Transcript The Life of Pi Chapters 21

The Life of Pi
Chapters 21 - 36
Summary & Analysis
Chapter Summary
• Sitting in a café after a meeting with Pi
• The author considers his own mundane
life
• Some thoughts about Pi’s religious
philosophies
• The final deathbed moments of an atheist,
taking a “leap of faith” at the last minute.
• The tiresome rationalizing of an agnostic
Chapter Summary
• The priest, imam, and pandit with whom
Pi had been practicing his various religions
approached Pi at a seaside esplanade
• Shocked to discover that Pi was not just a
Hindu, Christian, or Muslim, but rather all
three simultaneously
• The religious figures protested and
demanded that Pi choose a single religion
Chapter Summary
• Pi : just wanted to love God.
• People who act out in violence or anger in
the name of god misunderstand the true
nature of religion
• Asking his father and mother for a prayer
mat
Chapter Summary
• Flustering with his ideas, his mother
attempted to distract him with books:
Robinson Crusoe and a volume by Robert
Louis Stevenson
• Pi came to treasure his rug. He was
baptized in the presence of his parents.
Chapter Summary
• 1970s: a difficult time in India due to
political troubles
• His father became incensed over the
government’s actions
• Decided to move his family to Canada — a
place completely foreign to Pi and Ravi.
Chapter Summary
• The one-time meeting of the two Mr.
Kumars, the atheist biology teacher and
the Muslim baker
• They joined Pi for an outing at the
Pondicherry Zoo, when Pi introduced them
to a Grant’s zebra
• Neither had ever seen an exotic zebra
before, but both were in awe of the
splendid creature
Chapter Summary
• Discussion of zoomorphism: when an animal
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sees another animal, or even another human, as
being of its own kind.
The truth: the lion cubs know the dog is not
their mother, and the lions know the human is a
human, not a lion
These animals know the truth, but they embrace
the fiction because they are also in need of
stories to get through life
Chapter Summary
• In preparation for the move to Canada
• Mr. Patel sold off many zoo creatures
• Made arrangements to bring some of
them across the Pacific in a cargo ship
with the family
• Set sail on June 21, 1977
• The apprehension of Pi’s mother about
leaving the place she has lived all her life
to travel into the unknown
Analysis
• Begins with two of the most important
phrases in the entire text: “dry, yeastless
factuality” and “the better story”
• Their significance is underscored: they are
repeated within two pages
• The two phrases are opposite poles on the
spectrum of storytelling.
Analysis
• Boring reality VS a version of reality that
has been enlivened by imagination,
improving the story (risen bread)
• When presented in these terms, it is easy
to see which is the more tempting
• The risen bread is far more appetizing,
while the flattened, yeastless option looks
about as appealing to eat as cardboard
Analysis
• Deep-seated and natural instinct: The
compulsion to invent a better story, to
improve one’s reality and make it more
livable
• Even animals do it, whether unconsciously
or not
Analysis
• Faced either with life as an orphan or life
with a foster mother, what lion cub
wouldn’t accept a dog as a maternal
figure?
• The fiction improves his life immeasurably
Analysis
• Saving grace of a myth or story to enrich
“yeastless” factuality
• Believing in a story requires a leap of faith