Life of Pi Summary

“Life of Pi” is a book about tragedy, religion, hope, and overcoming your own fears. The author of the book is Yann Martel. Piscine Patel, better known as Pi, is the protagonist that finds himself stranded in the middle of the ocean with a life boat that contains an adult Belgian tiger. With little to no drinking water and limited supplies, Pi must try to survive and keep the tiger alive too. When everything of Pi is already lost, many wonder if hope will be lost, as well.

The setting of the book was during 1960-1976 in Pondicherry, India, the Pacific Ocean, Mexico, and Canada. There is no absolute location because he was on a life boat drifting. The story took place mostly in the Pacific Ocean. It is important to know where Pi was in order to see how he struggled to survive. The reason he was out in the Pacific Ocean was because Pi and his family decided that India was changing for the worse and Canada sounded brilliant economic-wise. However, the ship suddenly sank and his family died.

In the ocean, Pi rarely saw any other people. He once saw a cargo ship passing by but the people on the boat were oblivious to his cries for help and flares. The other time he saw a human was when a French man tried to eat him but Richard Parker (the tiger) ate him. Technically, Pi did not see the man due to temporary blindness. Pi described that the weather was usually hot and sunny with occasional rain and storms. This related to the climate of the place because it out in the ocean, there since rain was so rare and the sun was so blazing hot, Pi was dehydrated. There were no human-like characteristics out in the ocean. There was also no ‘built’ environment. The physical characteristic of this place was all water since Pi was stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Time does not influence the characteristics of the ocean. The story took place in 1960-1976. It is not a historical setting and time does not greatly influence the setting.

In the story, Pi tries his best to survive by using all the resources he could find on the life boat. Being in the middle of the ocean, Pi must learn how to fish and find water to drink. This also meant that he had to wake up early to fish and stay up