Life of Pi Part 1, Chapter 1 - 15

A Canadian author travels to India after writing two unsuccessful novels and stays in Bombay to write a book about Portugal but the project quickly loses appeal. He travels to southern India where he meets a local in a coffee shop, who tells him a fantastical tale that inspires belief in God. The author returned to Canada and found Mr. Patel who was the subject of that tale and gathered from him the details of his story. He then verified that account with the Japanese authorities leading him to conclude that it was indeed a story that inspired belief in God. He tells the reader that the following tale has been written in the first person from Mr. Patel’s perspective.

The adult Pi describes his studies at the University of Toronto where he pursued degrees in both religious studies and zoology. His study of Sloths reminded him of the ancient practices of hermits and yogis. He is happy to be in Canada but he misses his home in India and his companion, Richard Parker. The author describes Pi as a small middle-aged man wearing a winter coat in Autumn with an animated storytelling manner. His full name, Piscine Molitor Patel, came from his uncle (mamaji), who had been a competitive swimmer. This uncle was called Francis Adirubasamy and was the same man who had begun the journey that led to the author’s discovery of Mr. Piscine Patel. Pi fondly recalls all the time he spent learning to swim with his uncle, whose favorite pool had been the Molitor pool in Paris. Piscine was the French word for pool.

Pi’s father became the owner of a new zoo that was set up in Pondicherry when it joined the Union of India in 1954. His father had trouble getting used to the rather exerting demands of his new ‘guests’ and Pi then goes into a discussion of why Zoos are a good home for animals. He explains that the Zoo offers the wild animals a safe and secure shelter that they cannot experience in the wild. Animals like to live within rigidly established boundaries, and their enclosures offer them this comfort along with many other conveniences. However, he concludes that both religion and Zoos have gone out of vogue now, as he talks about the closure of the Pondicherry Zoo.

Pi had a lot of trouble with his fellow students calling him “Pissing” while he had been in Primary school. He thought up a way of rechristening himself, and on the first day of his secondary school, he introduced his nickname, Pi Patel. He then deliberately trained them all to use it. The author describes the meal he had with the adult pie that left him with an appreciation for Pi’s delicious yet spicy vegetarian food. He also notes that Pi has numerous canned goods stacked in his kitchen as if he is preparing for some disaster.

Mr. Satish Kumar was Pi’s biology teacher and a frequent visitor to the zoo. He was the inspiration for Pi’s pursuit of an education in zoology, but the pair of them connected over religion more than the study of animals. Pi explains his admiration for Mr. Kumar who was an atheist since his struggle with Polio had left him with a belief in modern medicine and science more than religion. Pi argues that he admires atheists a lot more than agnostics who he describes as following the philosophy of doubt. He goes on to explain a common saying that touted man as the most dangerous animal in the zoo. He agrees that people are capable of mistreating animals quite severely but the greatest danger lies in anthropomorphizing animals. Many people fail to recognize an animal’s capacity for harm as they are overly focused on the animal’s adorable appearance.

Pi’s father had ensured that his children were not guilty of the same mistake by showing them a tiger mauling a living goat. Pi and his brother were severely frightened but they attentively listened to their father as he told them of all the dangers that even some of the more mundane animals posed. He goes on to discuss the flight distance of zoo animals, which is the distance at which the animals will tolerate human presence. Pi claims that his father had been naturally very adept as a zookeeper as he kept the animals’ flight distance low by providing them with food, shelter, and protection. He agrees that there are often instances of animals escaping zoos but he argues that this can almost always be a consequence of bad animal care. Pi says that such animals are always escaping something rather than escaping somewhere. He shares the account of a large black leopard that escaped a zoo in Zurich and managed to remain undetected in the city during the Swiss winter without being captured for nearly two months. He believes that wild animals are always just trying to assimilate to their environment, and it would be just as difficult to find the hundreds of animals living in Tokyo as it would be to find a single animal in the Mexican jungle.

The writer worries that Pi will halt his retelling of the story as he notes Pi’s agitation and concludes that Richard Parker continues to prey on Pi’s mind. The writer regrets telling Pi about his fondness for spicy food as he now regularly makes extremely spicy meals for the writer. Pi then explains the intricacies of training large and dangerous animals like lions which are based on animal hierarchies. A lion allows the trainer to enter its territory because it understands that the tamer is the source of its food and shelter. The trainer in turn behaves calmly and establishes his position at the top of the hierarchy with tools like the whip and whistle. The trainers can extract the most number of tricks from animals who are placed in the omega part of the hierarchy since these animals are the most willing to behave as they wish to progress socially. The writer notes how the adult Pi’s home is filled with religious paraphernalia from Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.

Analysis

The deep relationship between zoology and religion that the book develops is introduced in this first section as Pi discusses the subjects he pursued during his university education. The reader is unaware that Pi offers an alternate version of his tale as a castaway near the conclusion of the novel, but Pi begins to establish evidence for his tale from the very beginning of the interview. He begins the story by elucidating his background with Zoo animals so that the listener is more likely to believe the story of his fantastical voyage, and shares anecdotal stories about animals that are recalled at the end of the novel. The account of Pi teaching his secondary schoolmates how to use his nickname further cements Pi's ability to teach and impart lessons to not just animals but also humans.

Richard Parker serves as an important symbol throughout the novel, but the reader does not understand the true nature of this character until the beginning of part one. In this way, the author allows the reader to understand the significance of Richard Parker without knowing that he is a tiger.