickly climbs aboard. Unfortunately this animals arrival marks the beginning of a week in which the natural food chain reasserts itself before Pi's very eyes. First the hyena eats the zebra, who poses the least of a threat due to its broken leg. The hyena then eats the orang-utan and Richard Parker eats the hyena.

Alone now on a boat with a 450 pound Bengal tiger, Pi comes up with a strategy for survival. He constructs a second raft from oars and lifejackets which he tethers behind the lifeboat. This becomes his "safe zone". He then draws on his extensive knowledge of animal behaviour, learnt during his childhood helping his father at the family zoo, to convince Richard Parker he is the alpha male. He uses a whistle as a deterrent, offerings of food from the sea as rewards and even marks his own territory, his half of the life boat, with urine and vomit. Reasoning that a healthy tiger is less of a threat then a starving one, Pi also ensures Richard Parker has a good supply of clean water and fresh food.

Pi's own diet, however, is less fulfilling. At one point he goes blind and, during this time, meets another castaway, a French man who boards the lifeboat intent on murdering and eating the boy. Fortunately for Pi Richard Parker steps in and eats the French man before he can do any harm, and his tears of sorrow over the other man's death also help to restore Pi's vision.

The

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