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* FluffyTheTerrible: A hunter intended on naming the tiger he had just captured as "Thirsty". A mix-up ended giving the largest cat on Earth an equally unthreatening name, the one of the hunter (Richard Parker).
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* PantheraAwesome: Richard Parker.
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* {{Robinsonade}}: Mostly on a boat instead of an island.
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[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into a 3D film]] directed by AngLee and starring newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi, released on November 2012.
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[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into a 3D film]] directed by AngLee and starring newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi, released on November 2012.
2012. The film proved a critical and commercial success, winning 4 Academy Awards include Best Director.
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* 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.
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* OneSteveLimit: {{Subverted}} by the two Mr. Kumars.
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* OneSteveLimit: {{Subverted}} {{Subverted|Trope}} by the two Mr. Satish Kumars.
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* ThousandYardStare: In the film, Pi acquires this after the orangutan is killed.
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**** The book does that too, it really tries to make you believe [[spoiler: the first story is true]].
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* {{Anvilicious}}: InUniverse: Santosh Patel's lesson to Pi and Ravi about how dangerous animals are.
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* {{Anvilicious}}: InUniverse: Santosh Patel's lesson to Pi and Ravi about how dangerous animals are.
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* 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, he does warn Pi and Ravi that picking up a wild one would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade".
** Mind you, he does warn Pi and Ravi that picking up a wild one would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade".
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* 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, he does warn Pi and Ravi that picking up a wild one would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade".
** Mind you, he does warn Pi and Ravi that picking up a wild one would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade".
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** Mind you, he does warn Pi and Ravi that picking up a wild one would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade".
to:
** Mind you, he does warn Pi and Ravi that picking up a wild one would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade". blade".
* AnalogyBackfire: When Santosh announces that they are leaving India.
-->'''Santosh:''' We will sail like Columbus.
-->'''Pi:''' But Columbus was sailing for India!
* AnalogyBackfire: When Santosh announces that they are leaving India.
-->'''Santosh:''' We will sail like Columbus.
-->'''Pi:''' But Columbus was sailing for India!
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* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal 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 [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]].]]
to:
* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal 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 [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]].]]]]
** Edgar Allen 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.
** Edgar Allen 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.
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[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into a 3D film]] directed by Ang Lee and starring newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi, released on November 2012.
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[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into a 3D film]] directed by Ang Lee AngLee and starring newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi, released on November 2012.
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* FrenchJerk: In the film, the cook, who obstinately refuses to acquiese to the Pi's mother's request for a vegetarian meal.
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* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal 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 [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]].
to:
* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal island that he comes across is [[spoiler: really carnivorous and eating any people and animals that end up there]] there when he finds a tooth inside a lotus flower. It's a [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]]. ]]
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Edited Hope Spot
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** 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.
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* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal 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 [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]].
* SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification: The film falls under Type 4. The details that were changed were either inappropriate for a PG rating or unable to fit the film format at all; otherwise, it follows the original book with great precision.
* SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification: The film falls under Type 4. The details that were changed were either inappropriate for a PG rating or unable to fit the film format at all; otherwise, it follows the original book with great precision.
to:
* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal 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 [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]].
* SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification: The film falls under Type 4. The details that were changed were either inappropriate for a PG rating or unable to fit the film format at all; otherwise, it follows the original book with great precision.Machine]].
* SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification: The film falls under Type 4. The details that were changed were either inappropriate for a PG rating or unable to fit the film format at all; otherwise, it follows the original book with great precision.
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* SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification: The film falls under Type 4. The details that were changed were either inappropriate for a PG rating or unable to fit the film format at all; otherwise, it follows the original book with great precision.
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**Mind you, he does warn Pi and Ravi that picking up a wild one would be like "grabbing a knife by the blade".
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Pi shares his lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a rat, various insects, a hyena, and a 450-pound adult Bengal tiger.
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Pi shares his lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a rat, various insects, a hyena, and a 450-pound adult Bengal tiger. [[AnyoneCanDie Eventually]], just him and the tiger.
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* GardenOfEvil: [[spoiler:spoiler:Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis [[spoiler: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.
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* GardenOfEvil: [[spoiler:spoiler:Pi [[spoiler: Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis [[spoiler:which 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.
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Don\'t spoiler tag the trope itself.
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* [[spoiler: 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]].
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* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding]]: 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]].
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* [[spoiler:GardenOfEvil]]: Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis [[spoiler: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.
to:
* [[spoiler:GardenOfEvil]]: Pi GardenOfEvil: [[spoiler:spoiler:Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis [[spoiler: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.
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%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1357716440017200100
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Official book cover,other image was copyrighted.
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[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/life-of-pi_9307.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:325:So a boy, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra all get into a boat...]]
[[caption-width-right:325:So a boy, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra all get into a boat...]]
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** And that's assuming [[spoiler:Richard Parker was ever on the boat with him in the first place.]]
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** 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''.]]
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* WhamLine: "[[spoiler:Bananas don't float.]]"
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* WhamLine: "[[spoiler:Bananas don't ''do'' float.]]"
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** And that's assuming [[spoiler:Richard Parker even existed.]]
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** And that's assuming [[spoiler:Richard Parker even existed.was ever on the boat with him in the first place.]]
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[[caption-width-right:325:So a boy, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra all walk into a boat...]]
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[[caption-width-right:325:So a boy, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra all walk get into a boat...]]
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*** In the film, the ending is made far less ambiguous and it's suggested [[spoiler: Pi's first version of events, the one with the animals, was correct.]]
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[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/life-of-pi_9307.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:325:So a boy, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra all walk into a boat...]]
->''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.''
-->--'''Piscine Molitor Patel'''.
Allegedly one of the greatest novels to come out in recent years, 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, who find his interest in religion odd, but accept it nonetheless, run a large zoo in Pondicherry, until circumstance forces them to move to Winnipeg, Canada.
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.
Well, not quite alone.
Pi shares his lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a rat, various insects, a hyena, and a 450-pound adult Bengal tiger.
What follows is an odd and touching story, recounting the trials and tribulations that Pi endures during his 277-day ordeal on the lifeboat.
[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into a 3D film]] directed by Ang Lee and starring newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi, released on November 2012.
----
!!Tropes:
* ThreeDMovie
* TheAloner
* {{Anvilicious}}: InUniverse: Santosh Patel's lesson to Pi and Ravi about how dangerous animals are.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Santosh Patel's lesson on the savagery of animals goes through a thorough list -- and ends with guinea pigs. Which are genuinely domesticated.
* BadassBookworm: Pi is intelligent, well-read and quite capable to survive with a tiger as a roommate.
* BioluminescenceIsCool: UpToEleven 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.
* ABoyAndHisX: A Boy And His Tiger.
* [[spoiler: 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]].
** And that's assuming [[spoiler:Richard Parker even existed.]]
* CloudCuckooLander: Pi, after being rescued, at least with Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: See GardenOfEvil.
* 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...]]]]
* 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''. To clarify, the hyena was in the boat, and they threw him in to distract it.
* DirectLineToTheAuthor: The framing story of the author meeting Pi and being told his story is set up this way.
* 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.
* EmbarrassingFirstName[=/=]EmbarrassingMiddleName: Piscine Molitor Patel. The Piscine Molitor is a famous Parisian swimming pool.
** Although he's not particularly embarrassed about that; it's just that ''piscine'' happens to sound a lot like "pissing," [[KidsAreCruel and naturally other kids are going to take advantage of that]].
* ForegoneConclusion: Pi's the one relating the story to the author, so we know that despite it all, he will survive.
* 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.
* [[spoiler:GardenOfEvil]]: Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis [[spoiler: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.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation
* HopeSpot: Pi and Richard Parker recover and live happily for a time on the floating island, [[spoiler:until Pi discovers that it's a GardenOfEvil.]]
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played with in full force if [[spoiler:you believe Pi's alternate story replacing the animals with humans]].
* InterfaithSmoothie: Pi is a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim, and takes advice from clergy in all three faiths.
* 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]].
* JumpScare: Happens in the film when [[spoiler:Richard Parker kills the hyena.]]
* 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.
* 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.]]
* MisplacedWildlife: 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.
-->'''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.
** 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''.]]
* MouthfulOfPi: The young Pi cements his nickname by showing how many digits of pi he can recite.
* MyNameIsNotDurwood: 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.
* TheNondescript: Mr. Kumar (the religious one).
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty / ImAHumanitarian: [[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.]]
** [[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.]]
* NowItsMyTurn: [[spoiler:Orange Juice's blow to the hyena was impressive, but does no good.]]
* OceanMadness
* 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''.]]
* OneSteveLimit: {{Subverted}} by the two Mr. Kumars.
* OverlyLongGag: As Mr. Patel's lecture demonstrates, it's not just tigers that can kill you, but lion, leopards, Himalayan bears, sloth bears, hippos, hyenas, orangutans, ostriches, deer, camels, swans, elephants...
* {{Picaresque}}
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Richard Parker is a Bengal tiger.]] Of course, this fact is usually presented upfront in descriptions of the story, [[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]].
* RuleOfSymbolism: Several. Richard Parker is the name of several real life and fictional people [[spoiler:who were shipwrecked and cannibalized]].
** Tsimtsum, the ship that sinks, is also a religious term that means "a void created by God" and "to find oneself."
** Apparently, the color orange represents security. Orange Juice, Richard Parker, and the life vests were all this color.
** Pi thinks up six plans to kill Richard Parker. The seventh plan, after their decision for friendship, is to keep him alive.
** WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: [[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.]]
* SceneryPorn: the descriptions of the Pondicherry Zoo.
** The film adaptation has this in spades, with many critics praising Ang Lee's masterful directing and subtle use of 3D.
* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal 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 [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]].
* SoleSurvivor: Well, Pi is the sole ''human'' survivor of the sinking of the Tsimtsum. [[spoiler: By his account, at least]].
** The tiger too is the only animal survivor, after the remaining ones have been killed.
** Though even in his first story there's nothing to prove that the Frenchman [[spoiler:wasn't the ship's cook.]]
* TooDumbToLive: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] 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.
* UnreliableNarrator: Possibly. 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]].
** Also Yann Martel himself, who writes this book as if it was based on true events, whereas it is actually a complete work of fiction.
* 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.]]
* WhamLine: "[[spoiler:Bananas don't float.]]"
* 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.]]
* YouMonster: [[spoiler:Pi's mother calls the cook this many times in the alternate telling of the story.]]
----
[[caption-width-right:325:So a boy, a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a zebra all walk into a boat...]]
->''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.''
-->--'''Piscine Molitor Patel'''.
Allegedly one of the greatest novels to come out in recent years, 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, who find his interest in religion odd, but accept it nonetheless, run a large zoo in Pondicherry, until circumstance forces them to move to Winnipeg, Canada.
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.
Well, not quite alone.
Pi shares his lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a rat, various insects, a hyena, and a 450-pound adult Bengal tiger.
What follows is an odd and touching story, recounting the trials and tribulations that Pi endures during his 277-day ordeal on the lifeboat.
[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into a 3D film]] directed by Ang Lee and starring newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi, released on November 2012.
----
!!Tropes:
* ThreeDMovie
* TheAloner
* {{Anvilicious}}: InUniverse: Santosh Patel's lesson to Pi and Ravi about how dangerous animals are.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Santosh Patel's lesson on the savagery of animals goes through a thorough list -- and ends with guinea pigs. Which are genuinely domesticated.
* BadassBookworm: Pi is intelligent, well-read and quite capable to survive with a tiger as a roommate.
* BioluminescenceIsCool: UpToEleven 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.
* ABoyAndHisX: A Boy And His Tiger.
* [[spoiler: 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]].
** And that's assuming [[spoiler:Richard Parker even existed.]]
* CloudCuckooLander: Pi, after being rescued, at least with Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: See GardenOfEvil.
* 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...]]]]
* 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''. To clarify, the hyena was in the boat, and they threw him in to distract it.
* DirectLineToTheAuthor: The framing story of the author meeting Pi and being told his story is set up this way.
* 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.
* EmbarrassingFirstName[=/=]EmbarrassingMiddleName: Piscine Molitor Patel. The Piscine Molitor is a famous Parisian swimming pool.
** Although he's not particularly embarrassed about that; it's just that ''piscine'' happens to sound a lot like "pissing," [[KidsAreCruel and naturally other kids are going to take advantage of that]].
* ForegoneConclusion: Pi's the one relating the story to the author, so we know that despite it all, he will survive.
* 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.
* [[spoiler:GardenOfEvil]]: Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis [[spoiler: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.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation
* HopeSpot: Pi and Richard Parker recover and live happily for a time on the floating island, [[spoiler:until Pi discovers that it's a GardenOfEvil.]]
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played with in full force if [[spoiler:you believe Pi's alternate story replacing the animals with humans]].
* InterfaithSmoothie: Pi is a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim, and takes advice from clergy in all three faiths.
* 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]].
* JumpScare: Happens in the film when [[spoiler:Richard Parker kills the hyena.]]
* 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.
* 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.]]
* MisplacedWildlife: 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.
-->'''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.
** 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''.]]
* MouthfulOfPi: The young Pi cements his nickname by showing how many digits of pi he can recite.
* MyNameIsNotDurwood: 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.
* TheNondescript: Mr. Kumar (the religious one).
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty / ImAHumanitarian: [[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.]]
** [[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.]]
* NowItsMyTurn: [[spoiler:Orange Juice's blow to the hyena was impressive, but does no good.]]
* OceanMadness
* 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''.]]
* OneSteveLimit: {{Subverted}} by the two Mr. Kumars.
* OverlyLongGag: As Mr. Patel's lecture demonstrates, it's not just tigers that can kill you, but lion, leopards, Himalayan bears, sloth bears, hippos, hyenas, orangutans, ostriches, deer, camels, swans, elephants...
* {{Picaresque}}
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Richard Parker is a Bengal tiger.]] Of course, this fact is usually presented upfront in descriptions of the story, [[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]].
* RuleOfSymbolism: Several. Richard Parker is the name of several real life and fictional people [[spoiler:who were shipwrecked and cannibalized]].
** Tsimtsum, the ship that sinks, is also a religious term that means "a void created by God" and "to find oneself."
** Apparently, the color orange represents security. Orange Juice, Richard Parker, and the life vests were all this color.
** Pi thinks up six plans to kill Richard Parker. The seventh plan, after their decision for friendship, is to keep him alive.
** WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: [[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.]]
* SceneryPorn: the descriptions of the Pondicherry Zoo.
** The film adaptation has this in spades, with many critics praising Ang Lee's masterful directing and subtle use of 3D.
* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/TheOdyssey''; Pi realizes that the paradisiacal 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 [[IncrediblyLamePun Lotus-Based]] [[LotusEaterMachine Eating Machine]].
* SoleSurvivor: Well, Pi is the sole ''human'' survivor of the sinking of the Tsimtsum. [[spoiler: By his account, at least]].
** The tiger too is the only animal survivor, after the remaining ones have been killed.
** Though even in his first story there's nothing to prove that the Frenchman [[spoiler:wasn't the ship's cook.]]
* TooDumbToLive: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] 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.
* UnreliableNarrator: Possibly. 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]].
** Also Yann Martel himself, who writes this book as if it was based on true events, whereas it is actually a complete work of fiction.
* 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.]]
* WhamLine: "[[spoiler:Bananas don't float.]]"
* 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.]]
* YouMonster: [[spoiler:Pi's mother calls the cook this many times in the alternate telling of the story.]]
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