THEMES
Activity: Below is a list of themes as well as important quotes. Look through the list and do the
following two things:
1. For each theme, list at least two examples of important incidents and events in the novel.
2. List important characters that are used to demonstrate each theme. What do they do, not
do, think or feel to show this theme?
Truth Pi’s narrative stretches our credulity at all times and in Part III when he says ‘neither [story]
makes a factual difference to you’ (317) Martel is playing upon this unbelievability. Martel
attempts to make this story as factual as possible, with lists and zoological facts woven into the
narrative, but at the same time, he challenges our understanding of the world, using Pi’s idea that
there is a‘measure of madness’ (41) in all living things that lifts life from ‘dry yeastless factuality’
(302) into something that transcends quantifiable fact into truth. In Life of Pi, truth is not
something that can be measured or made into facts, but is sometimes impossible and full of
contradictions.
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‘My majors were religious studies and zoology’ p3
‘muddled agnostics who didn’t know which way was up, who were in the thrall of reason,
that fool’s gold for the bright’ p5
Life ‘is something bright, loud, weird and delicate as to stupefy the senses’ p15
‘in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I
found refuge’ p24
‘all living things contain a measure of madness’ p41
‘lack imagination and miss the better story’ p64
‘measure of madness that moves life in strange but soaring ways’ p85
‘Had I considered my prospects in the light of reason, I surely would have given up’ p107
‘in a moment of insanity brought on by hunger…I looked Richard Parker dead in the eyes’
p222
‘at moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span
the universe’ p233
‘love is hard to believe…life is hard to believe’ p297
‘you want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know’ p302
List Incidents and events & important characters:
Belief –
In Life of Pi, belief is clearly differentiated from factual knowledge, but is closely related to the
protagonist’s idea of truth. Pi has many and varied forms of belief and he does not see that these
are necessarily contradictory. Having been raise on the epic stories that comprise Hindu faith this
character suggests that ‘the paths to liberation are numerous’ (49). Atheism is described by Pi as
a belief since an atheist will ‘go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap’
(28). The only people this protagonist avowedly has no patience for are agnostics because they
do not subscribe to any belief system and therefore ‘lack imagination’ (64).
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‘muddled agnostics who didn’t know which way was up. Who were in the thrall of reason’
p5
‘no sound reason for believing anything but our sense experience’ p27
‘his house is a temple’ p45
‘a germ of religious exultation’ p4
‘a plague upon fundamentalists and literalists!’
‘it is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion’p54
‘The presence of God is the finest of rewords’ p63
‘I was a practising Hindu, Christian and Muslim’ p64
‘Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love’ p208
Incidents and events:
Grief and loss:
Although Pi’s sense of loss is often masked by the lengths he takes to survive, it is nevertheless
always present in this narrative.
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‘when you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and
trifling’ p5
‘zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem’ p19
‘memory is an ocean and he bobs on its surface’ p42
‘I felt a great emptiness within me’p101
‘I felt the night within me’ p102
‘With that second sunset, disbelief gave way to pain and grief’ p127
‘Dumb with pain and horror’ p131
‘the feeling is truly unbearable’ p148
‘all around me as flatness and infinity’ p160
‘I never forget to include this fish in my prayers’ p183
‘despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out’ p209
‘everything suffered’ p238
‘I pray for his soul every day’ p256
‘in both stories the ship sinks, my entire family dies, and I suffer’ p317
Incidents and events:
Survival:
At its heart, this is a tale of survival, of the things that make one person survive. Understanding
the relationship between Richard Parker and Pi is key to at least part of his survival.
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‘measure of madness that moves life in strange but saving ways’ 85
‘you must take life the way it come at you and make the best of it’ p91
‘this story has a happy ending’ p93
‘fear and reason fought over the answer’ p108
‘I discovered at that moment that I have a fierce will to lie. It’s not something evident, in my
experience. Some of us give up on life with only a resigned sigh. Others fight a little, then
lose hope. Still others – and I am one of those – never give up. We fight and fight and fight.
We fight no matter the cost of the battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success.
We fight to the very end. It’s not a question of courage. It’s something constitutional, an
inability to let go. It may be nothing more than life-hungry stupidity’ p148
‘It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very
same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness’ p162
‘I survived 227 days’ p189
‘I kept myself busy. That was one key to my survival’ p190
‘And I survived because I made a point of forgetting’ p191
‘Only death consistently excites your emotions, whether contemplating it when life is safe
and stale, or fleeing it when life is threatened and precious’ p217
‘I returned to life’ (on the island), p269
Incidents and events:
Activity: Symbiosis Theme Chart
Pi is a fascinated observer of animals and nature. One thing he often talks about is symbiosis –
the dependent, intertwined relationship that different biological entities can have with each
other:
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4.
In the centre of a large piece of paper get students to write: ‘A meaningful, symbiotic life’
Around the edges of the paper, get students to place three different sets of name: Pi,
Richard Parker, God/Nature.
Students should draw lines to connect each name with the other names. What links them
symbiotically – why do they need each other to survive?
Students should then link the names to the circle in the middle. What is meaningful
about life, in the view of Pi and the novel, for each of these entities?