Book report H5

The life of Pi by Yann Martel

Book report Engels 

1. The book
2. Martel, Yann. The life of Pi. Canada: Knopf Canada, 2001.

1. The author
2. Yann Martel has written multiple books besides the life of Pi; Self (1996), Seven Stories (1993) and Beatrice and Virgil (2010).

1. The contents
2. What is the theme of the book?

The theme of the book is survival, because Pi must make sure he stays alive while being on a sinking ship and must survive days without water and food in a lifeboat.

1. Who are the main characters?

The main character is Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi. His name was made fun of at school. He got more interested in the different religions once he became a teenager. Others thought he was a bit weird since he was interested in multiple religions instead of just focusing on one religion. Despite the bullying, Pi did not stop pursuing his dreams/interests. He has a strong character and is always exited to learn new things.

The second main character is Richard Parker, a royal Bengal tiger. The tiger did not attack Pi because he was the one who fed the tiger at the Pondicherry Zoo. At the start of the story, he is an aggressive 450-pound tiger, but throughout the story he starts to change in appearance. The tiger becomes weak and skinny.

1. Are the main characters the same at the end of the book as they were in the beginning? (Do they have a different opinion, have they grown wiser?) Explain your answer.

Pi changed a lot, his interest in religion did not change but he did change from a scared boy who did not know how to deal with the situation he was in at that time. At the end of the book, he was a much stronger, more mature and a braver boy.

Richard Parker did not change a lot; he did change from being a bit aggressive towards Pi into a much friendlier tiger. These changes were not just caused by himself but also by the way Pi changed his attitude towards the tiger.

1. Where is the story situated: in the countryside, in a big town or in a village? Explain you answer by referring to the text.

The story is starts in India, in Puducherry (Pondicherry). This is when Pi was still a young kid. The other part of the story is situated in the middle of the Ocean (Pi is 16+ at that point). At the end the story is situated in Mexico, this is after 227 days of Pi being in the middle of the ocean.

1. Are the people in the story rich, poor, or neither rich nor poor? Explain you answer by referring to the text.

The parents run a Zoo but that does not make them rich, they decide to move to Canada because they do not earn enough money. So, it is literally told in the story by the parents themselves. They sell the Zoo and animals to get enough money to move to Canada.

1. When does the story take place?

The story is a memory of Pi, this story already happened when Pi tells it (Pi is the narrator of the story). He does not really use flashbacks because the entire story takes place in the past. He does use flashforwards when talking about the present.

1. The form (First: make sure you know the difference between GENRE and THEME)

1. What is the literary form of the book? (Novel, play, short story)

The form of the book is a novel.

1. What genre does it belong to (love story, crime story science fiction, adventure story)

It is a fictional novel, but the author tries to convince the reader that it is a real story. He tries this by writing about the discovery of Pi’s story in his Author’s Note.

1. What are three important THEMES in the book? Why/How?

Survival, Pi has a dramatic change in his life which has him struggling to survive every day for his entire journey. He struggles every day to get food together with a tiger who joined his journey.

Apart from the theme survival, the theme religion also fits the story. Pi is really into religion and thanks to God, Allah and Buddha he survived the journey with a tiger. He spent a lot of time back in the days on religion, he prayed a lot for the different religions which pays back when he must try to survive in a critical situation.

Travel/journey is also a theme, the entire book is about Pi his journey and how he must travel with crucial conditions/situations. The story is all about telling the way he travelled and how he acted like in certain situations to continue his journey. Beside Pi, there were multiple animals with him at the start of the journey. Those animals had to fight each other to survive and continue travelling. The only one surviving besides Pi is a tiger who he travels with for the rest of the story.

1. From what point of view has the book been written?

• The I-person, the story is told by Pi. As mentioned earlier, he is talking about a past experience and therefore he is the one telling us the story.

1. Personal opinion.

1. What did you think of the book? Was it nice, boring, or fascinating?

It was really fascinating; this story was interesting to read because the reader wants to know how Pi will survive. I like to read books that are about adventure and have a bit of tension in it. This made it easier to read and gave me more motivation to continue this fascinating story.

1. Which part of the book did you like, or dislike, most?

The moment when the ship began to sink.

1. Retell this part briefly in your own words

The ship started to sink and “sounded like a monstrous metallic burp.” Pi was watching from the lifeboat and whistled to make sure that the tiger could find the boat. Pi tried to save the tiger which succeeded after a lot of struggling.

1. Indicate where in the book we can find this passage (give page number(s))

Page 81 (chapter 37)

1. Explain why you liked or disliked this passage; use some fifty words.

I liked this part because it was intense, the fact that Pi tried to make sure that the tiger survived by whistling made it easier for Richard. But the narrator still explained every movement in detail and how the tiger was close to drowning which made it intense. I like intense situations because they make me more exited to continue reading the story.

1. Mention the two characters from the book that you found the most interesting. Did you like him / her? Explain why; use some fifty words for each character.

I liked the two main characters because you do not get to know the other characters a lot which makes it easier to pick two characters. I liked Pi because of his personality, the way he pursues his interests/dreams and continues following multiple religions. I also liked how he changed throughout the book and became much more mature.

I also liked Richard because of his personality at the start and end of the book, the fact that he became much nicer/softer towards Pi and how he was willing to change his attitude because of the situations that the two had to go through together. Pi changed and because of that Richard tried to change as well, which is likeable.

1. Do you think that your classmates should read this book? Explain your answer; use some fifty words.

Yeah, I do recommend it to classmates who like the more adventurous books and who like more ‘advanced English’ kinds of books. The author likes to write long beautiful sentences who kind of turn into poetry that includes difficult words. Classmates who like a bit of a challenge can try and find out the definition using the context only, this is good if you want to learn unfamiliar words.