He stirred in the water and made to swim.
‘And what of my extended family – birds, beasts and reptiles? They too have drowned.
Every single thing I value in life has been destroyed. And I am allowed no explanation? I am to
suffer hell without any account from heaven? In that case, what is the purpose of reason, Richard
Parker? Is it no more than to shine at practicalities – the getting of food, clothing and shelter?
Why can’t reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in
an answer? Why such a vast net if there’s so little fish to catch?
His head was barely above water. He was looking up, taking in the sky one last time. There
was a lifebuoy in the boat with a rope tied to it. I took hold of it and waved it in the air.
‘Do you see this lifebuoy, Richard Parker? Do you see it? Catch hold of it. HUMPF! I’ll
try again. HUMPF!
He was too far. But the sight of the lifebuoy flying his way gave him hope. He revived and
started beating the water with vigorous, desperate strokes.
‘That’s right! One, two. One, two. One, two. Breathe when you can. Watch for the waves.
TREEEEEE! TREEEEEE! TREEEEEE!’
My heart was chilled to ice. I felt ill with grief. But there was no time for frozen shock. It
was shock in activity. Something in me did not want to give up on life, was unwilling to let go,
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wanted to fight to the very end. Where that part of me got the heart, I don’t know.
‘Isn’t it ironic, Richard Parker? We’re in hell yet we’re still afraid of immortality. Look how
close you are! TREEEEEE! TREEEEEE! TREEEEE! Hurrah, hurrah! You’ve made it, Richard
Parker, you’ve made it. Catch! HUMPF!’
I threw the lifebuoy mightily. It fell in the water right in front of him. With his last energies
he stretched forward and took hold of it.
‘Hold on tight, I’ll pull you in. Don’t let go. Pull with your eyes while I pull with my hands.
In a few seconds you’ll be aboard and we’ll be together. Wait a second. Together? We’ll be
together? Have I gone mad?’
I woke up to what I was doing. I yanked on the rope.
‘Let go of that lifebuoy, Richard Parker! Let go, I said. I don’t want you here, do you
understand? Go somewhere else. Leave me alone. Get lost. Drown! Drown!’
He was kicking vigorously with his legs. I grabbed an oar. I thrust it at him, meaning to push
him away. I missed and lost hold of the oar.
I grabbed another oar. I dropped it in an oarlock and pulled as hard as I could, meaning to
move the lifeboat away. All I accomplished was to turn the lifeboat a little. Bringing one end
closer to Richard Parker.
I would hit him on the head! I lifted the oar in the air.
He was too fast. He reached up and pulled himself aboard.
‘Oh my God!’
Ravi was right. Truly I was to be the next goat. I had a wet, trembling, half-drowned,
heaving and coughing three-year-old adult Bengal tiger in my lifeboat. Richard Parker rose
unsteadily to his feet on the tarpaulin, eyes blazing as they met mine, ears laid tight to his head, all
weapons drawn. His head was the size and the colour of the lifebuoy, with teeth.
I turned around, stepped over the zebra and threw myself overboard.
Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2001)
1
2
The narrator and his family are transporting some of the animals from their zoo when the ship sinks.
Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu: Figures of different faiths: Jesus, Mary and Christ (l.16) are Christian;
Muhammad and Allah (l.16) are Muslim and Vishnu is a Hindu god.
Ravi: the narrator’s brother
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Turn over / Tournez la page / Véase al dorso
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Commentary
IB Survival
The passage from Life of Pi centres around the protagonist who is the narrator in conflict
after a ship has sunk. The overall themes of the passage centre on philosophical, particularly
existential ideas about life and its purpose. The reader is launched directly into an extreme situation
with a hasty pace that is reflected in the paragraph and sentence structure. The intensity of the
situation is emphasised with onomatopoeia and exclamations to reflect the protagonist’s state of
mind. This commentary will adopt a linear approach to its analysis.
The first 3-word sentence is so concise, yet full of information. This candidate does not
know why the ship sank and it is fairly disconcerting to me as a reader to not know the full course of
events. This is mostly due to the overall intensity of the situation and the desire to know what led to
this unfortunate event. The first paragraph uses disastrous imagery which creates a powerful image
in the mind of the reader, who hears a loud metallic burp. The reader also hears screaming winds
while the use of “my [screaming] heart” prepares the reader for what is to come: an emotional
event that forces us to examine what life is and what it means. The fact that everything is screaming
conveys the severity of the situation communicated in an ominous tone.
The second paragraph continues with abrupt sentences but adds exclamations to put the
reader directly in the novel’s current setting. Here the rain imagery affects the reader such that
wetness is felt along with the distortion rain brings. The protagonist, Pi is crying the name Richard
Parker repeatedly emphasising the desperation and vitality he is experiencing. In addition, his
repetition shows his determination to live and fight for survival which is developed further on in the
passage. The tone in this paragraph (lines 4-5) is elevated and loud because the desperate cry “Oh”
rings in our ears. The harsh consonants ‘st-ruggling’, ‘stay’ and ‘surface’ mirror the harsh
circumstances of this scene.
The protagonist cries out many holy names because of the despair he feels and the hope he
longs for. Although the reader does not know Richard Parker is a tiger at this point, the fact that the
protagonist, Pi is crying “don’t give up” shows his joy of seeing another living being after the
traumatic event of the shipwreck. The onomatopoeia of the whistle and its TREEEE sound depict the
mayhem of the situation and Pi’s encouragement for the tiger to fight for survival shows the voracity
and love for life triggered after tragedy.
After Pi encourages and gives reassurance to Richard Parker, Pi wishes the tiger to
reciprocate. Obviously this is not possible but by Pi talking to himself with the tiger shows Pi’s
struggle to grip reality. Lines 12-17 are conveyed in a sympathetic tone to trigger empathy in the
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reader, and the repetition of “Tell me” demonstrates Pi’s desire for certainty and comfort from his
family who were either lost at sea after the ship sunk or already deceased. The continued focus on
‘me’ being saved or protected tells us how selfish one becomes when one’s life is in danger. Since Pi
has nobody to save him, he cries out to higher powers hoping for salvation. Line 17 ends with
another whistle blow and I think Pi does that here to awaken himself from the living nightmare he
thinks/hopes he is in; this way he brings himself back to the reality he “can’t bear” but must face and
deal with.
Repetition is used once again in lines 19 and 20 with the word ‘such’. However this time it
emphasises the degree to which this incredible experience is affecting Pi. This vivid sensual imagery
of intense pain, ache of heart and ripping nerves allow the reader to feel what poor Pi is feeling and
makes us imagine what it would be like to experience a similar situation. In line 20 there is a less
hopeful tone and an attempt to face the reality of death on Pi’s part. He seems to be examining the
frail nature of a weak animal on the verge of death; struggling for survival.
This weakness Pi perceives in Richard Parker makes him question the ‘will to survive’ in all
living, breathing entities. He questions ‘don’t you want to live?’ if so, fight, you must earn the right
to live, “Swim! Swim!” life is worth fighting for: “Kick! Kick!” encourages the tiger to swim and
makes Pi really live life and recognise the beauty and value of it – something which only happens
when our lives are threatened and safety/stability is compromised.
In line 25, Pi gets very philosophical, questioning the nature and purpose of living. He
realizes the unfairness of the world and – perhaps – questions religion and spirituality. This
paragraph (25-30) is particularly existential because Pi realizes the indifference of nature and the
universe to his personal situation. He even goes so far as to question logic and its purported utility.
Reason does not give him the answers to the questions he asks; reason only tells us to eat, sleep, be
clothed – it says nothing about feeling or how to deal with your family’s ship sinking at sea. Reason
is simplistic, not answering the greater questions such as why are we here? Is there a purpose to
life? Why must things be destroyed? These rhetorical questions mirror the inquisitive tone of this
paragraph and are accompanied by a ‘net’ metaphor. This net metaphor is interesting because it
depicts humans as knowledge-catchers and that reason is not a wide or sophisticated enough ‘net’
to ‘catch’ the answers we want for life’s big questions.
The introduction of the life buoy is interesting because it can be linked to the previous
paragraph. Humans who just want the bare necessities and only use reason to ‘float’ through life
are as passive as a buoy just floating around with no purpose or vitality. The “HUMPF” the buoy
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makes shows the deadweight of people who merely coast through life and even though life buoys
save lives it is no real way to live. The existential theme continues when we realize Pi’s passion for
life: he does not want to let go or give up, he wants to fight until the very end. He says that he does
not know where it came from, but I claim that it is a fundamental part of human nature out of our
control.
Although Pi rejoices “hurrah hurrah” as Richard Parker approaches safety, he wakes up to
the reality of the situation. Richard Parker was a caged animal held prisoner by Pi’s family. Pi
realizes that the tiger is angry and will want revenge for Pi’s infringement on the animal’s freedom.
Pi figures out that helping this tier will threaten his own survival his mood changes completely and
he decides to attack the tiger, but fails. He chooses to jump overboard and thus the roles of victim
and rescuer are reversed.
The passage ends as it began, with uncertainty and suspense. It is very engaging to read
because of its fast pace created by abrupt sentences and short paragraphs. The continuous
repetition captures the mental state of Pi and allows the reader to experience this life altering
situation vicariously. I conjecture that this passage is part of the climax, or one of many high points
of the novel because it seems like a coming of age story revolving around existential ideas.
