As Part 2 continues, we begin to explore the many different facets of Pi’s survival. The first part of Part 2 conveys his immediate, emotive reaction, coming to terms with his circumstances and as he starts to come to terms with the ordeal he will now face. The second part of Part 2 explores Pi’s first steps into survival, learning the skills that will allow him to satisfy his physical needs, confronting long-held beliefs that risk holding him back, establishing the routines that will allow him to survive, and mastering the fear and uncertainty that would otherwise lead to his doom.
This next part of Part 2 delves much more deeply into the how Pi maintains his sanity, and the beliefs, faith and ideas that will give him the strength to keep on survival against impossible circumstances and suffering. This appreciation is the final, and perhaps most important, survival skill that Pi will learn.
The below questions and quotes will guide you through some of the key ideas of each chapter and show you the types of evidence that you should be gathering. Remember, though, that this is a skeleton of the novel – there is so much more that you can find and discuss beyond the below quotes, and you should continue to highlight and annotate your novel around the key themes of faith, survival and storytelling.
Look at Chapter 87 below for an example of how you can structure and write your answers.
Chapters 67 to 72
These chapters describe the process through which Pi is able to tame Richard Parker.
Chapter 73
“My greatest wish – other than salvation – was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and a fresh understanding each time. Alas, there was no scripture in the lifeboat.” 207
“No thundering from a pulpit, no condemnation from bad churches, no peer pressure, just a book of scripture quietly waiting to say hello, as gentle and powerful as a little girl’s kiss on your cheek.” 208
- What does this chapter reveal about the nature of stories?
Chapter 74
“I practiced religious rituals that I adapted to the circumstances…They brought be comfort, that is certain. But it was hard, oh, it was hard. Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love – but sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific and I would not be able to lift it back up.” 208-9
“…in this way I would remind myself of creation and my place in it.” 209
“Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression.” 209
“The blackness would stir and eventual go away, and god would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.” 209
- Why is Pi able to remain faithful, despite the struggles of his ordeal?
Chapter 75
…is very sad.
Chapters 76 to 85
These chapters continue the story of survival as Pi struggles with finding enough food and water, and continues to train Richard Parker. Nature occasionally offers a means of breaking the long monotony of the voyage in the form of a storm with mountainous waves (chapter 83), a vivid lightening storm (chapter 85), sharks which are drawn to the lifeboat (chapter 78) and a passing whale (chapter 84). By Chapter 80 Pi proves he is the master of Richard Parker and the alpha of the lifeboat.
For each chapter find one or more quotes that link with the following core ideas:
- Chapter 77: Hunger and the desperation that it brings (p.213-214).
- Chapter 78: The nature of boredom and terror (p.217)
- Chapter 80: Pi masters Richard Parker, and starts to become less controlled by fear (p.222).
- Chapter 82: Pi’s increasing loss of humanity as he becomes more animal-like in his quest to survive (p.225).
Record your quotes and explain the significance of the ideas they contain.
Chapter 86
The lifeboat is almost destroyed by a passing tanker. Pi is not rescued.
Chapter 87
Pi uses a ‘dream rag’ to reduce his air supply, sending him into a deep sleep. He uses this as a form of escapism into “the most extraordinary dreams, trances, vision, thoughts, sensations and remembrances” (235). Most important, though, is the act of waking up and the resulting “delight to find that time had slipped by” (236). Trapped in an existence where time has no meaning and existence and suffering are intertwined and continuous, the act gives Pi proof that “the present moment was different from the previous present moment” (236); a feeling that is otherwise absent in the monotony of his survival.
Chapter 88
Pi drifts into a large mass of foul-smelling garbage. He sends out a message in a bottle.
Chapter 89
Pi describes the physical decline of himself and Richard Parker, which is now dire. We read the last few pages of his diary. He had been trying to conserve paper by keeping his writing small, but ultimately the pen runs out of ink: “I thought I would run out of paper. It was the pen that ran out.” 240
- Why do you think the pen running out of ink coincidences with the physical wasting away of Pi and Richard Parker?
In chapter 90, Pi will speak to the first new soul to enter the story since he began his voyage of survival on the lifeboat months ago…
