Life of Pi

Title: Life of Pi (fiction)
Characters: Surat Sharma- Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel
                  Tiger- Richard Parker
Setting: Pacific Ocean
Theme: The Journey of a Lifetime
Symbolism: The Algae Island
            The island itself is symbolic as it offers temporary salvation to Pi, but he must leave the island because he discovered the lotus plant with a human tooth. His illusion of the island is shattered. There is a kind of heaven and hell associated with day and night. By day the meerkats eat without having to kill and show no fear, even of Richard Parker. At night, the island becomes carnivorous and the ecosystem feeds on itself. The island is just a mere illusion that fools anyone who finds hope in it.

Plot:
Pi Patel, the precocious son of a zoo keeper. Dwellers in Pondicherry, India, the family decides to move to Canada, hitching a ride on a huge freighter. After a shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a 26-foot lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all fighting for survival.

After the tragic sinking of a ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the Pacific ocean, inside there is an Indian boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra, a female orangutan and a Bengal tiger, the only survivors of the wreck, it's a tale of faith, hope and fighting for survival.


1. What does the title mean in relation to the film as a whole?
-It tells the story of a journey of Pi Patel from his childhood until he became adult. How he struggle from the death of his family until his journey in the Pacific where he experienced hunger, thirst and fear; in his discovery of the algae island where he found false hope because of his desperation up to the end of the story where Richard Parker left him without saying goodbye.

2. Among the characters, to whom can you relate to?
-I chose Pi Patel because like him, I experience hunger, thirst and sufferings. And like him, I also survived and still keep going on because we have 1 thing in common which is, we both have faith.

3.Which part of the presentation struck you the most? Why?
-the part where Richard Parker (tiger) looked like dying after the storm. He was tired and stressed having that long journey in the middle of the ocean where there's no fresh water to drink and just a little meat to eat. He's a brute living on land and he's not capable of surviving in the ocean.

4. What is the movie's message?
-It's all about accepting what life has given us and embrace with arms wide open because God will not give us problems and trials we cannot conquer. It's all about faith.

5. Did I like this on general? why?
-Yes, because it tells the reality of a life of a human being where challenges and trials test our faith. It enlightened us to see the positive in negative things.

6. Did I agree with the main theme/purpose? Why or why not?
-Yes, because it show our purpose in life through our experiences and learning from the circumstances that life is giving us.

7.What specifically did I like/dislike? why?
-the part I like where Richard Parker (tiger) had survived the journey after he was about to die after the storm because I don't want him to die in the movie.

8. Are there any aspects of theme which are ambiguous at the end? why?
-the island that turns carnivorous during night time because it releases acid that kills living creature.

9. How does this film relate to the things that are happening in your life?
-By conquering all those challenges and trials that life is giving me. Having the faith to all that is happening and lending it to God.