Life of Pi Analysis

The greatest temptation in the history of mankind is to read Life of Pi as an allegory. It's so easy, right? Each surviving animal matches up with a human survivor. (Martel offers us the blueprint...

It's easy to forget the circumstances surrounding the Patel family's departure from Pondicherry, India. Once we're on the ocean with Pi and Richard Parker, the rest of the novel seems like backstor...

Martel chooses a very complex point of view for Life of Pi. Or rather, multiple points of view. We start out in First Person (Central Narrator) Land – meaning, the guy speaking is telling his own...

There's no doubt that Life of Pi follows in the footsteps (or wake) of the great high-seas adventure novels. Its author, Yann Martel, spent a year and a half researching (along with religion and zo...

Here's a shocking statement about a novel about a boy lost and starving at sea: parts of Life of Pi are funny. Martel writes with a whimsical, tolerant tone consistent with Pi's outlook on life. Th...

In some ways, Martel has his cake and eats it too. He's written a book with unpretentious, casual language that's also capable of stunning lyricism. You'll be moseying along, listening to Pi tell i...

The title, of course, refers to our protagonist Pi, whose full name is Piscine Molitor Patel. Pi's name has a few rich associations in the novel. For starters, there's π, the "elusive, irrational...

You might find it a little odd, after pages of adventure, despair, and hope, to encounter a sort of Japanese comedy duo at the end. However, the two investigators ask Pi some important questions an...