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What Reading Level Is Life of Pi

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This article is almost the novel by Yann Martel. For the picture show based on the novel and directed by Ang Lee, see Life of Pi (film).

Novel by Yann Martel

Life of Pi
Life of Pi cover.png

Life of Pi encompass
Writer Yann Martel
Original title Life of Pi
Land Canada
Linguistic communication English
Genre Philosophical fiction
Publisher Knopf Canada

Publication date

 11 September 2001 (2001-09-11) (Canada)
ISBN 0-676-97376-0 (first edition, hardcover)
OCLC 46624335
Preceded by Self
Followed by Beatrice and Virgil

Life of Pi is a Canadian philosophical novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry who explores bug of spirituality and metaphysics from an early on historic period. He survives 227 days subsequently a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Body of water with a Bengal tiger which raises questions about the nature of reality and how it is perceived and told.

The novel has sold more than than ten million copies worldwide.[1] It was rejected by at least 5 London publishing houses[2] earlier being accustomed by Knopf Canada, which published information technology in September 2001. The UK edition won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year.[iii] [iv] [5] It was as well chosen for CBC Radio'due south Canada Reads 2003, where it was championed by author Nancy Lee.[6]

The French translation L'Histoire de Pi was called in the French CBC version of the contest Le Combat des livres, where it was championed by Louise Forestier.[7] The novel won the 2003 Boeke Prize, a South African novel award. In 2004, information technology won the Asian/Pacific American Honor for Literature in Best Adult Fiction for years 2001–2003.[8] In 2012 it was adapted into a feature film directed by Ang Lee with a screenplay by David Magee.

Plot [edit]

The book begins with a note from the author, which is an integral part of the novel. Unusually, the note describes mostly fictional events. Information technology serves to plant and enforce one of the volume's main themes: the relativity of truth.

Role 1 [edit]

The narrator, Piscine, grows upwards equally the son of the managing director of a zoo in Pondicherry. While after recounting his life in that location, he proffers insight on the antagonism of zoos and expresses his thoughts on why animals react less negatively than proponents of the idea suggest.

The narrator describes how he acquired his full proper noun as a tribute to the pond pool in France. After hearing schoolmates tease him by transforming the first name into "Pissing", he establishes the short grade of his proper noun as "Pi" when he starts secondary school. The proper noun, he says, pays tribute to the transcendental number which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its bore.

In recounting his experiences, Pi describes several other unusual situations involving proper names: 2 visitors to the zoo, one a devout Muslim, and the other a committed atheist, bear identical names; and a 450-pound tiger at the zoo bears the name Richard Parker as the result of a clerical mistake which switched the tiger's name with the proper name of his human captor.[ix]

One day, Pi and his older brother Ravi are given an impromptu lesson on the dangers of the animals kept at the zoo. Information technology opens with a goat being fed to some other tiger, followed past a family tour of the zoo on which his father explains the aggressive biological features of each animal.

Pi is raised as a Hindu who practices vegetarianism. At the historic period of fourteen, he investigates Christianity and Islam, and decides to get an adherent of all three religions, much to his parents' dismay (and his religious mentors' frustration), saying he "just wants to love God".[ten] He tries to understand God through the lens of each organized religion, and comes to recognize benefits in each one.

A few years subsequently in February 1976, during the menses when Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares "The Emergency", Pi's begetter decides to sell the zoo and immigrate with his wife and sons to Canada.

Part 2 [edit]

The 2d role of the novel begins with Pi'due south family unit aboard the Tsimtsum, a Japanese freighter that is transporting animals from their zoo to North America. A few days out of port from Manila, the ship encounters a storm and sinks. Pi manages to escape in a small lifeboat, only to learn that the boat also holds a spotted hyena, an injured Grant'due south zebra, and an orangutan named Orangish Juice. Much to the boy's distress, the hyena kills the zebra and so Orange Juice. A tiger has been hiding under the gunkhole's tarpaulin: it is Richard Parker, who had boarded the lifeboat with ambivalent assistance from Pi himself some time before the hyena assail. Of a sudden emerging from his hideaway, Richard Parker kills and eats the hyena.

Frightened, Pi constructs a small raft out of rescue flotation devices, tethers it to the bow of the gunkhole and makes it his place of retirement. He begins conditioning Richard Parker to take a submissive office by using food every bit a positive reinforcer, and seasickness as a punishment mechanism, while using a whistle for signals. Before long, Pi asserts himself every bit the alpha animal, and is eventually able to share the gunkhole with his feline companion, albeit in the finish that Richard Parker is the one who helped him survive his ordeal.

Pi recounts various events while afloat in the Pacific Ocean. At his lowest point, exposure renders him blind and unable to catch fish. In a state of delirium, he talks with a marine "repeat", which he initially identifies as Richard Parker having gained the power to speak, but it turns out to exist another blind castaway, a Frenchman, who boards the lifeboat with the intention of killing and eating Pi, but is immediately killed by Richard Parker.

Some time afterwards, Pi's boat comes ashore on a floating island network of algae inhabited by hundreds of thousands of meerkats. Soon, Pi and Richard Parker regain strength, only the boy's discovery of the cannibal nature of the island's plant life forces him to return to the bounding main.

Two hundred and 20-seven days after the ship'southward sinking, the lifeboat washes onto a beach in Mexico, afterward which Richard Parker disappears into the nearby jungle without looking back, leaving Pi heartbroken at the abrupt farewell.

Part three [edit]

The 3rd part of the novel describes a chat betwixt Pi and two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Ship, who are conducting an research into the shipwreck. They meet him at the hospital in Mexico where he is recovering. Pi tells them his tale, simply the officials reject information technology every bit unbelievable. Pi and then offers them a second story in which he is adrift on a lifeboat non with zoo animals, but with the transport's cook, a Taiwanese sailor with a cleaved leg, and his own mother. The cook amputates the sailor's leg for apply as fishing bait, so kills the sailor every bit well as Pi's mother for food. Soon afterwards, the melt is killed by Pi, who dines on him.

The investigators note parallels between the two stories. They before long conclude that the hyena symbolizes the cook, the zebra the crewman, the orangutan Pi's female parent, and the tiger represents Pi. Pi points out that neither story tin be proven and neither explains the cause of the shipwreck, so he asks the officials which story they prefer: the one without animals or the one with animals. They finally choose the story with the animals. Pi cheers them and says: "And then it goes with God." The investigators then leave and file a report expressing belief in the first story.

Themes [edit]

Martel has said that Life of Pi tin be summarized in 3 statements: "Life is a story"; "You tin can cull your story"; "A story with God is the better story".[11] Gordon Houser suggests that there are 2 main themes of the book: "that all life is interdependent, and that nosotros live and exhale via belief."[12]

Inspiration [edit]

Martel said in a 2002 interview with PBS that he was "looking for a story… that would directly my life".[13] He spoke of beingness lonely and needing direction in his life, and he found that writing the novel met this need.[14]

Richard Parker and shipwreck narratives [edit]

The name Richard Parker for the tiger was inspired past a character in Edgar Allan Poe'south nautical adventure novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838). Richard Parker is a mutineer who is stranded and somewhen cannibalized on the hull of an overturned ship, and there is a dog aboard who is named Tiger. Martel besides had another occurrence in heed in the famous legal case R five Dudley and Stephens (1884), where a shipwreck again results in the cannibalism of a motel male child named Richard Parker, this time in a lifeboat.[15] A 3rd Richard Parker drowned in the sinking of the Francis Spaight in 1846, described past writer Jack London, and later the cabin boy was cannibalized. "So many victimized Richard Parkers had to hateful something", Martel suggested.[16] [17]

Moacyr Scliar [edit]

Martel has mentioned that a book review of Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar's 1981 novella Max and the Cats accounts in part for his novel'due south premise. Scliar's story describes a Jewish-German refugee crossing the Atlantic Sea with a jaguar in his boat.[eighteen] [xix] Scliar said that he was perplexed that Martel "used the idea without consulting or even informing me," and indicated that he was reviewing the situation before deciding whether to have any action in response.[twenty] [21] After talking with Martel, Scliar elected not to pursue the thing.[22] A dedication to Scliar "for the spark of life" appears in the author's notation of Life of Pi. Literary reviews have described the similarities as superficial betwixt Life of Pi and Max and the Cats. Reviewer Peter Yan wrote: "Reading the two books side-past-side, one realizes how inadequate bald plot summaries are in conveying the unique imaginative impact of each volume,"[23] and noted that Martel'south distinctive narrative construction is not found in Scliar'due south novella. The themes of the books are also dissimilar, with Max and the Cats being a metaphor for Nazism.[24] In Life of Pi, 211 of 354 pages are devoted to Pi'southward experience in the lifeboat, compared to 17 of 99 pages in Max and the Cats depicting fourth dimension spent in a lifeboat.[24]

Characters [edit]

Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel [edit]

He acquires layer later on layer of various spirituality and brilliantly synthesizes it into a personal belief system and devotional life that is breathtaking in its depth and scope. His youthful exploration into comparative religion culminates in a magnificent epiphany of sorts.

—Phoebe Kate Foster of PopMatters [25]

Piscine Molitor Patel, known to all as just "Pi", is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. He was named after a swimming pool in Paris, despite the fact that neither his mother nor his father particularly liked pond. The story is told as a narrative from the perspective of a middle-aged Pi, now married with his own family, and living in Canada. At the fourth dimension of main events of the story, he is xvi years old. He recounts the story of his life and his 227-24-hour interval journey on a lifeboat when the ship he sailed sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during a voyage to North America.

Richard Parker [edit]

Richard Parker is an adult Bengal tiger who is stranded on the lifeboat with Pi when the ship sinks. Richard Parker lives on the lifeboat with Pi and is kept alive with the food and water Pi delivers. Richard Parker develops a relationship with Pi that allows them to coexist in their struggle.

In the novel, a hunter named Richard Parker is hired to kill a panther that has been terrorising the people of a pocket-size hamlet in Bangladesh and thought to have killed seven people within 2 months. Instead, he accidentally immobilizes a female Bengal tiger with tranquilizer darts while her cub is defenseless hiding in a bush-league. Parker names the cub Thirsty subsequently his enthusiasm when drinking from a nearby river. The paperwork that accompanies the shipment of the two tigers to Pi's family'south zoo in Pondicherry states that the cub's proper name is "Richard Parker" and the hunter's given name is "Thirsty" and his surname is "None Given", due to a botch with the names. Pi's father finds the story and then amusing that they continue to call the tiger "Richard Parker".

Reception [edit]

Brian Bethune of Maclean's describes Life of Pi as a "head-scratching combination of dense religious apologue, zoological lore and enthralling adventure tale, written with warmth and grace".[26] Master Plots suggested that the "central themes of Life of Pi concern religion and human faith in God".[27] Reutter said, "Then believable is Pi's story telling that readers volition be amazed."[28] Gregory Stephens added that it "achieves something more quietly spectacular."[29] Smith stated that there was "no bamboozlement here."[thirty] Gary Krist of The New York Times praised the book, simply added that at times Martel "pushes the didactic agenda of his story too difficult."[31]

In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama wrote a letter directly to Martel, describing Life of Pi every bit "an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling."[32]

Adaptations [edit]

Illustrated edition [edit]

The beginning edition of Life of Pi was illustrated by Andy Bridge. In October 2005, a worldwide competition was launched to find an artist to illustrate Life of Pi. The competition was run past Scottish publisher Canongate Books and UK paper The Times, as well equally Australian newspaper The Age and Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was called as the illustrator for the new edition, which was published in September 2007.[33] [34] [35]

Film adaptation [edit]

A 2012 accommodation directed past Ang Lee and based on an adapted screenplay past David Magee was given a wide release in the Usa on 21 November 2012. At the 85th University Awards, it won four awards from xi nominations, including Best Managing director.

Theatrical adaptations [edit]

This novel has too been adapted equally a play by Keith Robinson, artistic managing director of the youth-oriented Twisting Yarn Theatre Company. Andy Rashleigh wrote the adaptation, which was directed by Keith Robinson. The premier/original cast independent only six actors – Tony Hasnath (Pi), Taresh Solanki (Richard Parker), Tune Brown (Mother), Conor Alexander (Male parent), Sanjay Shalat (Blood brother) and Marker Pearce (Uncle).[36] The play was produced at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford, England, in 2003.[37] The visitor toured England and Ireland with the play in 2004 and 2007.

Keith Robinson also directed a 2nd version of the play. He brought some of his company to work with students of the BA (Hons) Drama, Practical Theatre and Teaching Course at the Central School of Oral communication and Drama. The joint production was performed at the Minack Theatre, in Cornwall, England, in belatedly June 2008.[38]

A new adaptation by Lolita Chakrabarti was produced at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield in June 2019.[39] It was directed by Max Webster, with puppetry and movement directed past Finn Caldwell. Information technology was well reviewed unanimously by critics [40] and opened in the West Stop, at Wyndham'due south Theatre, in November 2021.[41]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Miller, Daniel (18 February 2013). "'Life of Pi' a surprise success story effectually the globe". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved vii January 2019.
  2. ^ Gibbons, Fiachra (24 October 2002). "Top publishers rejected Booker winner". The Guardian. United kingdom. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  3. ^ "Life of Pi". Homo Booker Prize. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  4. ^ Kipen, David (23 October 2002). "Canadian wins Booker Prize / 'Life of Pi' is tale of a male child who floats across the ocean from India". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  5. ^ Reynolds, Nigel (30 September 2002). "Life of Pi wins Booker". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  6. ^ "Canada Reads 2003". Canada Reads. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  7. ^ "Martel seeks quiet of Saskatoon". CBC News. Retrieved 1 September 2010. [ dead link ]
  8. ^ "Asian Pacific American Honor for Literature (APAAL) 2001–2003". APAAL. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 19 Oct 2010.
  9. ^ Martel, p. 14
  10. ^ Martel, p. 69
  11. ^ Renton, Jennie. "Yann Martel Interview". Textualities. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  12. ^ Houser, Gordon (2003). "The Life of Pi". The Christian Century. 120 (three): 34+. Retrieved five June 2013.
  13. ^ Martel, Yann (11 Nov 2002). "Chat: Life of PI". PBS NewsHour (Interview). Interviewed by Ray Suarez. PBS. Retrieved 16 Jan 2015.
  14. ^ Martel, Yann (27 October 2002). "Triumph of a castaway afloat in the sea of his imagination". The Sun Times. United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. Retrieved xix October 2010.
  15. ^ Oldsaltblog.com
  16. ^ "Yann Martel on tigers, cannibals and Edgar Allan Poe". Canongate Books. 14 May 2002. Archived from the original on 18 March 2008. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  17. ^ Martel, Yann. "How Richard Parker Came to Get His Proper name". Amazon.com. Retrieved one September 2010.
  18. ^ "From the Author – Yann Martel – Powell'south Books". Powells.com. Archived from the original on 14 January 2013. Retrieved 30 Dec 2012.
  19. ^ Mitgang, Herbert (11 July 1990). "Books of The Times; Fleeing the Nazis With a Jaguar That May Be Existent". The New York Times . Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  20. ^ Rohter, Larry (11 July 1990). "Tiger in a Lifeboat, Panther in a Lifeboat: A Furor Over a Novel". The New York Times . Retrieved two September 2010.
  21. ^ Veja.abril.com
  22. ^ Scliar, Moacyr (16 July 2006). "Writers & Company" (Interview). Interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel. CBC Radio 1.
  23. ^ "Review". Books in Canada. Retrieved 30 Dec 2012.
  24. ^ a b Stratton, Florence (6 June 2004). ""Hollow at the core": Deconstructing Yann Martel'southward Life of Pi | Stratton | Studies in Canadian Literature". Studies in Canadian Literature. Journals.hil.unb.ca. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
  25. ^ Foster, Phoebe Kate (iv September 2002). "Life of Pi: A Novel by Yann Martel". PopMatters. London. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  26. ^ Bethune, Brian (thirteen Apr 2010). "The missing half of Yann Martel'southward new novel: His program for his long-awaited follow-up to 'Life of Pi' didn't quite piece of work out". Maclean'due south . Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  27. ^ Cockeram, Paul (November 2010). "Life of Pi". Master Plots 4 Edition: 1–3.
  28. ^ Reutter, Vicki (2004). "Martel, Yann. Life of Pi". Schoolhouse Library Journal.
  29. ^ Stephens, Gregory (fourteen May 2013). "Feeding tiger, finding God: science, religion, and 'the amend story' in Life of Pi". 1. xiv.
  30. ^ Smith, Jean (2003). "Yann Martel. Life of Pi". The Review of Contemporary Fiction. 23 (ane).
  31. ^ Krist, Gary (7 July 2002). "Taming the Tiger". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  32. ^ "Life of Pi writer Martel hears from Obama". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Winnipeg Free Press. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  33. ^ "Life of Pi: The Illustrated Edition by Yann Martel and Tomislav Torjanac". The Sunday Times. Great britain. xv September 2007. Archived from the original on 21 May 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  34. ^ Martel, Yann (15 April 2006). "A brush with the art of Pi". The Sunday Times. UK. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  35. ^ "The Illustrated Life of Pi". The Guardian. UK. 27 September 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  36. ^ Cooper, Neil (15 March 2007). "Life of Pi, Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow". The Herald . Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  37. ^ "A remarkable journey from novel to stage". Yorkshire Mail. 6 December 2004. Retrieved xix October 2010.
  38. ^ "Production which goes for the jugular". This is Cornwall. Northcliffe Media. 18 June 2008. Archived from the original on 21 Apr 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  39. ^ "Life of Pi review at Crucible Theatre, Sheffield – 'pure theatrical magic'". The phase . Retrieved eighteen July 2019.
  40. ^ "'It's a hit' - v-star reviews for Life of Pi on stage in Sheffield". BBC News. 10 July 2019.
  41. ^ "Delfont Mackintosh Theatres".

Bibliography [edit]

  • Busby, Brian (2003). Character Parts: Who's Really Who in CanLit. Toronto: Knopf. ISBN0-676-97579-viii.
  • Davies, Hugh (September 2002). "£50,000 Booker winner 'stole thought from Brazilian author'". London: Telegraph Group. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
  • Dwyer, June (2005). "Yann Martel's Life of Pi and the Evolution of the Shipwreck Narrative". Modernistic Linguistic communication Studies. 35 (2): 9–21. doi:ten.2307/30039823. JSTOR 30039823.
  • "May Richard Parker be ever at your side". The Guardian. UK. Nov 2002.
  • Fialkoff, Francine (December 2002). "Also Sensitized to Plagiarism?". Library Journal.
  • McMurtrie, John (October 2005). "French director swept away by 'Life of Pi'". San Francisco Relate.
  • Varughese, Samson (February 2013). "Does "The Life of Pi" Testify the existence of God?". TheMinistryRookie.com. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved nineteen April 2013.

External links [edit]

  • Jennie Renton Interview textualities.cyberspace "Life is a story. You can choose your story. A story with God is the better story."
  • Guardian Q&A
  • Interview on Radio Praha
  • The story behind the Illustrated Life of Pi
Reviews
  • The Guardian review by Justine Hashemite kingdom of jordan
  • London Review of Books
  • BBC News Entertainment
  • Movie Review of Life Of Pi at Funbench.com
  • Dan Schneider at Hack Writers

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi

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