Transcript Life of Pi: Part Two (The Pacific Ocean) ~ Chapters 37–42

Life of Pi:
Part Two (The Pacific
Ocean) ~ Chapters 37–42
HKASL ~ Literature in English
Summary
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The ship sinks
 Pi finds himself in a lifeboat in the utter chaos
 A Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker:
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In the water, near drowning
Urges Pi to save himself
Boards the lifeboat
Pi:
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Realizes the danger in sharing a tiny space with a
vicious animal
Throws himself into the roiling water
Summary

Back a few moments: just before the sinking of the
Tsimtsum
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The boat:
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A loud noise, perhaps an explosion, wakes Pi
Tries to wake Ravi so they can go exploring together
Ravi stays asleep
Pi passes his parents’ cabin door and climbs up to the main deck
Raining
Listing considerably to one side
Making awful groaning noises
Pi:
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Begins to feel afraid
Trying to run back down to where his family is
The stairwell is full of water
Summary
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Going back up to the main deck…
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Pi hears animals shrieking
Three Chinese crewmen put a life jacket on him
Throw him over the side of the ship
He falls forty feet before landing on a tarpaulin
partially covering a lifeboat hanging from the ship’s
side
A Grant’s zebra jumps into the lifeboat after him,
smashing down onto a bench
The lifeboat falls into the water
Summary

Just after Pi jumps from the lifeboat into the
water
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To escape Richard Parker
A shark cuts through the water nearby
Pi:
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Terrified
Sees only the zebra, not the tiger in the boat
Slips back into the water but sees another shark
Quickly hoists himself up onto an oar hanging off the edge of
the ship
• Dangles a few feet above the water, holding on for dear life
Summary
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The ship continues to sink…
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It disappears
No other survivors (as Pi can tell)
Pi’s making decision that he needs to change
position…
• To prevent further soreness
• To help him spot other lifeboats
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Pi:
• Climbs up onto the lifeboat’s tarpaulin cover (he believes
Richard Parker is hiding under)
• Frightened
• Expects the tiger to appear and attack him at any moment
• The tiger stays hidden
• The zebra is still alive, but with a severely broken back leg
Summary
 A hyena
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appears…
Pi’s conclusion:
• Richard Parker must have drowned
• A tiger and hyena could not both be on the lifeboat
at the same time
• He himself as bait for the hyena by the crew
members
• Hoping to clear the lifeboat for themselves
• Fearful of the hyena…
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The upfront aggression of a dog: preferable to the
slyness and stealth of a jungle cat (Richard Parker)
Summary
 An
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orangutan came…
Named Orange Juice
A star animal at the Pondicherry Zoo
Mother of two male orangutans
Floats up to the lifeboat on a raft of bananas
tangled up in a net
Boards the lifeboat in shock
Pi saves the net but the bananas sink
Analysis
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The strongest message: The fierce, unrelenting
power with which life will fight to stave off death
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Close calls and near-fatal incidents
Life continually surprises us with its might and will
power:
• Pi: survives his forty-foot fall through the air and lands
unharmed on the lifeboat’s spongy tarpaulin cover
• Zebra: survives a much less graceful fall and a broken leg
• Richard Parker:, swims through turbulent ocean waters to
clamber aboard a lifeboat in a state of shock and panic
• Orange Juice: magically appears out of nowhere to join this
group of survivors
Analysis

“Had I considered my prospects in light of
reason, I surely would have given up and let go
of the oar, hoping that I might drown before
being eaten.” :
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The sheer will to live outweighs logical thought
Pi clings to the oar, and to life
Stark contrast to the loss of lives — both human
and animal — that the Tsimtsum’s sinking
caused
Analysis
 Appearance
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of Orange Juice
The most humanlike of all the creatures that
manage to board the lifeboat
Emphasizing the loss of human life
A maternal figure: having given birth to two
boys at the Pondicherry Zoo
The striking parallel between Orange Juice
and Mrs. Patel (Both have two sons)
Analysis
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Pi’s untenable position: the turning point in an
adolescent boy’s life
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Having to navigate the rough waters: the security of
family life Vs. the independence of adulthood
Difficulty of growing up
Teasing from childhood friends
existential questioning of early adolescence
Pi’s hesitation and walking past his parents’ cabin
door just before the sinking of the Tsimtsum: his
desire to become independent
The loss of his family: A inconsolable and uncertain Pi
Muscle aches Vs. Emotional pain: Pi must figure out
how to fend for himself in a lonely, confusing, and
even violent world