Life of Pi Themes

(Click the themes infographic to download.)  Life of Pi's protagonist believes passionately in both zoology and religion. Wait—what? Science and religion, together? What about the fact of m...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) In his essay "How I Wrote Life of Pi," Yann Martel says, "I had neither family nor career to show for my thirty-three years on Earth. [...]. I was in ne...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) There's an interesting blurring of divisions between man and the natural world in Life of Pi. Human beings become more animalistic; animals become more...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) This theme often brings to mind more ethereal subjects like the soul or the soul's rebirth. You'd be both right and wrong applying such lofty thoughts t...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Suffering brings out the best and the worst in Life of Pi's characters. On the one hand, the characters care for each other when they very well could ha...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Don't get us wrong. The protagonist of Life of Pi loves science. Science, along with reason, helps us control and manipulate the world. It's how we surv...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) If we have nothing to fear but fear itself, what about the fear of fear itself? Does that count as two fears or is it still one fear? It's this type of...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) The protagonist in Life of Pi battles death for so long, his relationship with death becomes very complex. Death is the thing he must push as far away f...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) You knew we were going to say this: madness is a little complicated in Life of Pi. Is faith a form of madness? Is the madness that causes animals to lea...