W HAT DOES IT A LL M EA N?W HY A M I SO CO NFUSED?CA N SOM EONE HELP M E?

A P OW ERP OIN T PRESENTAT IONBY M A RY M EA NIX

Understanding Life of Pi

Mr. Abirudasamy tells the fictitious author that he has “a story that will make you

believe in God.”

This story is told twice.

The first version is hard to believe.

But the second version is completely gruesome.

But the question remains: which version is the real story?

Orange Juice?

Or Gita Patel?

But the nice thing is that Yann Martell already gave you

everything you need to understand this book in chapters 21

and 22.

Remember? The “heart” of the book?

Let’s review!

AGNOSTICISM ATHEISM

Pi tells us that agnostic folks live a “dry, yeastless factuality.”

Agnostics cannot believe without proof

They require reasons and for things to make sense

Pi says an atheist, despite the fact that he or she does not believe in god, can get “the better story” in life

Atheists can believe without proof– they can have FAITH

Pi’s view on belief systems is important

“Dry, yeastless factuality”

“But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater.”

“You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story…”

“Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain…”

-- Agnostic’s last words

“The Better Story”

“Words of divine consciousness”“An alignment of the universe along moral

lines, not intellectual ones”“The founding principle of existence is what

we call love”

“White, white! L-L-Love! My god!

--Atheist’s last words during the

“deathbed leap of faith”

Just tell me what really happens at the end.

“…my novel is about the line between fiction and fact. It is about how we interpret reality, right? Reality isn't just out there; it's how we interpret it. And to me, that's what religion is about, isn't it? It's an interpretation of reality.”

--Yann Martel in a 2002 interview with Ray Suarez, from PBS

“That’s what fiction is about, isn’t it? The selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?”

-From the “Author’s Note” (told from the point of view of the “fictitious author”)

The end of Life of Pi cannot be explained to you.

The story’s ending depends on your interpretation.

Pi? Chinese Sailor?

Gita? The French Cook?

Do you like “the better story?”

Or do you prefer the “dry, yeastless factuality?”

Cannibal Cannibal

Let me remind you:

There isn’t anything that happens in this novel that’s impossible.

Bananas do float. They do.

“Prusten” is a real tiger sound of approval (from the German word for “snort.”)

Dorado fish are known for their dazzling colors, and when dorado are out of water, they often change color.

Temporary blindness can occur with severe dehydration, malnourishment, and/or trauma.

Carnivorous plants exist.

Plants can also root in water– they do not all need soil.

Remember the case of the female black leopard who

escaped from the Zurich Zoo in the winter of 1933? She

survived for 10 weeks, a black leopard, unseen in all that snow,

and was shot when discovered accidentally?

Can you believe that?

Here’s the link: http://books.google.com/books?id=8DT4xOpIzS0C&pg=PA1479&lpg=PA1479&dq=did+a+black+leopard+escape+the+zurich+zoo+in+1933?&source=bl&ots=qmKnUkypwp&sig=xkMGI6KYATBoNAKmVK6P1jA2dJA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eEhjUOaZO46z0QH3uYHwAQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=did%20a%20black%20leopard%20escape%20the%20zurich%20zoo%20in%201933%3F&f=false

It’s real. It happened.

Check out page 1479 of The Encyclopedia of the World’s Zoos, Volume 3. Written by Catharine Bell.

Would you believe me if I told you that, throughout the course of British maritime history, there have

been three castaways with the same name?

Richard Parker was involved in the

Spithead and Nore mutinies of 1797. Unfortunately, he became one of the

leaders of the mutiny. When the situation was

brought to justice, Richard Parker was

hanged.

In 1846, the Francis Spaight sank at sea.

Apprentice Richard Parker was among the twenty-one drowning victims of that sinking. There were no cases of cannibalism.

In 1884, a yacht called the Mignonette sank. Four people survived and drifted in a life boat before the cabin boy, named Richard Parker, was killed by the others for food.

RICHARD PARKER!

Oh, It Gets Even Better

In 1838, almost 50 years BEFORE the sinking of the Mignonette, Edgar Allen Poe published his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Get this-- There is a character named Richard Parker, a naughty, mutinous sailor on the Grampus. After the Grampus capsizes in a storm, he and three other survivors are stuck in a lifeboat…. And they get very hungry. They draw lots to decide which one of them will be killed for food, so that everyone else doesn’t starve. Parker draws the shortest lot and is cannibalized.

(And there’s a dog on the lifeboat. It’s name is Tiger.)

"So many victimized Richard Parkers had to mean something."

Martel, Yann. “How Richard Parker came to get his name.” http://www.amazon.com. Retrieved September 26, 2012.