The Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a captivating and profound story of a boy's journey across the Pacific Ocean as a castaway. The main character, Piscine Molitor Patel, is an Indian citizen born to a  family that runs a zoo. Piscine goes by his nickname, Pi.     

        In the novel's first part, Pi vividly describes his experiences in the zoo. Not only does he explain everything in detail, but he brings the environment and inhabitants of the book to life with his realistic descriptions and emotive details. For example, Pi conveys precise accounts of  how the animals behave, how they interact with each other and the environment, and how humans abuse them in zoos. This expertise proves to be very valuable later on in the novel. In addition to being a good student, Pi is profoundly religious and surprises readers with his  devotion to three religions: Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. His parents and pastors frequently tell him he can choose only one, and he replies, "I just want to love God." This aspect was interesting to me and I agree with Pi on this viewpoint, as the love of God is a common denominator in all religions. 

        Pi, his family, and their zoo animals depart from India on the Panamanian-registered Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum on June 21st, 1977. He is incredibly sad, yet excited to leave his birthplace and the world as he knew it. The animals are bound for America while Pi and his family will be  relocating to Canada. I expected the story to end there, but as Pi says, "Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes to you and make the best of it." 

        After a few days on the trip, things turned out differently than they were supposed to. An irregular noise that sounded like an explosion awakens Pi before dawn, and he leaves his bed to investigate the main deck. The ship was listing; to his horror, it had been sinking. Pi quickly heads back, only to find rushing water submerging the stairwell where his family was sleeping. He runs back up to the deck, where panic among men and animals ensues. Pi receives a life jacket and a crew member tosses him into a lifeboat that is hastily lowered into the water. Miraculously, Pi is unhurt, but a zebra who abruptly jumps over the stern of his lifeboat is not, and the animal suffers a broken leg. The chaos continues as Pi sees Richard Parker, the adult Bengal tiger from his family's zoo, struggling in the sea some distance away. Wanting to help, he uses a lifebuoy to help him onto the boat, only to realize later the danger he has brought aboard. 

        A unique blend of luck and elements allowed Pi to go on living. The lifeboat did not sink, and shockingly, none of the animals attacked him. In addition to the zebra and tiger, Pi discovers a male hyena on the lifeboat, as well as Orange Juice, their zoo's matriarch orangutan, who climbed aboard from a makeshift raft of bananas held together by a net. Interestingly, Orange Juice was in shock and was mourning the loss of her boys, which  mirrors Pi and his own grief. Assured that he will be rescued, Pi waits. Meanwhile, Richard Parker is still an active threat on the lifeboat, nowhere to be seen.

        However, eventually the animals do get desperate and begin to attack each other. First,  the hyena attacks the injured zebra, chewing off its broken leg. Next, the hyena goes on to eat the zebra from the inside out. Amid this violence, time spins endlessly, and Pi comes to acknowledge that his entire family has died. I cannot relate to his grief; but I imagine that it is one of the most painful experiences a  young boy could endure. Eventually, Orange Juice and the hyena start snarling at each other, and the hyena jumps over the remains of the zebra, lunging for Orange Juice, where a fight ensues. Although equipped with massive arms and long canines, Orange Juice is not naturally a predator, nor does she seek violence. Contrastingly, the hyena is heavier and more experienced in killing, and as a result bites Orange Juice in her neck, taking her life. Pi is devastated to see Orange Juice's lifeless body and suffers yet another tragedy. 

        Life goes on and Pi is able to find food and water in the lifeboat's supplies, enjoying some sustenance. Better yet, he discovers a plethora of supplies and tools in the locker of the lifeboat. Pi begins building a raft attached to the lifeboat out of the materials he finds on the boat  to separate himself from the animals. Despite these efforts, there are still considerable problems, namely Richard Parker and the hyena. While Pi quickly gathers the supplies, the hyena starts screaming. Richard Parker emerges and makes a break for the hyena. The hyena is so terrified that it shrinks to the floor, neither resisting nor whimpering. Richard Parker then proceeds to bite down on the hyena's neck, killing it immediately. Night falls, and so does the rain. It is difficult to sleep, and Pi forces himself to drink, gathering water from the rain. As he does this, he considers numerous ways to get Richard Parker off the lifeboat. Ultimately, Pi decides to wage a war of attrition by nourishing himself with the supplies in the locker while Richard Parker starves. However, in order to accomplish this, Pi would need to tame Richard Parker, and using a whistle from the locker and the fish he caught, he begins to tame Richard Parker. Being a zookeeper's son, Pi has adequate knowledge to pull off such a feat and skillfully  blows the whistle at full blast, rocking the lifeboat and making the tiger sick. Through these clever maneuvers, Pi successfully trains Richard Parker to fear the whistle's blows. 

        As he languishes on the raft, Pi's clothes disintegrate, and saltwater boils cover his body. He is forced to abandon his vegetarian lifestyle – not by choice, but by circumstance – and the need to kill animals goes against his core beliefs. He hunts dorados, gathers turtles, snatches birds, grabs crabs, and even wrangles sharks for himself and Richard Parker. In all of this, Pi "descend[s] to a level of savagery [he] never imagined possible." Additionally, he grows more desperate. For example, whenever he saw a light in the distance, he would set off a rocket or hand flares. Since no ship ever ever appeared on the horizon, he eventually forgot about seeking rescue, instead accepting his life of solitude with Richard Parker. With this realization sinking in, the lifeboat and raft carried them onward through the Pacific Ocean, progressing through drastically changing climates and conditions. Pi's extremities eventually swell from malnutrition, and Richard Parker loses some fur. They both go blind, tortured under the infernal heat and the physical suffering it brings. Soon, Pi hears a voice calling out to him. He acknowledges the  madness, and decides to converse with the voice, who turns out to be a Frenchman on a boat, who is also starving and blind. The two castaways, both weak and stranded, have somehow connected in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Frenchman comes aboard Pi's lifeboat, unknowingly stepping into Richard Parker's territory. Pi frantically tries to hold him back, but it is too late. The Frenchman shrieks and is subsequently mauled to death. Pi is appalled at the loss of his newfound brother and after crying, Pi's vision returns a little, wherein a quick wash with seawater brings his sight completely back. With his eyes in perfect order, he  almost wishes he did not regain his sight as he peers upon the Frenchman’s butchered body. Pi confesses to the reader that he used one of the Frenchman's arms as bait for fishing, even eating some of his flesh. He explains his actions by saying, "You must understand, my suffering was unremitting and he was already dead. I stopped as soon as I caught a fish." In this desperate situation, I cannot criticize his actions. 

        Next, a low-lying island appears on the horizon, revealing its brilliantly green trees. Pi knows instinctively it was a delusion, but continues to look, feeling "both satisfied and disappointed" to see that the island had no soil. Instead, the roots from the island trees reach into a dense mass of vegetation. Pi continues to disbelieve the solidity of the island until finally stepping foot on the land, the reek of vegetable organic matter overwhelming him. Off the raft entirely, he could now put his total weight on the dense, rubbery algae that formed the island's foundation. Naturally, Pi wonders if it is edible. It turns out not only to be edible, but in fact, sweet. He is infinitely thankful to God for His mercy.

        While Pi explores the island, Richard Parker leaves the lifeboat, only to return at sunset. For safety's sake, Pi reluctantly sleeps in the lifeboat after mooring it to the algae. The following day, Pi makes an astonishing discovery. When he is strong enough to crawl over the ridge on the island's edge, he sees hundreds of thousands – maybe millions – of meerkats. They are engulfed in several ponds within the island, crowding the shores as Pi makes it to the pond. The pond reveals itself to be freshwater, and he delights in the opportunity to be bathed in pure, salt-free water. However, when Pi climbs back out, the meerkats simultaneously dive into the pond, bringing with them significant quantities of fish. Meerkats do not swim; and the ones on this strange island have developed a unique adaptation. Adding to this intrigue, the fish the meerkats brought were no longer alive, meaning that  the algae had continuously desalinated the seawater. Over time, Pi is able to run, his skin having been healed, and his aches and pains fully subsided. He returns to life, and so does Richard Parker. Pi decides he should sleep in a tree, as it would be silly to be confined to a lifeboat when he has a whole island to himself. At dusk, every meerkat on the island rushes to climb up the trees, which makes Pi's makeshift bed laden with these animals. When he wakes up, he is covered "head to toe in a living fur blanket.”

        Now that Pi has found a source of endless fresh water, freshly dead fish, delectable algae, and a comfortable shelter to sleep in, what more would he want? Against all odds, life again takes an unexpected turn. He finds a tree in the darker and more central part of the island that has fruit. He takes hold of the "fruit," examining it, only to realize that it is noticeably light, like a ball of leaves glued together. He begins  peeling leaf after leaf, stripping the fruit to smaller sizes, only to realize that the object in the center is a human tooth – a molar. He takes another "fruit," realizing to his horror that this one encases a canine. In total, he finds thirty-two teeth – a complete human set. Now, Pi realizes he is in trouble again, concluding that the island is carnivorous, which explains the strange behavior of the meerkats and the fish in the ponds.

        The secret of the strange island was that the algae were predatory, becoming highly acidic at night, but harmless during the day. Some poor lost souls had arrived on these terrible shores before him, accounting for the teeth. By the next and final morning of the island, Pi makes his grim decision to leave and sets off to rather than "liv[ing] a lonely half-life of physical comfort and spiritual death on this murderous island." Richard Parker returns to the lifeboat as well, and Pi pushes their raft away. No longer familiar with the noises of the sea and the rocking of the boat, Pi continues to endure and suffer, hoping that God can save him.

        Eventually, Pi arrives on a shoreline in Mexico. Before he can get to shore, Richard Parker jumps over him, reaching the beach in a few hops. He runs into the jungle near the shore, which upsets Pi, who expects Richard Parker to look back and offer a sign that would conclude their relationship. In the end, he does nothing of the sort, only looking fixedly into the jungle. Pi states, "then Richard Parker, companion of my torment, awful, fierce thing that kept me alive, moved forward and disappeared forever from my life." This sentence was heart wrenching for me to read because it summarized the botched farewell between two beings that had lived, endured, and survived together as castaways for such a long time. Pi was alone now, but after a few hours, a group of people find him and take him to their village, where he is bathed thoroughly, clothed, and examined by doctors. He was truly saved and had "only one long, easy corridor [he] had to walk down" – the beach in Mexico to the home of his foster mother, and eventually to the University of Toronto. 

        In conclusion, Life of Pi is an excellent book that has a profound impact for anyone who reads it. The story vividly describes the main character's experiences so much that it is difficult to  differentiate if the novel is an autobiography or fiction. When I reread the book, I picked up on the fine details of the plot, which included bits of information that demand the reader's complete understanding of the context. For example, the beginning of the novel starts with the sentence, "My suffering left me sad and gloomy," and Richard Parker is mentioned, yet there is no revelation of who he is. It was not until I finished and reexamined the beginning that I understood why it was included. Most notably, Pi does an exquisite job of describing his love of religion and connecting it to his experiences. I believe the novel can transform the most ignorant atheist into a religious and enlightened man. For these reasons, I often come back to this book to read it repeatedly; with each time bringing new revelations. I highly recommend this novel to everyone who would like to explore complex questions related to life and philosophy in the form of an intriguing narrative.