| A | B |
|---|
| Who are the narrators of the Life of Pi? | Piscine Patel and author, Yann Martel |
| Who is the protaganist of the novel? | Pi |
| How old is Pi when he tells the author about his early childhood and the shipwreck that changed his life? | He is shy, graying, middle-aged man |
| What does Pi tell the author about? | his early childhood and the shipwreck that changed his life |
| How does the narrative device of using flashbacks distance the reader from the truth? | We don't know if Pi's story is accurate or what pieces to believe |
| Why does Pi like to provide a fanciful version of his time at sea? | because he believes that imagination trumps cold, hard facts |
| What was Pi's primary concerns in elementary school? | preventing his schoolmates from mispronouncing his name and learning as much as he could about religion and zoology |
| How does the sinking ship serve as a catalyst for Pi's emotional growth? | He is torn from his family and left alone on this lifeboat with wild animals. He must become self-sufficient and find a survival guide and emergency provisions |
| Why does Pi go against his vegetarian ways and learn to fish? | He decides that his vegetarianism is a luxury under the conditions so he learns to fish |
| What kind of relationship does Pi develop with Richard Parker? | a parental relationship and provides him with food and tries to keep him in line. He is turned into a adult and forced to fend for himself in the world. |
| What same foundation do the religions Pi study share? | belief in a loving higher power |
| Why does Pi's need for spiritual connection deepen at sea? | In the 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. |
| When does he realize that God is still with him? | The fact that he is still alive gives him strength and he decides to fight to stay alive. |
| What does prayer do for Pi? | It provides him with solace, a sense of connection to something greater, and a way to pass away the time |
| What kind of tiger is Richard Parker? | He is a 450 pound Bengal tiger |
| How does Parker act instinctively? | He swims to the lifeboat in search of shelter and kills the hyena and the blind castaway for food |
| Why does Pi thank the tiger for keeping him alive after he washes onshore in Mexico? | Pi manages to dominate Parker which gives him confidence and makes his other obstacles seems less insurmountable. Caring for Parker keeps Pi busy and passes the time and motivates him to find food and water. Pi might have given up on life if Parker did not challenge and distract him. |
| How does Richard Parker symbolize Pi's most animalistic instincts? | He has to perform unthinkable actions to stay alive. An avowed vegetarian, he must kill fish and eat their flesh. He tears apart birds to eat them and mauls the blind Frenchman to eat his flesh and use some of it for bait. |
| How is Pi Richard Parker in the second story to the Japanes investigator? | He kills his mother's murderer. Parker is the version of himself that Pi has invented to make his story more palatable. The brutality of his mother's death and his own shocking act of revenge are too much for Pi to deal with so he finds it easier to imagine a tiger as the killer, rather than himself in the role. |
| He spent seven months at sea and he got his name from the French word for pool. | Pi |
| How did Richard Parker get his name? | His captor, Richard Parker, named him Thirsty, but a shipping clerk made a mistake and reversed their names. |
| He lives in Canada, has published two books, and was inspired to write Pi's life story during a trip to India | The author (Yann Martel) |
| Mamaji, an Indian term that means respected uncle. He was the elderly man who tells the author Pi's story during a chance meeting in a Pondicherry coffee shop. | Francis Adirubasamy |
| Pi's beloved mother and protector. She is a book lover. When Pi relates another version of his story to his rescuers, she takes the place of Orange Juice in the lifeboat | Gita Patel |
| Pis atheistic biology teacher at Petit Seminaire, a secondary school in Pondicherry. A polio survivor, he is an odd looking man with a body shaped like a triangle. His devotion to the power of scientific inquiry and explanation inspires Pi to study zoology in college. | Satish Kumar |
| The Catholic priest who introduces Pi to Christianity after Pi wanders into the church. He preaches a message of love. | Father Martin |
| A plain featured Muslim mythic with the same name as Pi's biology teacher. He works in a bakery. His faith leads Pi to study religion in college. | Satish Kumar |
| Never given a name, he is outraged when Pi, who was raised Hindu, begins practicing other religions. He is somewhat disquieted by Pi's declaration that he just wants to love God. | the Hindu Pandit |
| Pi's wife whom the other meets briefly in Toronto. | Meena Patel |
| Pi's son. He plays baseball. | Nikhil Patel (Nick) |
| Pi's young daughter. She is shy but very close to her father | Usha Patel |
| An ugly, intensely violent animal. He controls the lifeboat before Richard Parker emerges. | the hyena |
| A beautiful male Grant's zebra. He breaks his legs jumping into the lifeboat. The hyena torments him and eats him alive. | the Zebra |
| The maternal orangutang that floats to the lifeboat on a raft of bananas. She suffers almost humanlike bouts of loneliness and seasickness. When the hyena attacks her, she fights back valiantly but is nonetheless killed and decapitated. | Orange Juice |
| A fellow castaway whom Pi meets by chance in the middle of the ocean. Driven by hunger and desparation, he tries to kill and cannabalize Pi, but Richard Parker kills him first. | The Blind Frenchman |
| An official from Maritime Department of the Japanese Ministry of Transport who is investigating the sinking of the Japanese Tsimtsum. | Tomohiro Okamoto |
| Okamato's assistant. He agrees with Pi that the version of his ordeal with animals is better than the one with people. | Atsuro Chiba |
| The human counterpart to the hyena in Pi's second story. He is rude and violent and hoards food on the lifeboat. AFter he kills the sailor and Pi's mother, Pi stabs him and dies. | The Cook |
| The human counterpart to the zebra in Pi's second story. He is young, beautiful, and exotic. He speaks only Chines and is very sad and lonely on the lifeboat. He broke his leg jumping off the ship and it becomes infected. The cook cuts off the leg, and the sailor dies slowly. | The Sailor |
