Life of Pi Part 2, Chapter 86 - Chapter 100
Pi sights a ship in the distance and happily exclaims to Richard Parker that they’ve been saved, and his mind immediately conjures visions of being reunited with his family in Canada. He realizes that the ship is a large oil tanker as he begins to make noise but the ship plods on without taking notice of him or his little boat. Pi is not disheartened by this defeat, and when the ship passes them by, he expresses his love for Richard Parker along with his determination to see them both returned to land. Pi finds a method of asphyxiation that allows him to pass the time more quickly. He takes a rag, soaks it in water, and covers his face with it as he is resting. Pi calls it the dream rag, as it causes him to have strange visions and dreams. The boat soon comes across a heap of floating trash that allows Pi to recover an empty wine bottle and a refrigerator but it is only full of rotting food. He writes a message about his predicament and seals it into the empty wine bottle, which he then casts back into the ocean.
The boat and its occupants are continually wearied by the sea and the sun, which leave both the tiger and the man skeletally thin. Pi spends most of his time resting with the dream rag, and he touches Richard Parker for the first time when the tiger is lying asleep during a brief rainstorm. As he runs out of ink, Pi creates the last entry of his travelogue in which he writes, “I will die today.”
The starvation leads to both Pi and Richard Parker losing their eyesight, and Pi blindly prays to the almighty but surprisingly he hears a voice response. He begins to have a conversation with the voice as they discuss their favorite foods, Pi talks about vegetarian food, but the voice talks of animal meat, brains, and tongues. He assumes that he is hearing Richard Parker, and asks the voice if it had ever killed a man. The voice confesses that it had killed both a man and a woman, which along with the French accent of the voice cause Pi to realize that the voice belongs to another man. The French man has become blind much like Pi, and they talk about their accounts of starvation which reduce them both to tears. He rows towards the voice of the other man, and they tie their ships together with some rope, but the French man decides to attack Pi, who is rescued by Richard Parker. The tiger kills the man, which causes Pi a great amount of grief, but he finds food in the man’s boat, and his vision returns after his eyes are cleared by the tears along with some seawater.
The adult Pi is ashamed of the Frenchman’s death but he recounts how he had tried to feed on the man’s flesh, and used it as bait for fish. Pi’s boat suddenly comes across a verdant island made from algae that have a forest of lush trees. He goes onto the island with Richard Parker and consumes the algae which also happens to contain freshwater. Richard Parker disappears into the forest, and Pi begins to nurse himself back to health as he relearns to walk and other habits that he had forgone aboard the boat. The island is filled with docile meerkats who live off dead fish that they bring out from the many pools that fill the island. Richard Parker regains his ferocity, and Pi determines to retrain the tiger. He successfully manages to teach the tiger how to jump through hoops, and the both of them return to the boat every night for sleep. Pi remains suspicious of the island, and its seemingly absurd ecosystem, but he continues to remain on the island when a storm breaks across the ocean and yet fails to disturb the island. Pi then discovers that the island is carnivorous when he finds a fruit made up of just leaves with a human tooth at the center. He believes that the algae turn acidic at night, which is why the meerkats choose to avoid stepping on the algae and instead spend their nights in the trees.
Pi decides to leave the island, which offers him physical comfort but spiritual death. He cleans the boat and loads it up with fresh provisions as he waits for Richard Parker’s return with the night. They set off back into the ocean for another harrowing voyage that the adult Pi describes with just a few words until the boat reaches a Mexican beach quite suddenly. Pi is too exhausted to exalt, but he manages to clamber out of the boat. He is quickly followed by the exhausted tiger who heads into the forest without a single glance in Pi’s direction. Pi feels wounded by the loss of Richard Parker and laments his loss even as he is rescued by the locals. He tells the writer that the incomplete farewell to Richard Parker was one of his greatest pains, as he feels that things need to have a definitive end which is why he insists that the book have a hundred chapters. He recounts the pleasant experience of recovering with the aid of doctors, and a foster family in Canada, after which he joined the University of Toronto to pursue his education.
The final part of the novel introduces two Japanese officials, Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba, from the Japanese Ministry of Transport. These men travel from California to Mexico in hopes of discovering the cause of the Tsimtsum’s sinking from its only survivor, Pi Patel. Mr. Okamoto misreads the map, and it takes the officials 41 hours to reach their destination, as their car breaks down twice along the way. The author provides a transcript of the interview the officials have with Pi, which begins with them giving Pi a cookie. Pi recounts his story, but the officials refuse to believe it, deeming it to be filled with impossibilities. They begin by claiming that bananas cannot float, but Pi proves them wrong almost instantaneously. They then cite the botanical impossibility of the algae island and the fact that no tiger has been sighted in the forests of Mexico. Pi claims that even Scientists sometimes come across things that do not align with their worldview, and it would be impossible to find a lone tiger in a vast jungle. He cites the instance of the panther that escaped the Zurich zoo but could not be found for nearly two months.
The officials continue to dispute the story, but ask him to focus on telling them about what went wrong with the ship. Pi is unable to give them any details about the ship’s sinking and is determined to remain on the topic of his story. He tells them that they are only looking for an account that only confirms the facts of life that they believe for themselves. He provides the officials with a second story featuring a Chinese sailor, a French cook, and his mother. He explains how the Chinese sailor had injured his leg in leaving the ship, and the cook under pretenses had convinced them all to cut the sailor’s leg. The cook used the leg as bait for fishing, which Pi and his mother initially refused to endorse due to their vegetarianism but eventually ate from starvation. Later the French cook kills both the sailor and beheads his mother. Pi is forced to watch the man kill his mother, but he eventually returns to the boat and kills the cook. The officials are horrified by this second retelling, and one of them notes how the animals from the first story seem to parallel the people in the second story. They wish to learn whether the cook ever spoke about what had gone wrong with the ship, and Pi assures them he had not.
They note that Pi doesn’t eat the cookies that they offer him but rather hoards them under his bedsheet. Pi then asks them which of the two stories they would choose to believe given that neither of them provided the officials with the details that they had sought, and both officials agreed that they preferred the story with the animals. The novel is concluded with the report that Mr. Okamoto makes about the incident. He states that it is impossible to understand what caused the ship to sink, and in the final paragraph states that Pi Patel had indeed crossed the ocean with a tiger.
Analysis
Pi's first hope is dashed pretty quickly as the oil tanker fails to notice his presence, but Pi doesn't break down with this loss. Instead of losing hope altogether, Pi expresses his love for Richard Parker and hardens his resolve to return them both to land. The story about the Algae Island is the hardest to believe since it requires such a suspension of belief. Pi chooses to include the story into the narrative almost as if he wishes someone would dispute his account. The algae island can also be viewed as a symbol of false faith and the meerkats represent unquestioning believers.
It is important to note that Pi's account of cannibalizing a man does not only occur in the human version of the story but also the animal version. It is therefore impossible to claim that Pi creates a fictionalized version of the true events to prevent himself from processing the horrible deeds his starvation had caused him to commit. The story with the animals is filled with details of his faith, a realization of god, the discovery of love, and several other wonderful things. Conversely, the human version communicates nothing but the capacity of cruelty that human beings possess, so it's not surprising which story the officials choose to believe.
