Yann Martel ’ s Life of Pi An Introduction... "A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction and its human creators, and in the original power of storytellers like Martel." — Los Angeles Times Book Review
Yann Martel - Born in 1963 to Canadian parents while living in Spain - Travelled to Iran, Turkey and India - Started writing at the age of 27 To write Life f Pi : - Six months spent in India visiting temples, churches and zoos. - An entire year reading religious texts and castaway stories - actual writing took 2 more years - Writing career took off with Life of Pi - Won the Mann Booker prize awarded each year to the best English language novel written by a Commonwealth or Irish author - Translated into thirty languages - Screen rights purchased by Fox
Background of the novel Life of Pi is set against the tumultuous period of Indian history known as the Emergency. In 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of charges related to her 1971 election campaign and was ordered to resign. Instead — and in response to a rising tide of strikes and protests that were paralyzing the government — Gandhi declared a state of emergency, suspending constitutional rights and giving herself the power to rule by decree. The Emergency lasted for eighteen months and was officially ended in March 1977 when Gandhi called for a new round of elections
Brief introduction... In Life of Pi , Piscine (Pi) Molitor Patel's father, a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India, grows nervous about the current political situation. Speculating that Gandhi might try to take over his zoo and faced with depressing economic conditions, Pi's father decides to sell off his zoo animals and move his family to Canada, thus setting the main action of the novel into motion. Though only a relatively brief section of Life of Pi is actually set in India, the country's eclectic makeup is reflected throughout the novel. Pi is raised as a Hindu but as a young boy discovers both Christianity and Islam and decides to practice all three religions simultaneously. In the Author's Note, an elderly Indian man describes the story of Pi as “ a story that will make you believe in God. ”
Setting... India's diverse culture is further reflected in Martel's choice of Pondicherry as a setting. India was a British colony for nearly two hundred years, most of the nation has been deeply influenced by British culture. Pondicherry, a tiny city in southern India, was once the capital of French India and as such has retained a uniquely French flavor that sets it apart from the rest of the nation. Pi Patel begins his life in a diverse cultural setting before encountering French, Mexican, Japanese, and Canadian characters along his journey.
Route: India (Pondicherry) to Canada
Life of Pi is a story about struggling to survive through seemingly insurmountable odds
The novel can be categorised as... postcolonial novel , because of its post- an adventure story Independence Indian setting as well as its Canadian authorship It even flirts with nonfiction genres a work of magical realism , because - the Author's Note claims that the story of Pi is a fantastical elements — such as animals true story that the author heard while with human personalities or an island backpacking through Pondicherry with cannibalistic trees — appear in an - and the novel, with its first-person narrator, is otherwise realistic setting structured as a memoir a bildungsroman , a coming-of-age tale (a - at the end of the novel, look for interview novel dealing with one person's formative transcripts, another genre of nonfiction years or spiritual education.) writing
Characters Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) - Protagonist - Narrator for most of the novel - His account of 7 months (227 days) at sea (Pacific Ocean) - His unusual name is the French word for ‘ pool ’ - A pool in Paris in which a close family friend, Francis Adirubasamy, loved to swim - He is a student of zoology and religion - Deeply intrigued by the habits and characteristics of animals and people. - Older brother: Ravi Father: Santosh Patel Mother: Gita Patel
Themes... Religion At times, Life of Pi reads like a defense of religion. Has science proved religion wrong? Here's a protagonist who believes passionately in both zoology and religion. What about the fact of multiple faiths? Don't these faiths contradict each other, cause wars, and other problems? Here's a protagonist who is Muslim, Christian, and Hindu – all at the same time. The book defends not only the common spirit behind these three religions, but the rituals and ceremonies of each. It's as if all three religions find harmonious common ground in this character. Seems unlikely, but then again, the protagonist argues passionately that the miraculous happens in our darkest moments. Spirituality This theme often brings to mind more ethereal subjects like the soul or the soul's rebirth. You'd be both right and wrong applying such lofty thoughts to Life of Pi . In this book, spirituality grounds itself in the everyday. The most ordinary activities take on a level of spiritual intensity (granted they happen in an extraordinary setting). Often, the protagonist describes – perhaps with a little jealousy – animals engaging their surroundings with an almost yogic discipline. Of course, this is not to say spirituality is always fun and games. Sometimes suffering and duress actually bring about the protagonist's spiritual insights. In fact, except for the protagonist's suffering, spirituality might have a more limited role in the novel.
Suffering Suffering brings out the best and the worst in Life of Pi 's characters. On the one hand, the characters care for each other when they very well could have killed each other. On the other hand, suffering drives a few characters to murder and cannibalism. There's a moment in the book when the protagonist catches a dorado fish. To subdue it, he beats it with a hatchet. He says, "I felt like I was beating a rainbow to death" (2.60.31). Whoever or whatever causes suffering in this novel – God or a bizarre sequence of events – the characters' musings and fortitude through it all recall the sheen and flash of a rainbow. Science The protagonist of Life of Pi loves science. Science, along with reason, helps us control and manipulate the world. It's how we survive in the world. But Pi points out that like religion, science has an element of faith in it. Unlike agnosticism, where the person doesn't commit to either faith or disbelief, the scientist often commits to a worldview of atheism and to the methods of his discipline. For the protagonist of Life of Pi , though, this isn't enough. We have to embrace the irrational and miraculous if we're to have a full picture of our universe. Science can explain the world up to a certain point, but its usefulness ends. According to Pi, when things get really hairy, religion has to step in with a good old-fashioned story. Fear If we have nothing to fear but fear itself, what about the fear of fear itself? Does that count as two fears or is it still one fear? It's this type of mind game our protagonist has to avoid on the lifeboat. Pi has to fight against being crippled by fear, as he goes about the everyday business of survival. He definitely has a lot of things to be afraid of – bone-crunching waves, man-eating sharks, and conniving tigers, to name a few. Of course, fear also takes on an existential component in the novel, meaning that Pi also has to deal with the terror of isolation, meaninglessness, and boredom. When faced with the latter types of emptiness, maybe fighting off sharks and tigers doesn't sound so bad.
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