FREE LITERATURE NOTES: LIFE OF PI BY YANN MARTEL

CHAPTER 2

Summary

Patel lives in Scarborough. He is a small, dark man of about forty. He speaks quickly and goes into his story.

Notes

This is a brief interjection by the author giving the narrator’s physical appearance and location. It let’s the reader know that the previous chapter was the beginning of the author’s interview with the man in Canada referred to in the Author’s Note. These interjections support the reality of the story.

CHAPTER 3

Summary

The narrator (Patel) talks about Francis Adirubasamy who is a close family friend. Patel calls him Mamaji (dear uncle). Mamaji was a champion competitive swimmer and tries to teach Patel’s parents and older brother, Ravi to swim. The family is unskilled and unenthusiastic, except for Patel himself, who is thrilled with both swimming and pleasing his “uncle.”

In addition to teaching swimming, Mamaji loves to talk about swimming and about the incredible swimming pools in Paris. Patel’s father loves to hear of them. Mamaji gloriously praises one pool in particular, the Piscine Molitor. So taken is Patel’s father with the dreamlike image of that pool, that his son becomes its namesake. We finally learn the narrator’s name: Piscine Molitor Patel.

Notes

India did have an Olympic swimmer in 1928, named Mulji. He may have been Martel’s model for Mamaji. It will become significant later in the story that Piscine is the only family member that can swim. The word piscine (pronounced pee-seen) means pool in French. However, the word piscine (pronounced pie-seen) means fish-like in English. This is an interesting play on the word in light of what is in store for Piscine in Part 2 of the novel.

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