Title: Life of Pi
Genre: Fantasy Novel
Characters: Piscine Molitor Patel as Pi,
Gita Patel as Pi mother, Santosh Patel as Pi Father, Richard Parker as Bengal
Tiger, Vibish Sivakumar as Ravi, Gerard Depardieu as Cook, Po-Chien Wang as Taiwanese
Sailor, Rafe Spall as Writer, Shravanthi Sainath as Anandi Pi teenage
girlfriend, Father Martin as Catholic Priest. Heyna, Zibra,
Setting: The
novel is a work of fiction set in the summer of 1977 that draws on places and
historical events in India .
The Patel household's discussions of the political situation refer to
historical events. Pondicherry is a former French colony in India . It does have an Indian
Coffee House and Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Garden has a toy train track. The
garden does not have a zoo. It had one in the 1970s, but did not have any
animals bigger than deer. The Botanical Garden has a small aquarium. Munnar, the
destination for the Patel family's vacation, is a small but popular hill
station in Kerala. Madurai, also referenced in the novel, is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site
in Tamil Nadu.
Plot: Life of Pi is
divided into three sections. In the first section, the main character, Pi, an
adult, reminisces about his childhood. He was named Piscine Molitor Patel after
a swimming pool in France.
He changes his name to "Pi" when he begins secondary
school, because he is tired of being taunted with the nickname "Pissing
Patel". His father owns a zoo in Pondicherry , providing Pi with a relatively
affluent lifestyle and some understanding of animal.
Pi
is raised a Hindu, but as a fourteen-year-old he is
introduced to Christianity and Islam,
and starts to follow all three religions as he "just wants to love God”.
He tries to understand God through the lens of each religion and comes to
recognize benefits in each one.
Eventually,
his family decides to sell their zoo over a land dispute with the government,
and sell the animals to various zoos around the world before immigrating
to Canada.
In the second part of the novel, Pi's family embarks on a Japanese freighter
to Canada carrying
some of the animals from their zoo, but a few days out of port, the ship meets
a storm and sinks, resulting in his family's death. During the storm, Pi
escapes death in a small lifeboat with a spotted hyena,
an injured Grant's zebra, and an orangutan.
As
Pi strives to survive among the animals, the hyena kills the zebra, then the
orangutan, much to Pi's distress. At this point, it is discovered that Bengal named Richard Parker had been hiding under
the boat's tarpaulin; it kills and eats the hyena. Frightened, Pi
constructs a small raft out of flotation devices, tethers it to the boat, and
retreats to it. He delivers some of the fish and water he harvests to Richard
Parker to keep him satisfied, conditioning Richard Parker not to
threaten him by rocking the boat and causing seasickness while blowing a
whistle. Eventually, Richard Parker learns to tolerate Pi's presence and they
both live in the boat.
Pi
recounts various events while adrift, including discovering an island of
carnivorous algae inhabited. After 227 days, the lifeboat washes up onto the
coast of Mexico and
Richard Parker immediately escapes into the nearby jungle.
In
the third part of the novel, two officials from the Japanese Ministry of
Transport speak to Pi to ascertain why the ship sank. When they do not believe
his story, he tells an alternative story of human brutality, in which Pi was
adrift on a lifeboat with his mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and the
ship's cook, who killed the sailor and Pi's mother and cut them up to use as bait and
food. Parallels to Pi's first story lead the Japanese officials to believe that
the orangutan represents his mother, the zebra represents the sailor, the hyena
represents the cook, and Richard Parker is Pi himself.
After
giving all the relevant information, Pi asks which of the two stories they
prefer. Since the officials cannot prove which story is true and neither is
relevant to the reasons behind the shipwreck, they choose the story with the
animals. Pi thanks them and says, "And so it goes with God".
Theme: The
Will To Survive, The Nature of Religious Belief
Symbolism: Animals
and Humans, The Spiritual Journey
1. WHAT
DOES THE TITLE MEAN IN RELATION TO THE FILM AS A WHOLE?
The
title mean that related to the film is when Pi challenge his journey in the Island . The story of Pi was very adventure because Pi
struggle their journey that made his to be strong to the difficult situation in
the movie.
2. AMONG
THE CHARACTERS, TO WHOM CAN YOU RELATE TO?
It's
Pi because as a student I've been encountered many problems in my life, but I
always remember to myself that we never lose hope and always have faith in God.
3. WHICH
PART OF THE PRESENTATION STUCK YOU THE MOST?
For me, the most
grateful happen in the Life of Pi is when he came to the island and he stop to
the island and the tiger disappears in the forest. It is nice and simple
expression of man's desire for being true as a human.
4. WHAT IS THE
MOVIE'S MESSAGE?
Pi faced with a heavy
challenge, they tell the story that will make believe in God. Pi successfully
helps skeptics overcome one of the largest hurdles of faith.
5. DID I LIKE THIS
IN GENERAL?
For me I think this was
an excellent and a highest rating movie and a worthwhile for the children,
teenager and to adult. It's all about a Hindu young boy that has a spiritual
journey in his life.
6. DID I AGREE WITH
THE MAIN THEME/PURPOSE?WHY OR WHY NOT?
Yes! because the movie
is gave the good enhancement to the viewer, and everyone of us must face any
problems that may encountered. We should learned to go the flow of life.
7. WHAT
SPECIFICALLY DID I LIKE/DISLIKE? WHY?
It was stunning and
thoughtful movie, because the survival and hope that made of Pi. To telling the
story that have explore the nature of faith to God.
8. ARE THERE ANY
ASPECTS OF THEME WHICH ARE LEFT AMBIGUOUS AT THE END?WHY?
The power of nature is
also emphasize in terms of emotional toll. Pi losses all hopes, accepts his
parent's and brother's death and fells true, overpowering feel. Yet he also
finds freedom in his hopelessness and he discovers that he has an ultimate will
to survive that cannot be squelched.
9. HOW DOES THIS
FILM RELATE TO THE THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING IN YOUR LIFE?
The movie tells that we
always believe in God. And to determine how we live our lives and lead to the
miracle that my come, and also to connect to the spiritual journey in my life.
The will to survive and to struggles in any problems.