Life of Pi: Character Analysis

Theme

• pg. 148 "I was giving up. I would have given up-if a voice hadn't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen."
• pg. 308 "It's amazing how willpower can build walls."

Main Conflict

Theme

• Person vs. self
• pg. 241 "This physical suffering was nothing compared to the moral torture I was about to endure… I had lost all fear of death, and I resolved to die."

• To survive a person needs faith and will power
• pg. 62-63 " The feeling, a paradoxical mix of pulsing energy and profound peace, was intense and blissful… The presence of God is the finest of rewards"
• pg. 119 "Things would work out yet. The worst was over. I had survived the night. Today I would be rescued. To think that, to string those words together in my mind, was itself a source of hope."

Diction - Pi's character

Life of Pi: Character Analysis

• Optimistic
• pg. 236 "One day we came upon trash. First the water glistened with patches of oil."

Plot: Exposition

By Alyssa Sullivan, Hannah Callander,

Ian Renshaw, & Binh Truong

Plot: Exposition

• pg. 93 "'I don't see why I can't be all three… Why can't I be a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim?'"

• pg. 17 "To me, it was paradise on earth. I have nothing but the fondest memories of growing up in a zoo."

Pi Patel: Dynamic or Static?

Other characters: flat or round? Static or dynamic?

& Characterization to Pi

• pg. 10 "It was on my own, a guilty pleasure, that I returned to the sea, backoned by the mighty waves that crashed down and reached for me in humble tidal ripples, gentle lassos that caught their willing indian boy.
• pg. 42 "'Tigers are very dangerous', Father shouted. 'I want you to understand that you are never-- under any circumstances-- to touch a tiger, to pet a tiger, to put your hands through the bars of the cage, even to get close to a cage. Is that clear?'"

• Dynamic
• pg.183 "I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I had ever killed. I was now a killer. I was now as guilty as Cain. I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands."

• Orange Juice
• Flat & dynamic Pg. 130 "She remained gentle and unaggressive her whole life… I thought I knew not only her habits but also her limits. This display of ferocity, of savage courage, made me realize I was wrong. All my life I had only known only a part of her."
• pg.130 "Orange Juice's stirring defense brought a glow to my heart."

External Changes

Other characters: flat or round? Static or dynamic?

& Characterization to Pi

• Loss of weight
• pg.183-185 "A lifetime of peaceful vegetarianism stood between me and willful beheading of a fish… yet I knew it had to be done… It was the first sentient being I had ever killed."

• Mr. Kumar (Muslim baker)
• Flat & static pg.61 "He was a Sufi, a Muslim mystic. He south fana, union with God, and his relationship with God was personal and loving. 'if you take two steps toward God,' he used to tell me, 'God runs to you!'"
• pg. 61 "Mr. Kumar taught me… Islam… Mr. Kumar led me to… religious studies at the University of Toronto… Mr. Kumar was the prophet of my Indian youth."

Pi Patel: flat or round?

• Round
• pg. 76 "I loved my prayer rug. Ordinary in quality though it was, it glowed with beauty in my eyes. I'm sorry I lost it."

Plot: Falling action

Plot: Rising action

Other characters: flat or round? Static or dynamic?

& Characterization to Pi

• pg. 359 "Then Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life.
• pg. 366 "My name is Tomohiro Okamoto... We have come to see you about the sinking of the ship Tsimtsum of which you were a passenger."

• pg. 212 "I had to start fishing very soon. It would not take long for Richard Parker to finish the animal carcasses. At the zoo the adult lions and tigers ate an average of ten pounds of meat a day."

• "It's no use. Today I die. I will die today. I die."

• Richard Parker
• Flat & dynamic "Richard Parker made his point to me 4 times. 4 times he struck me with his right paw and sent me overboard, and 4 times I lost my shield."
• pg.130 "Prusten is the quietest of tiger calls, a puff through the nose to express friendliness and harmless intentions. Richard Parker did it again."
• pg.162 "It was Richard Parker who calmed me down. 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."

External Changes

• Arriving at the island
• pg. 258 "After months of nothing but salt-water-bleached smells, this reek of vegetable organic material was intoxicating… The combined shock of solid land and cool water gave me the strength to pull myself forward the island…Richard Parker! Land! Land! We are saved!"
• pg. 283 "I could not abandon Richard Parker. To leave him would mean to kill him."

Pi: Friend material, or nah?

Internal Changes

• Bravery
• Pg. 140 "There was no question. Thirst pushed me on… I blinked in disbelief at how close he (Richard Parker) was.
• Loss of hope
• pg. 240 "It's no use. Today I die. I will die today. I die."

• Friend material!
• pg. 255 "I tried to hold him back. Alas it was too late."
• pg. 285 "Then Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life."

Plot: Rising action

Plot: Resolution

Plot: Climax

• pg. 6 "I love Canada. I miss the heat of India… but I love Canada."

• pg. 100 "It was announced to us one evening during dinner. Canada!... Canada meant absolutely nothing to us."

• pg. 121 "The ship sank, it made a sound like a monstrous metallic burp. Things bubbled at the surface and then vanished. Everything was screaming: the sea, the wind, my heart."

• pg. 360 "This beach, so soft, firm, and vast, was like the cheek of God, and somewhere two eyes were glittering with pleasure and a mouth was smiling at having me here."