Life of Pi

Life of Pi Summary

The first section is an adult Pi Patel’s rumination over his childhood. The main character, Piscine Patel (aka "Pi") talks about his life living as the son of a zookeeper, and speaks at length about animal behaviour, while also speaking about his religion - Pi practices Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, having seen merits in all three religions. He says "I just want to love God." While on a ship when his family leaves politically oppressed Pondicherry for Canada, the Japanese ship Tsimtsum mysteriously sinks into the ocean (most likely due to an engine malfunction). Everyone, including Pi's family, is lost at sea and Pi is the only survivor of the fatal accident. He manages to survive due to being tossed into the lifeboat before the ship went under, and is joined by a zebra who jumps into the boat and breaks its leg due to the impact. Pi then mistakenly helps a dangerous 450-pound Bengali tiger by the name of Richard Parker, only to realize his mistake after the tiger is on board. There are other animals on the boat with Pi, including a hyena, orangutan, various insects and other pestilence. At first Pi believes that Richard Parker the tiger has abandoned the boat, and focuses on surviving the hyena. It is not long before the hyena begins to feed on the zebra. After the zebra's death, the hyena kills the orangutan, prompting Pi to approach it, lest he be next. It is then that he notices that Richard Parker has been resting under a tarpaulin and has been aboard the lifeboat the entire time.

The tiger kills and eats the hyena, but does not immediately attack Pi. The young man manages to construct a raft using supplies aboard the boat, and avoids direct confrontation with Richard Parker by keeping out of the tiger's territory on the deck of the boat. He fishes and feeds both Richard Parker and himself and tries to keep both of them alive. Later as they are close to death, the duo wash ashore upon a strange island formed of a tightly-knit edible algae. The island is populated by meerkats and contains pools of fresh water, but at night the algae that forms the island becomes dangerously acidic. After some time, Pi finds a strange tree on the island, and upon examining the tree's unusual "fruit", finds human teeth. He deduces that the 'island' is actually a massive plantlike organism that has consumed a human previously. Pi and Richard Parker soon leave. They later make it to Mexico, whereupon the tiger leaves Pi feeling at a loss for losing his one companion. By the time he has made it to the hospital, he has been at sea for 227 days.

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