English

Presentation-
Life of Pi
Derrick Poon
I began to imitate Richard Parker in sleeping an incredible number of hours. It
wasn't proper sleep, but a state of semi-consciousness in which daydreams
and reality were nearly indistinguishable. I made much use of my dream rag.
These are the last pages of my diary:

Today saw a shark bigger than any I've seen till now. A primeval monster
twenty feet long. Striped. A tiger shark-very dangerous. Circled us. Feared it
would attack. Have survived one tiger; thought I would die at the hands of
another. Did not attack. Floated away. Cloudy weather, but nothing.

No rain. Only morning greyness. Dolphins. Tried to gaff one. Found I could not
stand. R.P. weak and ill-tempered. Am so weak, if he attacks I won't be able to
defend myself. Simply do not have the energy to blow whistle.
Calm and burning hot day. Sun beating without mercy. Feel my brains are
boiling inside my head. Feel horrid.

Prostrate body and soul. Will die soon. R.P. breathing but not moving. Will die
too. Will not kill me.

Salvation. An hour of heavy, delicious, beautiful rain. Filled mouth, filled bags
and cans, filled body till it could not take another drop. Let myself be soaked
to rinse off salt. Crawled over to see R.P. Not reacting. Body curled, tail flat.
Coat clumpy with wetness. Smaller when wet. Bony. Touched him for first
time ever. To see if dead. Not. Body still warm. Amazing to touch him.
Even in this condition, firm, muscular, alive. Touched him and fur shuddered
as if I were a gnat. At length, head half in water stirred. Better to drink than to
drown. Better sign still: tail jumped. Threw piece of turtle meat in front of
nose. Nothing. At last half rose-to drink. Drank and drank. Ate. Did not rise
fully. Spent a good hour licking himself all over. Slept. It's no use.

Today I die.

I will die today.

I die.
This was my last entry. I went on from there, endured, but without noting it.
Do you see these invisible spirals on the margins of the page? I thought I
would run out of paper. It was the pens that ran out.
Dark Blue - parallels between Pi and Richard Parker- suggests that adverse
conditions lead to animal transformation

Purple - repetition of death related words - “last, die, kill” - accentuates the
belief that Pi has towards his death and the starkness of the atmosphere

Orange - Personification/description of environment to demonstrate the

power that nature has towards Pi’s survival

Light Blue - shows the religious actions that Pi presents towards the situation,
which highlights his faith
Brown - words such as “sleeping” and “daydreams” present Pi in a fantasy like
state, which connotes to the dehydration and hunger that Pi feels from being
in such harsh conditions - makes us emphasise with Pi’s horrific situation

Green - interesting parallel to life and the world that we live in - maybe it’s
meant to show that life will keep going forward even if we leave?