Life of Pi (2001) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 4 stars

“Story of a boy and his dog...I mean Bengal Tiger.”

• Rated 1 stars

“I didn't care for this book.”

• Rated 5 stars

“It's a great book!”

• Rated 4 stars

“Very imaginative story. I liked the the story about the animals better. Great descriptions although there are some gruesome parts.”

• Rated 0 stars

“Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Sound fantastic? It is!”

• Rated 0 stars

“May 18, (235- 279)
Theme
One theme I found in the Life of Pi is survival. this is seen in this book because Piscine, or Pi, is fighting for survival on a boat with a tiger. Even though Pi was a vegetarian due to his religion he had to abandon his beliefs to stay alive. Another thing about survival was that he had to protect himself from Richard Parker, the tiger. At one point the tiger and Pi realize they cant kill each other because there survival is depended on each other, they depend on each other.

May 16, 2013 (Pg. 1- 235)
Character Analysis (So Far)
Piscine (The Human)
Piscine or Pi, in the begining doesn't know what to believe in, he always changing his religious belief. When he is stuck with richard Parker to the reader, I see him as brave because being stuck on a boat with just a tiger isn't calm. Pi also seems to use a lot of survival skills to help him survive throughout his journey.
Richard Parker (The Tiger)
Richard parker is a bengal tiger who is stuck on an escape boat with Pi. Richard parker in the beginning especially seems to have the most power on the boat because of how others see him, big and fearsome. ”

• Rated 0 stars

“Amazing!!”

• Rated 2 stars

“The first part of this book is a cross between fiction (Pi's life) and non- fiction (all his random information about various topics he's introducing you too). It rambles on some but I quite enjoyed it and found the first quarter soon whizzed by. The 2nd part to me felt like the author suddenly lost interest as there was no build up to the ship wreck, it just went straight in to it like a hazy/ foggy night and continued in such a confusing manner. It wasn't bad but the problem for me is that it should have been half the length it was as nothing all that much happened except animals falling out....he stopped at an island and then continued on his way, there was no exciting rescue just a case of coming to the end of the line and things just kind of happened. This part I mostly skimmed/skipped as what you were reading 5 pages earlier is still happening so I didn't miss much. The 3rd part is Pi telling his adventure to some investigators and eating constantly. I was just relieved when the book was over which was disappointing as I enjoyed it to start with. I have noticed though the Man Booker Prize books I haven't enjoyed the few that I have read so I think I will stay far away from them in the future and read something worth reading. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Some day I'm going to remember that I don't have a strong stomach for the things characters are forced to eat in extreme survival stories. I had to just skim some parts. Other than that...

This is a wonderful book. So many rules of writing broken - pages full of musings about religious belief without moving into the action immediately. But it works. You have to get deeply inside the narrator's mind in that way before the real action begins in order to feel the story happening.

Pi is a 16year-old Indian boy whose family has just liquidated the zoo they owned. They set sail for Canada, carrying some of the animals along to deliver to buyers along the way. When the ship sinks, Pi finds himself on a lifeboat with a few of the animals. Soon enough it's only him and a bengal tiger.

Once I read through to the end, I understood why everyone kept saying things like "It's about so much more than that, but I can't tell you what." I'll just say it's one of those books where the ending makes you go back and leaf through certain scenes to re-read them with new eyes.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Mariam Al Sadek 8A
May 12, 2013
Pg. 1-70
Readers Response: Authors Craft
The author, Yann Martel used a lot of creative detail to the book in every chapter. It allows you to imagine everything in your head very clearly, as if you where the main character witnessing everything. Also, from what the book talks about, it really got the reader to think about life; when Pi tried many religions, he learns what he should believe in and also gets the readers to think about that in reality. The only thing I don't like about how the author writes this book is that it's too detailed, where the reader will possibly wonder off or forget what was the main conflict. Other than that, I think its an interesting story that needs time to read, and might possibly end very well

Mariam Al Sadek 8A
May 18, 2013
Pg. 1-70
Readers Response: Character Analysis
The main character, Pi, is a young indian boy living in Inda, who is very intelligent, and is very interested about different religions. His original name is Picene, but changed it to Pi since all the kids in his school would make fun of him for his name. His family was always Buddhist, but never really knew about any other religion but his family's; he then realized a church near his school, and started to learn about Christianity from the priest there, and converted. Then he discovered Islam, and prayed in the form of Islam and learned so much from it. He then started to practice all the religions. I predict that he'll either choose which religion he believes in, or have no religion at all, and believe in God since all of those religions are based on believing in one God.
”