LIFE OF PI - NOTES ON CHARACTERS - (A)Notes from Sparknotes ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS Piscine Molitor Patel Piscine Molitor Patel is the protagonist and, for most of the novel, the narrator. In the chapters that frame the main story, Pi, as a shy, graying, middle-aged man, tells the author about his early childhood and the shipwreck that changed his life. This narrative device distances the reader from the truth. We don’t know whether Pi’s story is accurate or what pieces to believe. This effect is intentional; throughout Pi emphasizes the importance of choosing the better story, believing that imagination trumps cold, hard facts. As a child, he reads widely and embraces many religions and their rich narratives that provide meaning and dimension to life. In his interviews with the Japanese investigators after his rescue, he offers first the more fanciful version of his time at sea. But, at their behest, he then provides an alternative version that is more realistic but ultimately less appealing to both himself and his questioners. The structure of the novel both illustrates Pi’s defining characteristic, his dependence on and love of stories, and highlights the inherent difficulties in trusting his version of events. Though the narrative jumps back and forth in time, the novel traces Pi’s development and maturation in a traditional bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story. Pi is an eager, outgoing, and excitable child, dependent on his family for protection and guidance. In school, his primary concerns involve preventing his schoolmates from mispronouncing his name and learning as much as he can about religion and zoology. But when the ship sinks, Pi is torn from his family and left alone on a lifeboat with wild animals. The disaster serves as the catalyst in his emotional growth; he must now become self-sufficient. Though he mourns the loss of his family and fears for his life, he rises to the challenge. He finds a survival guide and emergency provisions. Questioning his own values, he decides that his vegetarianism is a luxury under the conditions and learns to fish. He capably protects himself from Richard Parker and even assumes a parental relationship with the tiger, providing him with food and keeping him in line. The devastating shipwreck turns Pi into an adult, able to fend for himself out in the world alone. Pi’s belief in God inspires him as a child and helps sustain him while at sea. In Pondicherry, his atheistic biology teacher challenges his Hindu faith in God, making him realize the positive power of belief, the need to overcome the otherwise bleakness of the universe. Motivated to learn more, Pi starts practicing Christianity and Islam, realizing these religions all share the same foundation: belief in a loving higher power. His burgeoning need for spiritual connection deepens while at sea. In his first days on the lifeboat, he almost gives up, unable to bear the loss of his family and unwilling to face the difficulties that still await him. At that point, however, he realizes that the fact he is still alive means that God is with him; he has been given a miracle. This thought gives him strength, and he decides to fight to remain alive. Throughout his adventure, he prays regularly, which provides him with solace, a sense of connection to something greater, and a way to pass the time. Richard Parker Pi’s companion throughout his ordeal at sea is Richard Parker, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Unlike many novels in which animals speak or act like humans, Richard Parker is portrayed as a real animal that acts in ways true to his species. It can be difficult to accept that a tiger and a boy could exist on a lifeboat alone, however, in the context of the novel, it seems plausible. Captured as a cub, Parker grew up in the zoo and is accustomed to a life in captivity. He is used to zookeepers training and providing for him, so he is able to respond to cues from Pi and submit to his dominance. However, he is no docile house cat. He has been tamed, but he still acts instinctually, swimming for the lifeboat in search of shelter and killing the hyena and the blind castaway for food. When the two wash up on the shore of Mexico, Richard Parker doesn’t draw out his parting with Pi, he simply runs off into the jungle, never to be seen again. Though Richard Parker is quite fearsome, ironically his presence helps Pi stay alive. Alone on the lifeboat, Pi has many issues to face in addition to the tiger onboard: lack of food and water, predatory marine life, treacherous sea currents, and exposure to the elements. Overwhelmed by the circumstances and terrified of dying, Pi becomes distraught and unable to take action. However, he soon realizes that his most immediate threat is Richard Parker. His other problems now temporarily forgotten, Pi manages, through several training exercises, to dominate Parker. This success gives him confidence, making his other obstacles seem less insurmountable. Renewed, Pi is able to take concrete steps toward ensuring his continued existence: searching for food and keeping himself motivated. Caring and providing for Richard Parker keeps Pi busy and passes the time. Without Richard Parker to challenge and distract him, Pi might have given up on life. After he washes up on land in Mexico, he thanks the tiger for keeping him alive. Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s most animalistic instincts. Out on the lifeboat, Pi must perform many actions to stay alive that he would have found unimaginable in his normal life. An avowed vegetarian, he must kill fish and eat their flesh. As time progresses, he becomes more brutish about it, tearing apart birds and greedily stuffing them in his mouth, the way Richard Parker does. After Richard Parker mauls the blind Frenchman, Pi uses the man’s flesh for bait and even eats some of it, becoming cannibalistic in his unrelenting hunger. In his second story to the Japanese investigators, Pi is Richard Parker. He kills his mother’s murderer. Parker is the version of himself that Pi has invented to make his story more palatable, both to himself and to his audience. The brutality of his mother’s death and his own shocking act of revenge are too much for Pi to deal with, and he finds it easier to imagine a tiger as the killer, rather than himself in that role. (B)Notes from VATE CHARACTERS Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) ‘Later, in Toronto, among nine columns of Patels in the phone book, I found him, the main character.’ (p. xiii) It is in this way that the reader is introduced to the eponymous Pi, although he remains Mr Patel until Chapter 3 when his full name is revealed. Pi’s name is an important component of his character and thus requires some attention. The Mr Patel of the present in the novel is a gentle father and husband in early middle age. These passages are important because Martel uses them to highlight aspects of the younger Pi’s character. In Chapter 6, we learn that he is ‘an excellent cook’. (p. 24). The connection between food and stories in the novel begins as Patel feeds the ‘author’ his story and Indian food. In Chapter 15, he describes Patel’s house as ‘a temple’ but one that honours all three of the religions that Pi will embrace. The reader will later understand that Pi’s ordeal has nearly killed him physically but has not shaken his faith and love for his religions. In fact, the ‘Mr Patel’ component of Pi seems to be a remarkably contented man considering ‘the story’ that he is in the process of relating. In the final chapter of Part One and the final chapter involving Mr Patel, the reader is introduced to his children and his pets. The author is surprised but the reader does not yet register the source of this surprise. The final sentence in this section is: ‘This story has a happy ending’. (p. 93) Pi is not a victim of his experiences and the story is not structured in a manner which explains, in psychological terms, the adult Patel. Martel seems to reaching back to a pre-Freudian period where stories of hardship had other functions beyond putting the effects of trauma in context. Piscine Molitor Patel is the boy of the first part of the book who is teased about his name. For a character that will spend most of the book floating in the Pacific, there is a certain irony about his being named for a swimming pool. The pool is not how his name is understood by his school mates who call him ‘Pissing’. Pi’s name, like the story he tells, is heard differently by different people. When he goes to secondary school, he changes his name to ‘Pi’ which is, of course, a mathematical property: ‘And so, in that Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated tin roof, in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge’. (p. 24) As ‘Pi’, Piscine Patel spends the remainder of the first section doing just that, trying to understand the universe: ‘First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first’. (p. 50) Pi is born a Hindu but becomes fascinated by Christianity and Islam. The property ‘pi’ with its infinite possibilities is sometimes seen in religious terms. Pi’s curiosity and wonder are underscored by his name. This section is dominated by his descriptions of the zoo and his various religious awakenings. The impression is of a sensitive and intelligent boy on the brink of manhood. Both his religion and his knowledge of animals help the Pi of the second section survive his ordeal. This Pi is, in part, the classic boy-hero of early twentieth century adventure novels. He is methodical and resourceful; food and water are found and the tiger is subdued. The character is also a reflection on those adventure stories. Martel uses Pi to explore the underpinnings of the castaway story. Pi has moments of despair and desperation; he is Enid Blyton’s plucky Georgie but there is also something of William Golding’s Piggy about him. The final Pi appears in the third section after he has landed in Mexico. He is seen through the eyes of the Japanese investigators. They are sceptical when he tells his story and feel that he is hiding something. For his part, Pi defends himself brilliantly. The reader, like the Japanese investigators, is curious about ‘the story’. Pi answers every charge and proves that bananas do, indeed, float and that carnivorous vegetation already exists. Mr Okamoto concludes that he has been telling the truth and that his story is one of ‘courage and endurance’. (p. 319) The reader, too, must accept that the story they have just finished is ‘true’ and that Pi is a credible narrator. In Life of Pi, Pi is at once the subject of the story and the storyteller. He is a guide, first to the world of Pondicherry and then to the life of a castaway. The reader identifies with him but also recognizes that he is exceptional. He is, in the tradition of all great fictional characters, mysterious but also familiar. For a novel that deals explicitly with the idea of storytelling, he is the ideal protagonist. The ‘author’ Yann Martel is not particularly interested in drawing distinct lines between himself and his stories. An earlier novel, Self, involved a main character who shared many biographical details with Martel. However, that same character changes gender in the course of the novel so it wouldn’t be right to suggest that it was autobiographical in any traditional sense. Similarly, some of his short fiction includes an ‘author’ who functions as a main character. Life of Pi opens with the line: ‘This book was born as I was hungry’. (p. ix) He goes on to talk about the poor reception received by his first novel and his subsequent trip to India. Author’s notes are not uncommon at the beginning of novels but this is not what it seems. Pi’s story is presented as ‘truth’ as he relates his meeting with Francis Adirubasamy, a character in the story. He goes on, as is traditional in an author’s note, to thank the body who funded the writing of the story. The note thus is actually the first chapter of the book and the ‘author’ is a fictional creation of the real author, Yann Martel. Having established credibility through the ‘Author’s Note’, the author then introduces Pi. The older Pi in the ‘present’ of the story is seen through the author’s eyes. In the first section of the book, the meetings with Pi are described in detail. The author’s function is to be an audience for Pi’s story and its interpreter for readers. He is not a character in the central story but functions as the mask worn by the real author as the story is told. It is a technique that was common in Victorian novels. Charles Dickens begins The Old Curiosity Shop with a narrator who slowly retreats from the story. In a novel that is, to some extent about stories and storytellers, some attention must be given to this character. Martel is concerned by the idea of credibility in stories so the question of who relates the narrative is important. Though this character would appear to be similar to Martel, the purpose is, in fact, to create distance between the author of the book and the story. Martel seeks to avoid the confusion of his own voice in the narrative by creating a fictional version of himself. The similarity between the names ‘Martel’ and ‘Patel’ is also worth noting. Richard Parker ‘I turned around, stepped over the zebra and threw myself overboard.’ (p. 100) The reader is still coming to terms with the fact that Richard Parker is a large tiger when Pi dives into the Pacific. As the ‘Tsimtsum’ sinks, Pi shouts out encouraging words to what sounds like a person swimming towards the lifeboat. At the very point that Richard Parker takes hold of the lifebuoy, Pi suddenly changes his tone and tries to drive him away. The reader has no idea why Pi is so frightened of this character until he says, ‘I had a wet, trembling, half-drowned, heaving and coughing three year old adult Bengal tiger in my lifeboat’. (p. 99) This is not the first appearance of Richard Parker. In the first section of the book, in one of the italicised passages set in the present, Pi shows the author a photograph: ‘ “That’s Richard Parker,” he says. I’m amazed. I look closely, trying to extract personality from appearance. Unfortunately, it’s black and white again and a little out of focus.’(p. 87) His name is deceptive and it turns out to have come from a paperwork error. ‘Richard Parker’ is a name with an interesting history. Many critics have noted that there is a character called Richard Parker in Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket’, a sea adventure story. Richard Parker was also the name of a man who was eaten by his fellow castaways in a famous nineteenth century cannibalism case. An earlier Richard Parker was an English sailor involved in the Nore Mutiny in the late eighteenth century. His name casts this character in an odd light. He is at once Pi’s companion and his greatest challenge. The survival manual, as Pi notes, does not cover tigers so all of Pi’s efforts to gather food and water will be in vain if he cannot overcome Richard Parker. He eventually decides to train him using a whistle and judicious feedings. Pi is in a very difficult position, floating aimlessly in the Pacific. Richard Parker can be seen to represent the fear that all humans have to conquer in order to carry on. The fear of death must be subdued and Pi’s training regime is the process by which he overcomes his terror. However, Pi acknowledges that Richard Parker is essential to his survival. ‘Thank you for saving my life’ (p. 286), he calls to the tiger as he disappears into the Mexican jungle. Martel is suggesting that the fear of death is actually a life force of some kind. Religion, on some level, is based on our need to explain death. The stories that we tell sustain us and alleviate the fear of the unknown. Richard Parker helps Pi to survive by giving him a reason to live. Pi must find a story that will subdue the tiger and the story is that of the circus trainer. Adding a Bengal tiger into the mix of a castaway story might seem unnecessary until it becomes clear that the tiger is simply the fear that hangs over such a tale. Francis Adirubasamy Basamy is simply an Indian name; Adirubasamy is not, unlike Richard Parker, a real name. ADIRU is an acronym for Air Data Inertial Reference Unit which is an instrument that gives information about air speed and altitude to pilots. This might seem like a stretch but there is nothing accidental about any of the names in this story. It is Adirubasamy who provides the ‘author’ with the information he needs to write his next novel. He delivers the famous line at the beginning of the novel, ‘I have a story that will make you believe in God’. (p. xii) Adirubasamy also provides Pi with the name Piscine and teaches him to swim, very crucial information for a future castaway. The name, Piscine Molitor, is inspired by his description of a Paris swimming pool. Pi’s father loves the descriptions of the pools and the ‘lore’ surrounding them and Adirubasamy functions as a guide to Paris’ swimming pools for Pi’s father. He is also the guide that points the ‘author’ towards Pi and his amazing story. In Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he names the characters that appear in the hero’s journey. The herald or guide is the character that challenges the hero to embark on his journey. Obi Wan Kenobi is the ‘guide’ in the original Star Wars film; Adirubasamy fills this role in Life of Pi. Ravi Patel Pi’s older brother teases his somewhat eccentric younger brother in a comic fashion when it is discovered that Pi has become a Christian and a Muslim: ‘So Swami Jesus, will you go on the Hajj this year?’(p. 70). He is described by Pi as ‘our very own Kapil Dev’ and he clearly worships his older brother. Martel presents Ravi almost as a cliché. He is the unlikely hero’s more illustrious older brother whose death leaves only Pi. Pi’s Mother Pi’s mother makes brief appearances in the first section of the novel but he mentions her several times throughout the story.In the same section where the author is shown a picture of Richard Parker, Pi notes that, ‘It’s very sad not to remember what you mother looks like’. (p.87) Her death, it should be noted, is a key event in the alternative story that Pi tells the Japanese investigators. Pi’s Father Pi’s father, like Francis Adirubasamy, teaches Pi lessons that will save his life. As a zookeeper, he feels it is his duty to ensure his sons have proper respect for animals. His horrifying tour of the zoo in Chapter 8 is a warning of the dangers of anthropomorphism. While it destroys some of Pi’s enjoyment and identification with the animals in his life, it means that he is able to deal with Richard Parker as a dangerous animal. Student Activities • Find one observation that Pi makes about each of the members of his family.
- NOTES ON CHARACTERS -
(A) Notes from Sparknotes
ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS
Piscine Molitor Patel
Piscine Molitor Patel is the protagonist and, for most of the novel, the narrator. In the chapters that frame the main story, Pi, as a shy, graying, middle-aged man, tells the author about his early childhood and the shipwreck that changed his life. This narrative device distances the reader from the truth. We don’t know whether Pi’s story is accurate or what pieces to believe. This effect is intentional; throughout Pi emphasizes the importance of choosing the better story, believing that imagination trumps cold, hard facts. As a child, he reads widely and embraces many religions and their rich narratives that provide meaning and dimension to life. In his interviews with the Japanese investigators after his rescue, he offers first the more fanciful version of his time at sea. But, at their behest, he then provides an alternative version that is more realistic but ultimately less appealing to both himself and his questioners. The structure of the novel both illustrates Pi’s defining characteristic, his dependence on and love of stories, and highlights the inherent difficulties in trusting his version of events.
Though the narrative jumps back and forth in time, the novel traces Pi’s development and maturation in a traditional bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story. Pi is an eager, outgoing, and excitable child, dependent on his family for protection and guidance. In school, his primary concerns involve preventing his schoolmates from mispronouncing his name and learning as much as he can about religion and zoology. But when the ship sinks, Pi is torn from his family and left alone on a lifeboat with wild animals. The disaster serves as the catalyst in his emotional growth; he must now become self-sufficient. Though he mourns the loss of his family and fears for his life, he rises to the challenge. He finds a survival guide and emergency provisions. Questioning his own values, he decides that his vegetarianism is a luxury under the conditions and learns to fish. He capably protects himself from Richard Parker and even assumes a parental relationship with the tiger, providing him with food and keeping him in line. The devastating shipwreck turns Pi into an adult, able to fend for himself out in the world alone.
Pi’s belief in God inspires him as a child and helps sustain him while at sea. In Pondicherry, his atheistic biology teacher challenges his Hindu faith in God, making him realize the positive power of belief, the need to overcome the otherwise bleakness of the universe. Motivated to learn more, Pi starts practicing Christianity and Islam, realizing these religions all share the same foundation: belief in a loving higher power. His burgeoning need for spiritual connection deepens while at sea. In his first days on the lifeboat, he almost gives up, unable to bear the loss of his family and unwilling to face the difficulties that still await him. At that point, however, he realizes that the fact he is still alive means that God is with him; he has been given a miracle. This thought gives him strength, and he decides to fight to remain alive. Throughout his adventure, he prays regularly, which provides him with solace, a sense of connection to something greater, and a way to pass the time.
Richard Parker
Pi’s companion throughout his ordeal at sea is Richard Parker, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Unlike many novels in which animals speak or act like humans, Richard Parker is portrayed as a real animal that acts in ways true to his species. It can be difficult to accept that a tiger and a boy could exist on a lifeboat alone, however, in the context of the novel, it seems plausible. Captured as a cub, Parker grew up in the zoo and is accustomed to a life in captivity. He is used to zookeepers training and providing for him, so he is able to respond to cues from Pi and submit to his dominance. However, he is no docile house cat. He has been tamed, but he still acts instinctually, swimming for the lifeboat in search of shelter and killing the hyena and the blind castaway for food. When the two wash up on the shore of Mexico, Richard Parker doesn’t draw out his parting with Pi, he simply runs off into the jungle, never to be seen again.
Though Richard Parker is quite fearsome, ironically his presence helps Pi stay alive. Alone on the lifeboat, Pi has many issues to face in addition to the tiger onboard: lack of food and water, predatory marine life, treacherous sea currents, and exposure to the elements. Overwhelmed by the circumstances and terrified of dying, Pi becomes distraught and unable to take action. However, he soon realizes that his most immediate threat is Richard Parker. His other problems now temporarily forgotten, Pi manages, through several training exercises, to dominate Parker. This success gives him confidence, making his other obstacles seem less insurmountable. Renewed, Pi is able to take concrete steps toward ensuring his continued existence: searching for food and keeping himself motivated. Caring and providing for Richard Parker keeps Pi busy and passes the time. Without Richard Parker to challenge and distract him, Pi might have given up on life. After he washes up on land in Mexico, he thanks the tiger for keeping him alive.
Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s most animalistic instincts. Out on the lifeboat, Pi must perform many actions to stay alive that he would have found unimaginable in his normal life. An avowed vegetarian, he must kill fish and eat their flesh. As time progresses, he becomes more brutish about it, tearing apart birds and greedily stuffing them in his mouth, the way Richard Parker does. After Richard Parker mauls the blind Frenchman, Pi uses the man’s flesh for bait and even eats some of it, becoming cannibalistic in his unrelenting hunger. In his second story to the Japanese investigators, Pi is Richard Parker. He kills his mother’s murderer. Parker is the version of himself that Pi has invented to make his story more palatable, both to himself and to his audience. The brutality of his mother’s death and his own shocking act of revenge are too much for Pi to deal with, and he finds it easier to imagine a tiger as the killer, rather than himself in that role.
(B) Notes from VATE
CHARACTERS
Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)
‘Later, in Toronto, among nine columns of Patels in the phone book, I found him, the main character.’ (p. xiii) It is in this way that the reader is introduced to the eponymous Pi, although he remains Mr Patel until Chapter 3 when his full name is revealed. Pi’s name is an important component of his character and thus requires some attention.
The Mr Patel of the present in the novel is a gentle father and husband in early middle age. These passages are important because Martel uses them to highlight aspects of the younger Pi’s character. In Chapter 6, we learn that he is ‘an excellent cook’. (p. 24). The connection between food and stories in the novel begins as Patel feeds the ‘author’ his story and Indian food. In Chapter 15, he describes Patel’s house as ‘a temple’ but one that honours all three of the religions that Pi will embrace. The reader will later understand that Pi’s ordeal has nearly killed him physically but has not shaken his faith and love for his religions. In fact, the ‘Mr Patel’ component of Pi seems to be a remarkably contented man considering ‘the story’ that he is in the process of relating. In the final chapter of Part One and the final chapter involving Mr Patel, the reader is introduced to his children and his pets. The author is surprised but the reader does not yet register the source of this surprise. The final sentence in this section is: ‘This story has a happy ending’. (p. 93) Pi is not a victim of his experiences and the story is not structured in a manner which explains, in psychological terms, the adult Patel. Martel seems to reaching back to a pre-Freudian period where stories of hardship had other functions beyond putting the effects of trauma in context.
Piscine Molitor Patel is the boy of the first part of the book who is teased about his name. For a character that will spend most of the book floating in the Pacific, there is a certain irony about his being named for a swimming pool. The pool is not how his name is understood by his school mates who call him ‘Pissing’. Pi’s name, like the story he tells, is heard differently by different people. When he goes to secondary school, he changes his name to ‘Pi’ which is, of course, a mathematical property: ‘And so, in that Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated tin roof, in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge’.
(p. 24)
As ‘Pi’, Piscine Patel spends the remainder of the first section doing just that, trying to understand the universe: ‘First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first’. (p. 50) Pi is born a Hindu but becomes fascinated by Christianity and Islam. The property ‘pi’ with its infinite possibilities is sometimes seen in religious terms. Pi’s curiosity and wonder are underscored by his name. This section is dominated by his descriptions of the zoo and his various religious awakenings. The impression is of a sensitive and intelligent boy on the brink of manhood.
Both his religion and his knowledge of animals help the Pi of the second section survive his ordeal. This Pi is, in part, the classic boy-hero of early twentieth century adventure novels. He is methodical and resourceful; food and water are found and the tiger is subdued. The character is also a reflection on those adventure stories. Martel uses Pi to explore the underpinnings of the castaway story. Pi has moments of despair and desperation; he is Enid Blyton’s plucky Georgie but there is also something of William Golding’s Piggy about him.
The final Pi appears in the third section after he has landed in Mexico. He is seen through the eyes of the Japanese investigators. They are sceptical when he tells his story and feel that he is hiding something. For his part, Pi defends himself brilliantly. The reader, like the Japanese investigators, is curious about ‘the story’. Pi answers every charge and proves that bananas do, indeed, float and that carnivorous vegetation already exists. Mr Okamoto concludes that he has been telling the truth and that his story is one of ‘courage and endurance’.
(p. 319) The reader, too, must accept that the story they have just finished is ‘true’ and that Pi is a credible narrator.
In Life of Pi, Pi is at once the subject of the story and the storyteller. He is a guide, first to the world of Pondicherry and then to the life of a castaway. The reader identifies with him but also recognizes that he is exceptional. He is, in the tradition of all great fictional characters, mysterious but also familiar. For a novel that deals explicitly with the idea of storytelling, he is the ideal protagonist.
The ‘author’
Yann Martel is not particularly interested in drawing distinct lines between himself and his stories. An earlier novel, Self, involved a main character who shared many biographical details with Martel. However, that same character changes gender in the course of the novel so it wouldn’t be right to suggest that it was autobiographical in any traditional sense. Similarly, some of his short fiction includes an ‘author’ who functions as a main character. Life of Pi opens with the line: ‘This book was born as I was hungry’. (p. ix) He goes on to talk about the poor reception received by his first novel and his subsequent trip to India. Author’s notes are not uncommon at the beginning of novels but this is not what it seems. Pi’s story is presented as ‘truth’ as he relates his meeting with Francis Adirubasamy, a character in the story. He goes on, as is traditional in an author’s note, to thank the body who funded the writing of the story. The note thus is actually the first chapter of the book and the ‘author’ is a fictional creation of the real author, Yann Martel.
Having established credibility through the ‘Author’s Note’, the author then introduces Pi. The older Pi in the ‘present’ of the story is seen through the author’s eyes. In the first section of the book, the meetings with Pi are described in detail. The author’s function is to be an audience for Pi’s story and its interpreter for readers. He is not a character in the central story but functions as the mask worn by the real author as the story is told. It is a technique that was common in Victorian novels. Charles Dickens begins The Old Curiosity Shop with a narrator who slowly retreats from the story. In a novel that is, to some extent about stories and storytellers, some attention must be given to this character. Martel is concerned by the idea of credibility in stories so the question of who relates the narrative is important. Though this character would appear to be similar to Martel, the purpose is, in fact, to create distance between the author of the book and the story. Martel seeks to avoid the confusion of his own voice in the narrative by creating a fictional version of himself. The similarity between the names ‘Martel’ and ‘Patel’ is also worth noting.
Richard Parker
‘I turned around, stepped over the zebra and threw myself overboard.’ (p. 100)
The reader is still coming to terms with the fact that Richard Parker is a large tiger when Pi dives into the Pacific. As the ‘Tsimtsum’ sinks, Pi shouts out encouraging words to what sounds like a person swimming towards the lifeboat. At the very point that Richard Parker takes hold of the lifebuoy, Pi suddenly changes his tone and tries to drive him away. The reader has no idea why Pi is so frightened of this character until he says, ‘I had a wet, trembling, half-drowned, heaving and coughing three year old adult Bengal tiger in my lifeboat’. (p. 99) This is not the first appearance of Richard Parker. In the first section of the book, in one of the italicised passages set in the present, Pi shows the author a photograph:
‘ “That’s Richard Parker,” he says.
I’m amazed. I look closely, trying to extract personality from appearance. Unfortunately, it’s black and white again and a little out of focus.’(p. 87)
His name is deceptive and it turns out to have come from a paperwork error. ‘Richard Parker’ is a name with an interesting history. Many critics have noted that there is a character called Richard Parker in Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket’, a sea adventure story. Richard Parker was also the name of a man who was eaten by his fellow castaways in a famous nineteenth century cannibalism case. An earlier Richard Parker was an English sailor involved in the Nore Mutiny in the late eighteenth century. His name casts this character in an odd light. He is at once Pi’s companion and his greatest challenge. The survival manual, as Pi notes, does not cover tigers so all of Pi’s efforts to gather food and water will be in vain if he cannot overcome Richard Parker. He eventually decides to train him using a whistle and judicious feedings.
Pi is in a very difficult position, floating aimlessly in the Pacific. Richard Parker can be seen to represent the fear that all humans have to conquer in order to carry on. The fear of death must be subdued and Pi’s training regime is the process by which he overcomes his terror. However, Pi acknowledges that Richard Parker is essential to his survival. ‘Thank you for saving my life’ (p. 286), he calls to the tiger as he disappears into the Mexican jungle. Martel is suggesting that the fear of death is actually a life force of some kind. Religion, on some level, is based on our need to explain death. The stories that we tell sustain us and alleviate the fear of the unknown. Richard Parker helps Pi to survive by giving him a reason to live. Pi must find a story that will subdue the tiger and the story is that of the circus trainer. Adding a Bengal tiger into the mix of a castaway story might seem unnecessary until it becomes clear that the tiger is simply the fear that hangs over such a tale.
Francis Adirubasamy
Basamy is simply an Indian name; Adirubasamy is not, unlike Richard Parker, a real name. ADIRU is an acronym for Air Data Inertial Reference Unit which is an instrument that gives information about air speed and altitude to pilots. This might seem like a stretch but there is nothing accidental about any of the names in this story. It is Adirubasamy who provides the ‘author’ with the information he needs to write his next novel. He delivers the famous line at the beginning of the novel, ‘I have a story that will make you believe in God’.
(p. xii)
Adirubasamy also provides Pi with the name Piscine and teaches him to swim, very crucial information for a future castaway. The name, Piscine Molitor, is inspired by his description of a Paris swimming pool. Pi’s father loves the descriptions of the pools and the ‘lore’ surrounding them and Adirubasamy functions as a guide to Paris’ swimming pools for Pi’s father. He is also the guide that points the ‘author’ towards Pi and his amazing story.
In Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he names the characters that appear in the hero’s journey. The herald or guide is the character that challenges the hero to embark on his journey. Obi Wan Kenobi is the ‘guide’ in the original Star Wars film; Adirubasamy fills this role in Life of Pi.
Ravi Patel
Pi’s older brother teases his somewhat eccentric younger brother in a comic fashion when it is discovered that Pi has become a Christian and a Muslim: ‘So Swami Jesus, will you go on the Hajj this year?’(p. 70). He is described by Pi as ‘our very own Kapil Dev’ and he clearly worships his older brother. Martel presents Ravi almost as a cliché. He is the unlikely hero’s more illustrious older brother whose death leaves only Pi.
Pi’s Mother
Pi’s mother makes brief appearances in the first section of the novel but he mentions her several times throughout the story. In the same section where the author is shown a picture of Richard Parker, Pi notes that, ‘It’s very sad not to remember what you mother looks like’. (p.87) Her death, it should be noted, is a key event in the alternative story that Pi tells the Japanese investigators.
Pi’s Father
Pi’s father, like Francis Adirubasamy, teaches Pi lessons that will save his life. As a zookeeper, he feels it is his duty to ensure his sons have proper respect for animals. His horrifying tour of the zoo in Chapter 8 is a warning of the dangers of anthropomorphism. While it destroys some of Pi’s enjoyment and identification with the animals in his life, it means that he is able to deal with Richard Parker as a dangerous animal.
Student Activities
• Find one observation that Pi makes about each of the members of his family.