Life of Pi by Yann Martel

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A piece of cake? This story is more like a slice of pie. To make this pie you will need ingredients that aren’t usually in pie. The ingredients you will need include a multi-religious 16 year old Indian boy, an adult male Bengal tiger, a Zebra, and a hyena. You will then mix all of the ingredients up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean all in the confines of a 26 foot lifeboat and then you will let it sit for 227 days. The tremendous survival story is called Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Although Martel’s story may be confusing at times, when Pi comes upon the island, he manages to capture the reader's mind with his intricate details and his almost too real imagery.

Piscine Molitor Patel, the protagonist, grew up in the city of Pondicherry, India. In Pondicherry, Piscine’s father owned, founded and directed the Pondicherry zoo, “To me, it was paradise on earth,” Piscine is mentioned this because he found that the zoo was a place of peacefulness (Martel 14). Piscine Molitor Patel received his name from a swimming pool that Mamaji taught Piscine to swim in. Later on in the novel Piscine starts having people refer to him as Pi Patel. He chose this nickname because the kids at his school would call him pissing instead of Piscine, “”Where's Pissing? I've got to go." Or: "You're facing the wall. Are you Pissing?" Or something of the sort.” This is one of the examples of the kids making fun of his name. (Martel 20).

Prior to part II of the story Pi learns that his family will be moving to Canada to avoid the political turmoil in India. Pi’s family takes a Japanese cargo ship, the Tsimtsum, with select animals that Pi’s father will be selling to American and Canadian zoos.

On the first few pages of part II the ship Pi’s fam...

... middle of paper ...

...ssed themselves most indelibly on my mind. I saw in one look what I would conservatively estimate to be hundreds of thousands of meerkats. The landscape was covered in meerkats,” I found this confusing because it didn’t make sense why there would be hundreds of thousands of meerkats on an island (Martel 265).

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is one of the greatest books of all time. The story helps the reader realize how wonderful all the usual everyday things you have truly are. It helps the reader believe that anything can be accomplished if hope is never given up, whether in yourself or in God. This is what Martel wants us to understand. I recommend this book to everyone who loves animals, religion, or culture. Many could enjoy this outstanding book.

Work Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Boston: Mariner Books, 2003

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