The Life of Pi

The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is the story of a young boy named Pi Patel and his incredible journey across the Pacific Ocean. The story begins in the mid 1970’s in a town called Pondicherry, India. Pi is a very intelligent young boy and he enjoys studying religion. In fact, he practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. Pi also enjoys swimming and he is trained by a former Olympic champion. Pi’s father is the owner of the Pondicherry Zoo which means Pi spends a lot of his time around animals as well. Overall, Pi enjoys his life in India and he is very happy, but when he is sixteen years old Pi’s father informs him that he and his family will be moving to Canada. They have to move because the Indian government during this time was having many political problems, and Pi’s father decided he wanted to start a new life for the family. In preparation for the move Pi’s father is forced to sell off some of the zoo’s animals and he makes arrangements for the rest of the animals to travel with the family on a Japanese cargo ship.
The ship sets sail across the Pacific Ocean on June 27, 1977 and Pi and his family are very excited and nervous. The ship sets sail along with a crew and many cages of zoo creatures. However, a short while into the trip Pi hears a loud boom on the ship during the night. He goes out onto the deck and discovers that the ship is sinking in a huge thunderstorm. The crewmen put Pi in a life jacket and throw him into the life boat. During the frantic storm Pi clings to the life boat as the cargo ship sinks. When the storm subsides it appears as if there are no other survivors. Pi is stranded on a life boat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450 pound Bengal tiger. The tiger shortly kills and eats the other animals until Pi is just left on the boat with the tiger. However the tiger does not harm Pi and Pi masters the tiger and trains him. Over the next few months Pi survives on canned water, emergency rations, filtered seawater and rain, and freshly caught sea life. He provides food and water for himself and the tiger. During their stay on the life boat the tiger and Pi become good companions and keep each other company. Pi provides them with food and water and the tiger protects them from any dangers. Almost nine months after Pi set sail from India, the life boat washes up on a Mexican beach. The tiger runs off and Pi is taken to a hospital by Mexican villagers. Pi is later interviewed about his incredible survival across the ocean, but no one believes that he spent all that time on the life boat with a tiger.
The Life of Pi is an incredible story about the survival and journey of a young boy across the Pacific Ocean. I would definitely recommend the Life of Pi to anyone who enjoys reading. Although the novel starts a little slow, it develops into a fascinating and exciting story that the reader will not be able to put down.