The weight of loss is another key theme that comes across potently within the book's pages. As a reader, you hope that Richard Parker won't perish as Pi's only companion-and, in many ways, only reason to survive. When Pi's ordeal comes to an end, the reader comes to realize that hope is the most powerful emotion.Īs a character, Pi held out hope every day that he and Richard Parker would find their way back to the world. Life of Pi is a book filled with strong religious subtext, but religion isn't the central theme of the book. It's hard not to get lost in Pi's story because it has so many strong connections to love and faith, which makes Pi a deeply empathetic character. And while there are difficulties, it shows that his love for them is as deep as their love for him.īy the time Pi's fated drift-across-the-ocean journey comes to pass, it's his spirituality that holds him together. Throughout Pi's childhood, the book builds up his relationships with his family. Related: 5 Reasons Why Audiobooks Are Better Than “Real” Books His family, too, are bound by it in different ways: while his mother has a more traditional Indian spiritual outlook, his father comes across as a strong atheist. Pi's personality is formed by his belief in a multitude of religions as he comes to love the spirituality of life at a young age. The book spends a great amount of time carefully bringing across his deepest beliefs to the reader, without any judgment toward the reader for their own specific beliefs.

Pi the character is fascinating long before he boards the doomed ship to Canada. Let's dive in a little deeper and explore what exactly makes Life of Pi not just an engrossing story, but an all-time literary classic. We read the older Pi's account of his journey as he relays it with a sense of emotional guard-because even though we know he lives to tell the tale, the fates of everyone else in the story are uncertain.

This narrative structure makes the story more interesting because the driving question isn't 'Does he survive?' but rather 'How does he survive?' Related: The 11 Most Common Fantasy Genres and Subgenres, ExplainedĪlthough Pi's journey is at the center of the story, the book makes it clear from the outset that he survives. When one picks up Life of Pi, there isn't much that can prepare you for the expansive adventure waiting within-an adventure that'll take you through exotic locations and spiritual musings. What's more, that boy made that journey with an Orangutan, a Zebra, a Hyena, and a fully grown Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. Life of Pi's extraordinary tale of a shipwrecked young Indian boy, who spends months floating at sea across the Pacific Ocean, is one of literature's most absorbing journeys.

'It's the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I wouldn't be alive today to tell you my story.' Pi

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