What's the setting?

 Pi tells the story of his childhood in Pondicherry, India, and the origin of his nickname.
One day, his father, a zoo owner, explains that the municipality is no longer supporting
the zoo and he has hence decided to move to Canada, where the animals the family owns
would also be sold.
 Life of Pi is set primarily in the Pacific Ocean in 1977. The Japanese cargo ship traveling
to Canada sunk on July 2nd, 1977 and Pi drifted for 227 days.

What's the basic plot?

 Life of Pi is the story of a young man who survives a harrowing shipwreck and months in
a lifeboat with a large Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The beginning of the novel
covers Pi’s childhood and youth.

Who are the characters?

 The main characters in Life of Pi are Pi Patel, Santoshi Patel (father of Pi), Gita Patel
(mother of Pi), Richard Parker (Bengal Tiger), Francis Adirubasamy (Mamaji), and Ravi
(brother of Pi). Piscine “Pi” Patel is a teenager who loses his family after a shipwreck. He
is fascinated by religions. Santosh Patel is Pi’s father, who seeks a better life for his
family in Canada.

What's the theme?

 The Will to Live. Life of Pi is a story about struggling to survive through seemingly
insurmountable odds. The shipwrecked inhabitants of the little lifeboat don’t simply
acquiesce to their fate: they actively fight against it. Pi abandons his lifelong
vegetarianism and eats fish to sustain himself.
 Belief in God. Throughout the novel, Pi makes his belief in and love of God clear—it is a
love profound enough that he can transcend the classical divisions of religion, and
worship as a Hindu, Muslim, and Christian.

What's the style that the writer used in telling the story?
 The large majority of Life of Pi is written in the first person, from Pi's point of view. First
person is the classic and still remains the most commonly used point of view. It was
important in this story to have it told from Pi's point of view because it makes the story
more intimate.
 Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi)

The novel’s protagonist, Pi is

born in Pondicherry, India and
raised among wild animals, as
his father is a zookeeper. Pi
gets his unusual name from a
famous swimming pool in
Paris.

Richard Parker

A three-year-old male royal Bengal tiger who is Pi’s companion on the lifeboat.

The Author

A fictional Canadian author who resembles Yann Martel, the novel’s real author. Like Martel, the
“author” has also published two books and was inspired to write Pi’s story while traveling in India.

Gita Patel

Pi’s mother. Gita is raised a Hindu and had a Baptist education, but she is nonreligious as an adult and
questions Pi’s faith. Gita encourages Pi to read books as a youth.

Santosh Patel

Pi’s father and the head of the Pondicherry Zoo.

Francis Adirubasamy

A friend of the Patel family who was a champion swimmer in his youth. Pi calls him Mamaji, which
means “respected uncle,” and Mamaji teaches Pi to swim and to love the water.