Life of Pi

Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

428 pages in this book

          This novel is about a man named Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi. I did not get very far into the book, but I do know the basic outcome of the story as I have already seen the movie, which I now truly regret. In the first chapter of the book, we are not really familiarized with neither the protagonist, nor the story. We find out the protagonist's (who is also the narrator of the novel) name only around half way though the third chapter. Although, by that time we already know some basic information about his family. Then, we start to know and understand more about the protagonist alone, when he was a young boy. Piscine, or Pi, lived in a zoo, and his family owned and cared for the zoo. His father was the true owner of it, and he was head of 56 staff members at their zoo. Pi grew up in the zoo, so he sort of explains some examples of his daily life through the zoo, as well as telling us something about the animals. 

          I chose to read this novel because, even if I watched the movie already, I am expecting it to be a really good and interesting book. I have been planning to read this book for a while now, and while I was searching for a good book to read and I could not find The Fault in our Stars by John Green in the library, I remembered I had a copy of Life of Pi in my room, so I went home and started reading it.

   One unknown word: hierarchy 

   Sentence: "Animals in the wild lead lives of compulsion and necessity within an unforgiving social hierarchy in an environment where the supply of fear is high and the supply of food low and where territory must constantly be defended and parasites forever endured." (Martel 20)

   Meaning: a system in which members of an organization or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.