LIFE OF PI Introduction The novel, Life of Pi, concerns the adventure of a young Indian boy, Pi Patel, who survives the sinking of a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean as it travels from India to Canada. On board the ship, along with other human passengers, are a collection of animals on their way to a zoo in Canada. Pi is travelling with them as the animals are from his family’s zoo in India. The only survivors of the sinking are a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, a female orang-utan, a large Royal Bengal tiger called Richard Parker and Pi who is 16 years old. This strange collection of characters are all in the same lifeboat as it floats about on the open water. Pi, born a Hindi but who has also adopted other religions as he grows up, must draw on all his own resources to survive the ordeal… Holiday tasks 1.Read the novel, including the ‘author’s note’ (if you find the beginning of the novel slow and difficult then persevere as the novel kicks in with the shipwreck) 2.What makes a good story? Make a list of your five favourite stories. They can be movies, books, television shows, or even an experience that you enjoy relating to others. What do they have in common? What gives them the ‘spark of life’? 3.Does Life of Pi work for you as a story? Explain why. 4.What are your favourite animals? Do you have any favourite stories about animals? 5.After reading chapters 5 and 32 explain what you understand by ‘anthropomorphism’ and ‘zoomorphism’? 6.What are your personal thoughts on science and religion?
Introduction
The novel, Life of Pi, concerns the adventure of a young Indian boy, Pi Patel, who survives the sinking of a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean as it travels from India to Canada. On board the ship, along with other human passengers, are a collection of animals on their way to a zoo in Canada. Pi is travelling with them as the animals are from his family’s zoo in India. The only survivors of the sinking are a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, a female orang-utan, a large Royal Bengal tiger called Richard Parker and Pi who is 16 years old. This strange collection of characters are all in the same lifeboat as it floats about on the open water.
Pi, born a Hindi but who has also adopted other religions as he grows up, must draw on all his own resources to survive the ordeal…
Holiday tasks
1. Read the novel, including the ‘author’s note’ (if you find the beginning of the novel slow and difficult then persevere as the novel kicks in with the shipwreck)
2. What makes a good story? Make a list of your five favourite stories. They can be movies, books, television shows, or even an experience that you enjoy relating to others. What do they have in common? What gives them the ‘spark of life’?
3. Does Life of Pi work for you as a story? Explain why.
4. What are your favourite animals? Do you have any favourite stories about animals?
5. After reading chapters 5 and 32 explain what you understand by ‘anthropomorphism’ and ‘zoomorphism’?
6. What are your personal thoughts on science and religion?