complete study guide is currently available as a downloadable PDF or RTF file from the PinkMonkey MonkeyNotes download store. The complete study guide contains summaries and notes for all of the chapters; detailed analysis of the themes, plot structure, and characters; important quotations and analysis; detailed analysis of symbolism, motifs, and imagery; a key facts summary; a multiple-choice quiz, and suggested book report ideas and essay topics.

THEMES ANALYSIS

The Better Story

The major theme is the value of the better story. As Pi puts it, The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? How we interpret reality can be, as it is for Pi, our faith. We need to believe in something beyond the seen. It helps us deal with fear. It helps us find a better story.

Everything about life is a story and we can choose our own story. Martel's point is that the story that is more imaginative is the better story. The reader can choose whether Pi's life is real-life fiction or imaginative fiction. Pi presents the........

Science and Religion

A theme, and also a recurring motif, is the bringing together of science and religion as equal ways of understanding the world. Pi's zoo upbringing and his relationship to the animals provide a scientific understanding of the world. His ........

POINT OF VIEW

The story is told in the first person, but by two different narrators. At first, as expected, the Author's Note is in the author's voice, but this voice becomes a fictional narrator as the story progresses. The bulk of the narration is reminiscences of the adult Pi as told to.......