Life of Pi: Part Two (The Pacific Ocean) ~ Chapters 37–42

1. Life of Pi: Part Two (The Pacific Ocean) ~ Chapters 37–42 HKASL ~ Literature in English

2. Summary • The ship sinks • Pi finds himself in a lifeboat in the utter chaos • A Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker: • In the water, near drowning • Urges Pi to save himself • Boards the lifeboat • Pi: • Realizes the danger in sharing a tiny space with a vicious animal • Throws himself into the roiling water

3. Summary • Back a few moments: just before the sinking of the Tsimtsum • A loud noise, perhaps an explosion, wakes Pi • Tries to wake Ravi so they can go exploring together • Ravi stays asleep • Pi passes his parents’ cabin door and climbs up to the main deck • Raining • The boat: • Listing considerably to one side • Making awful groaning noises • Pi: • Begins to feel afraid • Trying to run back down to where his family is • The stairwell is full of water

4. Summary • Going back up to the main deck… • Pi hears animals shrieking • Three Chinese crewmen put a life jacket on him • Throw him over the side of the ship • He falls forty feet before landing on a tarpaulin partially covering a lifeboat hanging from the ship’s side • A Grant’s zebra jumps into the lifeboat after him, smashing down onto a bench • The lifeboat falls into the water

5. Summary • Just after Pi jumps from the lifeboat into the water • To escape Richard Parker • A shark cuts through the water nearby • Pi: • Terrified • Sees only the zebra, not the tiger in the boat • Slips back into the water but sees another shark • Quickly hoists himself up onto an oar hanging off the edge of the ship • Dangles a few feet above the water, holding on for dear life

6. Summary • The ship continues to sink… • It disappears • No other survivors (as Pi can tell) • Pi’s making decision that he needs to change position… • To prevent further soreness • To help him spot other lifeboats • Pi: • Climbs up onto the lifeboat’s tarpaulin cover (he believes Richard Parker is hiding under) • Frightened • Expects the tiger to appear and attack him at any moment • The tiger stays hidden • The zebra is still alive, but with a severely broken back leg

7. Summary • A hyena appears… • Pi’s conclusion: • Richard Parker must have drowned • A tiger and hyena could not both be on the lifeboat at the same time • He himself as bait for the hyena by the crew members • Hoping to clear the lifeboat for themselves • Fearful of the hyena… • The upfront aggression of a dog: preferable to the slyness and stealth of a jungle cat (Richard Parker)

8. Summary • An orangutan came… • Named Orange Juice • A star animal at the Pondicherry Zoo • Mother of two male orangutans • Floats up to the lifeboat on a raft of bananas tangled up in a net • Boards the lifeboat in shock • Pi saves the net but the bananas sink

9. Analysis • The strongest message: The fierce, unrelenting power with which life will fight to stave off death • Close calls and near-fatal incidents • Life continually surprises us with its might and will power: • Pi: survives his forty-foot fall through the air and lands unharmed on the lifeboat’s spongy tarpaulin cover • Zebra: survives a much less graceful fall and a broken leg • Richard Parker:, swims through turbulent ocean waters to clamber aboard a lifeboat in a state of shock and panic • Orange Juice: magically appears out of nowhere to join this group of survivors

10. Analysis • “Had I considered my prospects in light of reason, I surely would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping that I might drown before being eaten.” : • The sheer will to live outweighs logical thought • Pi clings to the oar, and to life • Stark contrast to the loss of lives — both human and animal — that the Tsimtsum’s sinking caused

11. Analysis • Appearance of Orange Juice • The most humanlike of all the creatures that manage to board the lifeboat • Emphasizing the loss of human life • A maternal figure: having given birth to two boys at the Pondicherry Zoo • The striking parallel between Orange Juice and Mrs. Patel (Both have two sons)

12. Analysis • Pi’s untenable position: the turning point in an adolescent boy’s life • Having to navigate the rough waters: the security of family life Vs. the independence of adulthood • Difficulty of growing up • Teasing from childhood friends • existential questioning of early adolescence • Pi’s hesitation and walking past his parents’ cabin door just before the sinking of the Tsimtsum: his desire to become independent • The loss of his family: A inconsolable and uncertain Pi • Muscle aches Vs. Emotional pain: Pi must figure out how to fend for himself in a lonely, confusing, and even violent world