Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Life of Pi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival
Religion and Faith
Storytelling
Boundaries
Summary
Analysis
Pi wakes up once in the night and is terrified by the sublimity of his surroundings, the vastness of the sea and sky. He realizes that his suffering is “taking place in a grand setting,” which makes it seem small and mundane. He prays and falls back asleep.
Pi already has a mind that tends towards religion and philosophy, and now he experiences the true terror and ecstasy of the “sublime” – a philosophical concept referring to an aesthetic greatness beyond all measure.
Themes
