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
The narrative now consists of verbatim segments of this interview, with the Japanese portions translated and in a different font. The interview begins, and Mr. Okamoto gives the date as February 19th, 1978. Mr. Chiba is a junior official, and Okamoto gives him advice in Japanese in between talking to Pi. They greet Pi and discuss their trip. The officials say that they had a nice trip, and Pi says that he had a horrible trip. Pi says he is hungry, and the officials give him a cookie. They ask him to tell his story.
Martel throws in more seemingly meaningless details to lend credibility and a journalistic feeling to his story. This is similar to Pi’s intricate description of the algae island or his training of Richard Parker (if these were indeed a fiction made up by Pi, either purposefully or as a kind of subconscious self-protection). Pi already seems detached from his horrible ordeal and is almost making jokes about it.
Themes
