He gets his unusual name from the French word for pool —and, more specifically, from a pool in Paris in which a close family friend, Francis Adirubasamy, loved to swim. A student of zoology and religion, Pi is deeply intrigued by the habits and characteristics of animals and people.
The Royal Bengal tiger with whom Pi shares his lifeboat. His captor, Richard Parker, named him Thirsty, but a shipping clerk made a mistake and reversed their names. From then on, at the Pondicherry Zoo, he was known as Richard Parker. Weighing pounds and about nine feet long, he kills the hyena on the lifeboat and the blind cannibal. He taught Pi to swim as a child and bestowed upon him his unusual moniker. He arranges for the author to meet Pi in person, so as to get a first-person account of his strange and compelling tale.
Pi calls him Mamaji, an Indian term that means respected uncle. Ravi prefers sports to schoolwork and is quite popular. He teases his younger brother mercilessly over his devotion to three religions.
He once owned a Madras hotel, but because of his deep interest in animals decided to run the Pondicherry Zoo. A worrier by nature, he teaches his sons not only to care for and control wild animals, but to fear them. The difficult conditions in India lead him to move his family to Canada. A book lover, she encourages Pi to read widely. She speaks her mind, letting her husband know when she disagrees with his parenting techniques.
When Pi relates another version of his story to his rescuers, she takes the place of Orange Juice on the lifeboat. A polio survivor, he is an odd-looking man, with a body shaped like a triangle. His devotion to the power of scientific inquiry and explanation inspires Pi to study zoology in college. The Catholic priest who introduces Pi to Christianity after Pi wanders into his church. Pi goes blind, and in his sightless delirium, he hears a voice.
The voice speaks to him, and Pi responds, talking about food. The voice, with a French accent, speaks of beef and brains and all sorts of food that Pi finds distasteful. Pi assumes he is hearing the voice of Richard Parker, but the French accent does not make sense to him.
Pi asks the voice if he has ever killed anyone, and the voice says yes, a man and a woman. The voice grows weak and Pi urges it to come back. The voice belongs to a blind man, a castaway like Pi, and they join their boats together. But when he steps down onto the floor of the boat, Richard Parker kills him.
Pi cries and rinses his eyes with seawater. The lifeboat comes across a low island covered entirely with algae. Pi and Richard Parker stop for a time, eating the vegetation, drinking the fresh water, and nursing themselves back to health. Pi notices that the island burns his feet at night but not during the day.
Seeing that meerkats spend the nights in the treetops, Pi, who has been sleeping on the lifeboat, joins them. One day, Pi discovers a tree that bears fruit. We have no simple answers The blind Frenchman does highlight Pi's madness and the depravity of cannibalism which, if we must remind you, your dear Pi commits.
Perhaps it's a good thing Richard Parker gets rid of this Frenchman quickly: he complicates the allegory and perhaps represents the evil that Richard Parker, through his own violence, dispatches. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Yann Martel. Previous Next.
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