Life of Pi Brief Summary

Life of Pi is a story by author Yann Martel about a boy named Pi. The story is about Piscine, a zoo keepers son who grew up in India. He was often made fun of for his named and experienced a rough childhood until he switched schools and shortened his name to Pi.

Pi was smart and very religious. He took on three religions at once, Hinduism Christianity and Muslim. Pi’s family decides to move to Canada by sea with the animals being taken to American zoos. In a tragedy, the boat subsides, and the family perishes. Pi survives. He is among a tiger a hyena an injured zebra and an orangutan on a lifeboat.

The hyena eats the zebra and the orangutan while Pi watches and he knows he is next. The tiger reveals himself and kills the hyena and saves Pi’s life.

Pi survives the Pacific on this boat with the tiger for around 227 days. He is met with different challenges, such as being seasick, thirst starvation, storms, and loneliness. The tiger was not friendly at first until Pi successfully tames him. They feed on fish to survive. Pi comes across greater challenges, such as a period of blindness after being exposed to a certain species of algae. He even survives a cannibal Frenchman who wanted to eat him, but his tiger; named Richard Parker saves him.

The novel gets to Pi being in an interview with investigators. He was sharing the story of what he experienced, but they do not believe him. He gives them the alternate version. The survivors of the boat were his mother, a Japanese sailor with an injured leg and a French chef. The Frenchman kills the sailor and uses his leg for bait. Pi’s mother attacks the chef to protect her son, but the chef kills her too. The Chef feels guilty for this act and allows Pi to kill him as retribution.