Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The book I read this summer was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I saw the movie when it first came out, when I was 7.   I really liked it so, i decided to read the book. After reading the book, I quickly realized that the book and movie were quite a bit different. The book has three parts, before, during and after Pi’s oceanic tragedy where he losses his family his family’s zoo in a shipwreck. The film mainly focused on the middle and the end of the story and not so much of the beginning. Out of the two, i liked the book more because, it answered a question that have been wondering since 6th grade, that the movie didn’t answer.

Does anyone believe in more than one religion?

Yes. According to the book pi goes through a never-ending phase of following 3 religions. Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. In one chapter, a priest, an Imam and a pandit all meet up with Pi and his parents at his father’s zoo. Pi is in an awkward situation, because his parents and the religious teachers have no idea that he wants to follow all three spiritual paths. They all want him to choose one but he feels like it’s like choosing one parent over another.

Usually a book has more details than a movie, but here, there was something in the movie that Martel didn’t put in the book. The beginning of the book was mostly about religion when, in the movie the following of god was replaced by a girlfriend of Pi’s named Anandi.

The origin of Pi’s name is not the number pi or 3.14, but he was named after a swimming pool in France called piscine molitor. In school bullies would call him Pissing, So when he transferred schools, he adopted the name pi to avoid being called pissing. Pi’s family consisted of his mother, father and his older brother, Ravi. Pi and Ravi were both basically raised with a zoo. Pi’s father owned the Pondicherry zoo in India. When Pi was 16, his mother and father announced that they were moving to Canada because the family was not happy with the political situation in india. (kind of like how some people feel of Drumpf). Pi’s Mother and Father decided to bring the zoo with them, so they sailed on a huge cargo ship called the Tsimsum from India to Canada on the Pacific Ocean. Sadly, on the way to Canada, the ship sunk and Pi was the only human survivor. There were 4 other survivors that Pi shared a small lifeboat with. A hyena, a zebra; which broke its leg jumping to the lifeboat, a female chimpanzee named Orange Juice and, an adult male Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The first three animals didn’t last: the hyena ate the zebra, then the hyena attacked Orange Juice. Orange Juice smacked the hyena around but eventually, the hyena beheaded the chimp. Then Richard Parker came out and killed the hyena. Then everything settled down.  So Pi, a 16 year old boy, had to survive almost a year at sea trapped in a lifeboat with Richard Parker, a full grown tiger.

This is the main part of the book and movie, where a “vegeteen” ( a vegetarian teen) boy has to survive with limited food, space and water, but still, the movie and book differ. The movie has some indescribable sights and shows you what the power of computer technology in film can do. While on the other hand, the book describes how Pi learns to fish, to pray in the direction of mecca when you don’t know where you are, to feed a tiger so the tiger won’t eat you and to keep yourself busy when you have nothing to do. At one part of the book, and only the book,  Pi goes blind due to bad hygiene. This means he is unable to catch fish. Pi loses his mind and starts talking to this mysterious creature. Pi thinks that Richard Parker has gained a speaking ability but it turns out to be another blind castaway. The other Castaway comes onto Pi’s boat not knowing about Richard Parker. Unfortunately, the Castaway gets eaten alive by the tiger. Pi, goes on the lifeboat of the dead Castaway and finds some turtle meat. A few hours later he regains his eyesight.

227 days after the Tsimsum’s sinking, Pi’s lifeboat washes onto a beach in Tomatlan, Mexico. Richard Parker disappears into a close jungle without looking back, leaving Pi heartbroken and speechless at the small farewell.

The third part of the novel focuses on  a conversation between Pi and two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport, who are looking into why the tsimsum sank. They meet him at a hospital in Mexico where he is healing. Pi tells them his story, but the officials say it is unbelievable and no one will want to read it. Pi, then tells them a second story where he is a survivor on a lifeboat not with zoo animals, but with the ship’s cook, a Taiwanese sailor with a broken leg, and his own mother. The cook cuts off the sailor’s leg for use as fishing bait, then kills the sailor, as well as Pi’s mother for food, and soon he is killed by Pi, who eats him.

The investigators compare the two stories. They soon realize that in the second story, the hyena is the cook, the zebra- the sailor, the orangutan- Pi’s mother, and the tiger represents Pi. Pi says that both stories don’t explain why the ship sank, so he asks the officials which story they prefer: the one without animals or the one with animals. They choose the story with the animals, then leave unsatisfied.

I liked this book because it showed you what the power of fiction can do. It makes you feel emotions for made up characters and random thoughts. If you read a chapter of the book, it would make you want to read more. If your looking for a sad, survival, adventure book then, this is the book for you. If I was to rate this book out of 5 stars, I would definitely give it a 5. I recommend it to everyone.