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 keeps fishing, often using a gaff that he finds in the locker. He pulls the fish aboard and then kills them with the hatchet. He has lost all qualms about touching sea life or killing living creatures. He improves at hunting, and starts using the net as a lure to attract more fish. Some days he catches more fish than he can eat, but often there is nothing to catch. He sometimes catches turtles as well – he finds it is easy to grab them but difficult to pull them aboard, as they are so big. Pi sadly compares his new level of “savagery” to his earlier lifestyle of vegetarianism.
Pi quickly adjusts to killing sealife with impunity in order to feed himself and Richard Parker. He has even moved quickly from being a vegetarian to eating raw meat whenever he can. Pi has lost some of his “civilized” humanity in this, but his resourcefulness and ability to adapt show a different kind of humanity.
Themes
