Life of Pi Part 2, Chapter 89 Quotes

Life of Pi Part 2, Chapter 89 Quotes

How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote 1

That was my last entry. I went on from there, endured, but without noting it. Do you see these invisible spirals on the margins of the page? I thought I would run out of paper. It was the pens that ran out. (2.89.4)

Through Pi's diary, Martel comments on writing. Some of the most important stuff in a novel or poem is what the author leaves unsaid. Pi provides us with a startling image of his unspoken despair: invisible spirals in the margin of the page.

Quote 2

We perished away. It happened slowly, so that I didn't notice it all the time. But I noticed it regularly. We were two emaciated mammals, parched and starving. Richard Parker's fur lost its luster, and some of it even fell away from his shoulders and haunches. He lost a lot of weight, became a skeleton in an oversized bag of faded fur. I, too, withered away, the moistness sucked out of me, my bones showing plainly through my thin flesh. (2.89.2)

Sometimes we think of death as instantaneous. One minute the dorado is alive and flapping around and the next it's not. But Pi and Richard Parker slowly morph into reminders of death. They become walking, breathing skeletons who remind each other of death's slow deterioration. When you and your best pal both have "bones showing plainly," it's hard not to think of death. OK. It's impossible not to think of death.