Life of Pi
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Lifeofpi.jpg Life of Pi is a novel by Canadian author Yann Martel. The protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores the issues of religion and spirituality from an early age and survives 227 days shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean.
The novel won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2002. It was also chosen for CBC Radio's Canada Reads 2003 competition, where it was championed by author Nancy Lee. Its French translation, L'Histoire de Pi, was also chosen in the French version of the competition, Le combat des livres.
Contents |
Plot
The novel begins when Pi's father, a zookeeper, moves his family and the zoo's animals by ship to Canada for a new start. The ship sinks, however, and Pi finds himself lost at sea on a lifeboat. He soon discovers, to his terror, that he shares the 26-foot vessel with a female orangutan, a spotted hyena, an injured zebra, and a three-year-old adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. What follows is a tale of survival in its rawest form, as Pi must deal with immediate human needs such as thirst, hunger, and shelter, all under the watchful eyes of a predator.
The book has three parts, but works as a whole as well. The first part is a young boy's rumination on spirituality and Indian life. The second part (comprising most of the text) is a blend of a detailed and realistic survival memoir and a fantastic allegory in a medieval style. The last part, when Pi is rescued and the truth of his entire experience at sea is called into question, offers more insight into the dual thirst for survival and faith.
The last part also offers the reader a choice to actually choose the story version they prefer. Martel shows two ways of looking at the same reality and requires a leap of faith to choose the "better" story.
There are three major religions of interest in this story: Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, represented by Pi Patel. The philosophical concept of Atheism is also represented by Mr. Kumar.
Moacyr Scliar's Max and the Cats
In the book's preface, Martel mentions the Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar, saying:
- "Also, I am indebted to Mr. Moacyr Scliar, for the spark of life."
Scliar's Max e os Felinos ("Max and the Cats"), published in 1981, is a story of a German refugee who has to cross the Atlantic Ocean while sharing his boat with a jaguar.
Martel says he did not read Scliar's book, but he did read a negative review many years prior to writing Life of Pi. What makes it more confusing is that Martel said the review was written by John Updike in the New York Times. The New York Times never ran a review on Max and the Cats, and Updike never reviewed the book. When the prize was awarded to Martel in 2002, Scliar said he was perplexed that Martel "used the idea without consulting or even informing [him]", and was consulting his lawyers about the issue. As of 2005 though, no plagiarism lawsuit has been mentioned in the news.
Richard Parker
Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger that Piscine shares the boat with, was named after an Edgar Allan Poe character from The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1837). The book tells of four shipwrecked men who, after many days' privation, drew lots to decide who should be killed and eaten. The cabin boy, named Richard Parker, draws the short straw and is eaten. Tales of cannibalism by shipwrecked sailors were not uncommon in the 19th century, but oddly enough, about 50 years after Poe's story was published, the very events Poe wrote about would happen in reality. Captain Dudley and three sailors were stranded in a skiff in the Pacific after the sinking of their yacht Mignonette on the way to Australia. They are forced to eat one of the party to survive, and feast on his body for 35 days – a sailor boy named Richard Parker! Yet another Richard Parker died when his ship, named the Francis Spaight, sank in 1846. Although not eaten, some of the survivors of that wreck were involved in cannibalism. As Yann Martel said "So many Richard Parkers had to mean something." [1]
Film adaptation
M. Night Shyamalan, writer and director of The Sixth Sense, became interested in a proposed film based upon the novel, but has dropped the project in favour of another. Another director, Alfonso Cuarón, director of the third Harry Potter movie, expressed interest in making it. Rumours say that Jean-Pierre Jeunet has been signed to direct the movie, and IMDB also claims so.