Line #60 Literature/LifeOfPi


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4	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kdjf_6463.jpg]]
5	[[caption-width-right:250:So a boy, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra all get into a boat...]]
6
7	->''"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity — it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."''
8	-->-- '''Piscine Molitor Patel'''
9
10	The award-winning ''Life of Pi'' (2001) by Yann Martel is about the life and times of Piscine Molitor Patel, better known as Pi (pronounced "pi", as in, 3.14). An Indian teenager, Pi becomes philosophical at a very young age, becoming an adherent of no less than three religions (Islam, Christianity and Hinduism). His parents find his interest in religion odd but accept it nonetheless. They run a large zoo in Pondicherry, until circumstance forces them to move to Winnipeg, Canada.
11
12	The family sells their animals to a variety of zoos, and gain passage to Canada aboard a cargo ship -- the ''Tsimtsum'' -- that happens to be carrying a number of their own animals. For unknown reasons, the ''Tsimtsum'' sinks, leaving Pi bobbing along the Pacific in a lifeboat. Alone.
13
14	Well, not quite alone.
15
16	Pi shares his lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a rat, various insects, a hyena, and a 450-pound adult Bengal tiger. [[AnyoneCanDie Eventually]], it becomes just him and the tiger.
17
18	What follows is an odd and touching story, recounting the trials and tribulations that Pi endures during his 227-day ordeal on the lifeboat.
19
20	[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into]] a UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie, directed by Creator/AngLee and starring newcomer Creator/SurajSharma as Pi, released on November 2012. The film proved a critical and commercial success, winning four Academy Awards, including Best Director (Creator/StevenSpielberg, director of ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'', was expected to get the prize).
21
22	----
23	!!This media provides examples of:
24	* {{Absurdism}}: Evidence is not what convinced Pi of God; it was his refusal to accept a world without God, or as he calls it, "missing the better story", and he knows it. This answer to the question of life's meaning is defined by absurdist Albert Camus as "Philosophical Sucide".[[https://medium.com/strawm-n/albert-camus-the-absurd-b7b0e367a967]][[https://medium.com/strawm-n/albert-camus-philosophical-suicide-physical-suicide-and-the-absurd-326014bdfa80]]
25	* AccidentalMisnaming: Pi is instantly christened "Pissing Patel" by the other children at his school. The teachers try harder, but even they slip into calling him "Pissing" when they're not concentrating. He invents the nickname "Pi" for himself to avoid this.
26	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Pi and his family thought it was hilarious that Thirsty the Tiger had his name mixed up with Richard Parker, the hunter who caught him. They decide the tiger is thus Richard Parker.
27	* ActorAllusion: Tabu played Irrfan Khan's wife in ''The Namesake'' as well.
28	* AdaptationalJerkass: In the film, the Japanese sent to question Pi after he survives are ''much'' more straightforward about not caring about his first tale.
29	* AdaptationalModesty: As the cover shown above indicates, Pi ends up naked at some point during his journey in the book, [[ClothingDamage after the wind and sea begins to wear down on his clothes until there's nothing left of them]]. Naturally, the film had to let him keep his pants on, [[WalkingShirtlessScene thought he still ends up losing his shirt]].
30	* TheAloner: Pi, before he discovers the animals[[spoiler:/people]].
31	* AnalogyBackfire: When Santosh announces that they are leaving India.
32	-->'''Santosh:''' We will sail like Columbus.\
33	'''Pi:''' But Columbus was sailing for India!
34	* AndADietCoke: Exaggerated, but only in a dream sequence. Pi puts together a perfect meal on a gargantuan scale, with at least a dozen delicious Indian dishes and heaping platefuls of everything, rivers of ''ghee'' and mountains of rice, all washed down with gallons of crystal-clear, perfectly cold water, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a small cup of black coffee]].
35	* {{Anvilicious}}: InUniverse: Santosh Patel's lesson to Pi and Ravi about how dangerous animals are.
36	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Santosh Patel's lesson on the savagery of animals goes through a thorough list -- and ends with guinea pigs. Which are genuinely domesticated. Mind you, Pi does note that picking up a wild guinea pig would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade".
37	* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
38	** The CGI African elephant in opening scene is obviously a tweaked model of Asian elephant, with distinctly shaped back and smoother, pink colored skin.
39	** One would expect someone as familiar with animals as Pi to know that hyenas are not dogs. His observation could be interpreted as a base description of a hyena's behavior compared to a big cat, however.
40	** The businessmen incorrectly call meerkats rodents (very likely InUniverse, though).
41	** The hybrid vampire squid-anglerfish (because it is a hallucination).
42	** Part of the reason why the Japanese insurance investigators don't believe Pi's story is they find the meerkat island so biologically improbable.
43	* AspectRatioSwitch: The screen shape is normally 1.85:1. But the flying fish scene is in Cinemascope and the shot recreating the book cover is in Academy Ratio.
44	* AudienceSurrogate: The writer, being TheWatson at times while also throwing in an expositional "[[LetMeGetThisStraight let me get this straight]]".
45	* BadassBookworm: Pi is intelligent, well-read and quite capable of surviving with a tiger as a roommate.
46	* BadassOnPaper: The author mentions that Pi is a legend among sailors. Pi jokes that he doesn't even know how to sail.
47	* BigBrotherInstinct: In the film, it's inverted; Pi immediately starts calling for Ravi and his parents when the boat starts sinking. He desperately tries to swim down to them to get them out but has to retreat.
48	* BioluminescenceIsCool: Exaggerated in the movie. Apparently ''every'' body of water glows piercing blue at night. Justified as bioluminescent plankton and pelagic worms really are very common on the tropical Pacific.
49	* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:The carnivorous island.]]
50	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Pi survived the voyage, but lost everything except his last shred of humanity. Even his partner, Richard Parker, disappeared into the Mexican jungle without any meaningful closure]]. With that said, Pi [[spoiler:grows up to become a well-adjusted happy adult, with a family and a fulfilling life]]. And that's assuming [[spoiler:Richard Parker was ever on the boat with him in the first place. It's likely that he did exist, but drowned along with most of the other passengers on the ''Tsimtsum''.]]
51	* ABoyAndHisX: A Boy And His Tiger. [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Not like that.]]
52	* BringMyBrownPants: In the book, Pi mentions that a sight scared him to the point where he "relieved himself in his pants".
53	* CloudCuckooLander: Pi, after being rescued, at least with Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba.
54	* CrapsaccharineWorld: See GardenOfEvil.
55	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Pi initially assumes that Orange Juice the orangutan will be helpless against the hyena, but she surprises him by a snarling display and by whacking the hyena on the head. [[spoiler:[[NowItsMyTurn Then it's the hyena's turn...]]]]
56	* DeadGuyJunior: It's easy to miss, but Pi's son's name at the end of the movie is [[spoiler:Ravi]].
57	* DeathByPragmatism: While the ship was sinking, Pi was thrown into a lifeboat by the sailors in hopes that they would be able to save ''themselves'', since the hyena was in the boat, and they threw him in to distract it.
58	* {{Determinator}}: Pi himself. He describes himself as one of those people who never, ever gives up his will to life, and wonders if this is actually a kind of stupidity. But at any rate, keeping up his plan to tame an adult tiger and keep the two of them fed, despite weather, hunger, dehydration, and despair, for ''227 days,'' proves what the narrator says.
59	* DirectLineToTheAuthor: The framing story of the author meeting Pi and being told his story is set up this way.
60	* DisneyAcidSequence: When Pi, delirious and losing hope, stares into the ocean, with his visions very much forming one of these.
61	* DrowningPit: Pi tries to dive back down to the cabins of the sinking ship filling with water. He doesn't get far.
62	* EarnYourHappyEnding: By the time we see Pi as a grown adult, he's now HappilyMarried, loves his children, and cooks any dish with the skill to make all other cooks jealous.
63	* EldritchLocation: The island. Lush paradise by day, [[spoiler:carnivorous GardenOfEvil]] by night.
64	* EldritchOceanAbyss: The dream sequence where the camera goes ever deeper in the ocean features a sperm whale attacked by a giant squid then exploding into zoo animals, a hideous anglerfish/squid hybrid, and the sunken cargo.
65	* EmbarrassingFirstName: Piscine Molitor Patel. The Piscine Molitor is a famous Parisian swimming pool. He's not particularly embarrassed about that, though, it's just that ''piscine'' happens to sound a lot like "pissing," [[KidsAreCruel and naturally other kids are going to take advantage of that]].
66	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Pi's hair grows longer and gets [[MessyHair more shaggy]] as time passes.
67	* FiendishFish: During Pi's dream sequence, he imagines a hybrid of an anglerfish and a squid rising from the depths.
68	* FluffyTheTerrible: A hunter intended on naming the tiger cub he had just captured as "Thirsty". A mix-up in a newspaper article announcing the capture ended up giving the largest cat on Earth an equally unthreatening name, that of the hunter (Richard Parker). Pi admits that he thought it was funny as a child.
69	* ForegoneConclusion: Pi's the one relating the story to the author, so we know that despite it all, he will survive.
70	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Pi sees Richard Parker in the water instead of his own reflection, and later on confirms that [[spoiler:in the alternate story he told the Japanese investigators, the tiger was supposed to be him.]]
71	** In the film, when the meerkats on the island are first shown, you can see fish skeletons all over the place. [[spoiler:In short order, it's revealed that the island itself is carnivorous and the pools of freshwater that sustained Pi in the day turn into giant stomachs digesting any fish that come too close to the island]].
72	** Early in the book Pi breaks into an unexplained fit of laughter over the concept of finding some unknown thing in a Mexican jungle. [[spoiler:At the very end the Japanese investigators express skepticism that a tiger could hide in the Mexican jungle undetected; obviously this still amuses Pi years later.]]
73	* ForTheEvulz: When the tiger arrives on the island with meerkats, it kills way more of them than it needs to eat, simply because it's been so long since it killed anything.
74	* FrameBreak: In the movie, when a school of fish is swimming close to Pi's boat, the frame [[AspectRatioSwitch narrows to Cinemascope]] and has fish jump out of the frame and into the {{letterbox}}.
75	* FramingDevice: Pi is telling his [[NestedStory story within the story]].
76	* FrenchJerk: In the film, the cook, who obstinately refuses to acquiesce to the Pi's mother's request for a vegetarian meal. [[spoiler:And may have killed and eaten Pi's mother.]]
77	* FriendlyEnemy: Pi initially fears the sharks that keep surrounding his boat, but eventually regards them as grumpy old neighbors who keep visiting but don't want to admit they like him.
78	* GardenOfEvil: [[spoiler:Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis which turn out to be carnivorous]]. The scene where he peels away layers of leaves from what he thinks is a fruit [[spoiler:and finds a human tooth in the middle]] is particularly notable.
79	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Pi's sanity deteriorates due to being alone with only a tiger for company. He recovers, but [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness things get a bit strange for a while]].
80	* HeroicBSOD: Pi shows this at various points, most notably after [[spoiler:Orange Juice has been killed by the hyena]].
81	* HeroicBystander: In [[spoiler:Mexico, several villagers spot a dirtied and disheveled body collapsed on the beach. They quickly run to drag him away from the surf and carry him to safety as he revives and starts sobbing from mourning Richard Parker's departure]].
82	* HopeSpot:
83	** Pi and Richard Parker recover and live happily for a time on the floating island, [[spoiler:until Pi discovers that it's a GardenOfEvil.]]
84	** There's also one earlier in the story, when Pi notices a freighter, but fails to get its attention despite shooting several flares into the sky.
85	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played with in full force if [[spoiler:you believe Pi's alternate story replacing the animals with humans]]. On the other hand, in either story [[spoiler:villagers find Pi and rescue him when he washes up on their shore, feeding him and getting him to a hospital]].
86	* IfYouCanReadThis: According to the pages of the Japanese report in the film, a major storm was not reported in the area of the ship when it sank. Additionally, the report says the ship sank stern first but the movie portrays it bow first. It can be used to indicate the UnreliableNarrator.[[note]]Although considering the fact that the movie takes place in the 1970s, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that the storm was simply undetected. Which is an occurrence that ''still'' happens today for multiple different reasons. Moreover, it's possible that those reporting could have made a mistake when describing how the ship sank, or maybe they don't even know where the ship actually lies.[[/note]] The original book doesn't use this.
87	* InsaneTrollLogic: When first introduced to the Christian redemption narrative, this is what Pi thinks of the notion that the son of God should die for humans' misdeeds; he compares it to his father feeding him to the lions to make up for their hypothetical consumption of other animals in their zoo.
88	* InterfaithSmoothie: Pi is a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim, and takes advice from clergy in all three faiths.
89	* ItGetsEasier: Pi is introduced as devoutly religious, intelligent and a vegetarian. But when he has to survive, he abandons all morals. Killing becomes easier, and soon he is doing things like sucking fluid from fish eyeballs and eating feces [[spoiler:and human flesh]].
90	* JumpScare:
91	** In the film, [[spoiler:Richard Parker kills the hyena.]]
92	** The tiger charges Pi from a dead angle.
93	* KidsAreCruel: Initially, because they tease him and make fun of his name. But when he invents his new nickname, his new classmates are very supportive of it, and never make any fun of him at all.
94	* LighterAndSofter: Downplayed in the movie. It is quite a bit less graphic than the book, but is just as emotional nonetheless.
95	* LostAtSea: For most of the story.
96	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: We never learn which of the two stories is the correct one. In fact, the whole point of ''Life of Pi'' is to let the audience decide what they want to believe.
97	* MeaningfulRename: Piscine Molitor Patel decides to becomes Pi.
98	* MindScrew: Most of the book. But especially when Pi [[spoiler:tells his story again, only this time replacing the animals with humans, and somehow it seems more ''gruesome'' than before.]]
99	* MisplacedWildlife:
100	** Discussed. According to Pi, animals are so good at keeping out of the way of humans that there are ''thousands'' living in cities that you'd never expect.
101	-->'''Pi:''' If you took the city of Tokyo and turned it upside down and shook it, you would be amazed at the animals that would fall out. It would pour out more than cats and dogs, I tell you. Boa constrictors, Komodo dragons, crocodiles, piranhas, ostriches, wolves, lynx, wallabies, manatees, porcupines, orang-utans, wild boar-- that's the sort of rainfall you could expect to find.
102	** The meerkats living on a Pacific Island.
103	** And at the end, [[spoiler:Richard Parker ends up disappearing into the Mexican jungle. One reason people don't believe his story is that there have been no reports of a tiger in Mexico. Pi thinks it's hilarious that people expect to be able to chance upon a ''tiger'' in a ''jungle''.]]
104	* MoodWhiplash: Deliberately done: Part One of the book is about Pi's life in India, interspersed with brief chapters of the author's present-day observations. The last chapter of Part One concludes with an impossibly sweet scene of the author meeting Pi's daughter, who happily embraces her father as the author notes [[EarnYourHappyEnding "This story has a happy ending."]] It's a necessary bright spot for the reader's benefit, to prepare them for [[SmashCut the first sentence of Part Two]]:
105	-->[[CerebusSyndrome The ship sank.]]
106	* MostWritersAreWriters: The writer, being sent to Patel for getting new ideas for his work. He ends up writing down Pi's story.
107	* MouthfulOfPi: The young Pi cements his nickname by showing how many digits of pi he can recite.
108	* TheNondescript: Mr. Kumar (the religious one).
109	* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty:
110	** [[spoiler:Pi comes across a French man who eventually tries to kill and eat him. After he's killed by Richard Parker, Pi finds himself eating a bit of him unconsciously.]]
111	** [[spoiler:In the alternate "the animals were people" story, the cook advocates eating the sailor out of practicality, but seems to enjoy eating humans for its own sake. And when he's killed, Pi eats out his liver and heart.]]
112	* NowItsMyTurn: [[spoiler:Orange Juice's blow to the hyena was impressive, but it does no good.]]
113	* OceanMadness: Being stuck on a tiny lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for 227 days with only a tiger for company [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness takes a serious toll]] [[MindScrew on Pi's mental state]].
114	* OhCrap: Pi initially tries as hard as he can to save his friend Richard Parker from drowning and get him on his lifeboat. [[spoiler:Just as he succeeds, he realizes the fatal truth: Richard Parker is also ''A TIGER''.]]
115	* OneParagraphChapter: The novel has a few chapters with only one or two sentences in them. In fact, part two of the book has all of its chapters in an odd order so each chapter can focus on a different object or event in the story.
116	* OneSteveLimit: {{Averted\|Trope}} by the two Mr. Satish Kumars: one the atheist biology teacher at Pi's school, the other a baker and the first Muslim Pi meets. Regrettably, both were AdaptedOut of the movie.
117	* OpposedMentors: In the novel, the title character has two mentors, [[OneSteveLimit both named Mr. Kumar]]: the first is an uneducated but devout Muslim shopkeeper while the other is Pi's intelligent, atheistic science teacher. Despite their antithetical worldviews they actually get along well the one time they happen to meet each other, and Pi, whose two main interests are religion and animals, doesn't seem to feel conflicted between them.
118	-->On observing a zebra...
119	-->'''Mr. Kumar:''' Equus burchelli boehmi.
120	-->'''Mr. Kumar:''' Allahu ackbar.
121	-->'''Pi:''' It's very pretty.
122	* OverlyLongGag: As Mr. Patel's lecture demonstrates, it's not just tigers that can kill you, but lions, leopards, Himalayan bears, sloth bears, hippos, hyenas, orangutans, ostriches, deer, camels, swans, elephants...
123	* PantheraAwesome: In case you didn't notice, a tiger rides with Pi.
124	* PetTheDog: In the film, the {{Jerkass}} Cook is last seen urging his fellow sailors to join him in the lifeboat, before a zebra jumps in and knocks him off the boat. He could have easily left the sailors to their fates, but refuses to lower the boat whilst the other men were onboard.
125	%%* {{Picaresque}}
126	* {{Postmodernism}}: It doesn't get more postmodern than asking your interviewers which reality they want to believe in.
127	* PovertyFood: A grumpy cook (played by Creator/GerardDepardieu) in a sleazy galley serves his gravy-rich stodge to the ship's lower deck passengers.
128	* PragmaticAdaptation: Ang Lee commented that while they tried to remain as faithful to the book as possible, some scenes simply could not be adapted perfectly. He explained that facing a situation where the crew spent the better part of a whole day shooting the same scene, the lead actor was showing signs of distress due to filming in cold weather for hours and everyone's nerves were fraying, he chose to be pragmatic about it rather than sticking to perfectionism.
129	* ProlongedPrologue: The novel as well as the film take an extended introduction before getting to the point where the blurb begins.
130	* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Richard Parker is a Bengal tiger.]] Of course, this fact is usually presented upfront in descriptions of the story, and in the movie, [[spoiler:but it's worth noting that every mention of Richard Parker throughout Part One is phrased ambiguously enough that he could be assumed to be human. Only at the beginning of Part Two is his nature disclosed]].
131	* {{Robinsonade}}: Mostly on a boat instead of an island.
132	* RuleOfSymbolism:
133	** Richard Parker is the name of several real life and fictional people [[spoiler:who were shipwrecked and cannibalized]].
134	** ''Tsimtsum'', the ship that sinks, is also a religious term that means "a void created by God" and "to find oneself." Tsimtsum is from Lurianic Kabbalah, which was founded by Isaac Luria, whose name is on the first page of Pi's story (Pi wrote his thesis on religious studies about him.)
135	** Apparently, the color orange represents security. Orange Juice, Richard Parker, and the life vests were all this color.
136	** Pi thinks up six plans to kill Richard Parker. The seventh plan, after their decision for friendship, is to keep him alive.
137	** [[spoiler:As it turns out, the tiger Richard Parker may just be Pi's symbol for himself, or rather, the amoral and animalistic side of himself that enabled him to survive.]]
138	** "Pissing" Patel finds refuge in the name "Pi." He works for refuge in his odyssey -- which lasts 227 days. Pi is approximately 22/7.
139	* SacredHospitality: The villagers that [[spoiler:found Pi after he landed on the beach quickly get him out of the sun and to the safety of their town, where he gets his first proper meal in a year and a ride to a nearby hospital. They later make arrangements with the Canadian and Mexican governments to provide him a foster family and stability]].
140	* SceneryPorn:
141	** The descriptions of the Pondicherry Zoo.
142	** The film adaptation has this in spades, with many critics praising Ang Lee's masterful directing and subtle use of 3D.
143	* TheSeriesHasLeftReality: The book is realistic for the most part, but during the last part, Pi discovers an "island" covered in meerkats, ''floating'' in the middle of the Pacific. Then he discovers that [[spoiler:the island is one gigantic carnivorous plant. He finds a human tooth from a former victim in its leaves]]. This is basically {{Handwaved}} as "well, who's to say something like this ''can't'' exist in the real world?"
144	* ShadowDiscretionShot: When the hyena attacks the zebra, the film cuts to a shot of the boat from a distance in the sunset, where we see the silhouette of the struggling zebra and Pi and Orange Juice screaming at the sight.
145	* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisical island that he comes across is [[spoiler:really carnivorous and eating any people and animals that end up there when he finds a tooth inside a lotus flower. It's a literal LotusEaterMachine]].
146	** Edgar Allan Poe's novel, ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'', tells the story of four men lost at sea, who resort to eating their own cabin boy in order to survive. The cabin boy's name? Richard Parker.
147	** Possibly an unintentional example: [[spoiler:"I stabbed him repeatedly, his blood soothed my chapped hands. His heart was a struggle - all those tubes that connected it. I managed to get it out. [[ImAHumanitarian It tasted delicious, far better than a turtle.]] [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs I ate his liver. I cut off great pieces of his flesh."]]]]
148	* SinkingShipScenario: The cargo ship sinks in a heavy storm at night with a few people desperately trying to get into the lifeboats.
149	* SoleSurvivor:
150	** Well, Pi is the sole ''human'' survivor of the sinking of the ''Tsimtsum''. [[spoiler:By his account, at least]]. Though even in his first story there's nothing to prove that the Frenchman [[spoiler:wasn't the ship's cook.]]
151	** The tiger too is the only animal survivor, after the remaining ones have been killed.
152	* SymbolicSereneSubmersion: The sinking scene includes a shot where Piscine, while underwater, sees the ship he was on sinking in front of him, and hangs motionless in the water for several seconds, silhouetted by its lights, temporarily stunned by the enormity of what has happened.
153	* ThousandYardStare: In the film, Pi acquires this after the orangutan is killed.
154	* TimeShiftedActor: Pi is played by four different actors; Suraj Sharma gets most of the screen time as the teenage Pi, followed by Creator/IrrfanKhan as adult Pi. Ayush Tandon plays Pi at age 11-12 and Gautam Belur plays Pi at age 5.
155	* TooDumbToLive: {{Justified\|Trope}} with the meerkats on the floating island, who evolved for years without having to respond to any threats [[spoiler:other than the algae]]. Thus, they respond to the visitors passively, even as the tiger is mauling them one by one.
156	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Everyone knows that Pi spends nearly a year with a wild Bengal tiger on a lifeboat thanks to the trailer and the cover art. In both the book and the movie, that reveal actually comes much later where Pi calls out to Richard Parker to make it to the boat, and in the movie where Pi as a boy tried to feed him.
157	* TheUnreveal: It is never discovered why the Tsimtsum sinks. When Pi is interrogated at it by investigators, none of the circumstances seem to suggest what went wrong with it. As they put it: "Everything was normal. And then normal sank."
158	* UnreliableNarrator:
159	** It's not made clear whether or not [[spoiler:Pi ''actually'' spent all his time with the aforementioned animals, or whether or not they're stand-ins for people -- the cook, a sailor, his mother, himself.]] Plus since he's constantly suffering from starvation and dehydration, some of Pi's more fantastic experiences may have been embellished, such as the [[spoiler:carnivorous island]]. In the film, the ending is presented initially as less ambiguous, but FreezeFrameBonus on the report contradicts some of Pi's story, like a storm sinking the ship.
160	** Yann Martel writes this book as if it was based on true events, whereas it is actually a complete work of fiction.
161	* VillainousBSOD: The hyena doesn't whimper or beg for mercy when the tiger kills it. [[spoiler:This carries over in the alternate story, where Pi (the tiger) kills the cook (hyena), who fights back but knows he deserves his death.]]
162	* WalkingShirtlessScene: In the book, Pi's clothes more or less [[ClothingDamage rot off of his body]], forcing him to spend a large portion of his journey naked. In the movie, he still goes shirtless, but gets to keep his pants, for obvious reasons.
163	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Or in this case, what happened to the rat. The rat appears as a rat in both stories, yet unlike most everything else who eats it changes between stories. This more than likely to drive home one is an imperfect metaphor to the other one's truth.
164	* WhyIsntItAttacking: The hyena takes a very long time before it gets around to attacking the zebra, Orange Juice, or Pi. Pi later sees why it had waited so long, because [[spoiler:the tiger was still on the boat.]]
165	* YouMonster: [[spoiler:Pi's mother calls the cook this many times in the alternate telling of the story.]]

Context Literature / LifeOfPi