life of pi essay thesis

Life Of Pi Thesis Statements

Life of Pi is a novel by Yann Martel that tells the story of a young man, Pi, who is stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. The novel raises questions about religion, faith, and what it means to be human.

Martel uses the story of Pi to explore themes of religion and faith. He also asks questions about what it means to be human. These themes are explored through the characters and events in the novel.

The following Life of Pi thesis statements will give you some ideas for your own paper.

1) Religion is an important theme in Life of Pi. Martel uses the story of Pi to explore religious beliefs and their impact on individuals and society.

2) Faith is an important theme in Life of Pi. Martel uses the story of Pi to explore the nature of faith and its importance in our lives.

3) The concept of what it means to be human is an important theme in Life of Pi. Martel uses the story of Pi to explore what it means to be human and how we can define ourselves.

4) The themes of religion, faith, and what it means to be human are all interconnected.Martel uses the story of Pi to explore how these themes are related and how they impact our lives.

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel can be used as essay starters below are four strong thesis statements / paper ideas for students. All four include at least one of the themes found in “Life of Pi,” and they’re broad enough to allow easy textual backing while still being focused.

These thesis statements for “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel offer a short summary of different elements that could be important in an essay but you are free to add your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes to them. Using the essay topics below in conjunction with the list of important quotes from “Life of Pi” at the bottom of the page, you should have no trouble connecting with the text and writing an excellent essay.

Theses statements are a succinct description of “Life of Pi” in terms of various elements that may be significant in an essay. Of course, you are free to provide your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes if you like. You should have no trouble connecting with the text and producing a strong paper using our essay topics below and the list of key quotations from “Life Of Pi.”

Topic #1: Life of Pi as a Religious Allegory

While Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi is many things—a story of survival, an allegory, and a meditation on the nature of truth, among others—it is also a religious fable that examines what it means to have faith in God. In the novel, Pi Patel undertakes a remarkable journey of self-discovery after being stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days with only a Bengal tiger for company.

Throughout his ordeal, Pi clings to his faith in God as a source of strength and hope. After he is finally rescued, Pi tells two different versions of his story to Japanese officials investigating his ordeal. In the first version, which is largely based on fact, Pi tells a story of loss and despair in which he suffers terribly at the hands of nature. In the second version, which is more fantastic and metaphorical, Pi tells a story of hope and redemption in which he finds sustenance and strength in his faith.

While both versions of Pi’s story have elements of truth to them, it is clear that the second version is more reflective of Pi’s true experience. In telling his story,Pi comes to understand that it is not the facts that matter so much as the way in which they are interpreted. As he says, “The truth can be like a badly written novel—it depends on how you read it.”

The author drew from multiple historical examples of men named Richard Parker who were known to have either become cannibals at sea or been cannibalized. Why is it significant that the name is given to the tiger? What does he represent for Pi? When Pi re-tells the story with humans, the tiger is left out. There is a possibility that Pi and Richard Parker are one and the same. Researching the real life Richard Parkers can help us understand how they fit into this story.

Richard Parker is the name of the tiger in Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. The tiger plays a large role in the story, and is significant to the plot. The name “Richard Parker” is also significant, as it is the name of a real life person who was known to have either become a cannibal at sea or been cannibalized at sea. This connection between the tiger and Richard Parker is significant, as it suggests that Pi and Richard Parker may be one and the same. Researching the real life Richard Parker can help to understand how Pi and the tiger fit into the story.

Pi concludes that Richard Parker refrains from consuming him because Richard identifies Pi as the head of the pack. Given that Pi spent his childhood around wild animals and receiving lectures from his dad on their ferocity, he is armed with a plethora of information regarding animal behavior.

As such, he was able to utilize this wisdom to endure being stranded on a lifeboat palette with predators lurking about waiting to make him their next meal. He would fish ingroups and provide some seafood nourishment for Richard Parker so as not go near starvation mode himself and become an easy target for man-eating after it was just the two of them remaining.

By applying his zoo animal knowledge to the situation, Pi is able to survive.

Some possible thesis statements:

– Pi’s knowledge of animal behavior allows him to survive in the lifeboat.

– Richard Parker does not eat Pi because he recognizes him as the alpha male.

– The novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a story of survival against all odds.

More Essays

• Spiritual Needs In Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi Essay
• Life Of Pi Diction Analysis Essay
• Savagery In Yann Martels Life Of Pi Essay
• Essay about Symbolism In Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi
• Faith In Yann Martels Life Of Pi Essay
• Life Of Pi Quote Analysis Essay
• Life Of Pi Analysis Essay
• The Lady Or The Tiger Analysis Essay
• A Sound Of Thunder Thesis Statement
• Fault In Our Stars Thesis Essay

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Life of Pi — Literary Essay: Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

Literary Essay: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

• Categories: Life of Pi

About this sample

Words: 609 |

Published: Mar 14, 2024

Words: 609 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 960 words

2.5 pages / 1074 words

3 pages / 1138 words

3 pages / 1264 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Life of Pi

The Life of Pi is a story about survival, and how a belief in God can make a boy into a man and how facing life and death in the Pacific Ocean can lead to either utter despair or having an unwavering faith in God that can lead [...]

Yann Martel’s "Life of Pi" is a compelling narrative that delves into themes of survival, faith, and the human condition. The novel, which tells the story of Pi Patel, a young Indian boy who survives 227 days stranded on a [...]

Yann Martel's novel, Life of Pi, is a rich and complex story that is filled with symbolism. The novel tells the story of Pi Patel, a young Indian boy who survives a shipwreck and is stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific [...]

Yann Martel's acclaimed novel, "Life of Pi," delves into the life of Piscine Molitor Patel, better known as Pi, who survives a shipwreck and spends 227 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean. One of the most significant themes in the [...]

This essay will explore the moral lessons that can be learned from the Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Martel's novel brilliantly weaves together issues of morality and the primitive necessity of survival. Pi's [...]

Uniqueness is a struggle to find throughout literature, especially within recreations of previously published stories. Once a story is told, the originality begins to dissipate and the audience skews the story. Popular novels [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

49 Life of Pi : Essay Prompts & Questions

Life of Pi is Yann Martel’s philosophical novel (2001) about an Indian boy who survived a shipwreck. There are many good Life of Pi essay topics to write an excellent paper. Check our list of Life of Pi essay prompts to get inspired.

🏆 Best Life of Pi Essay Prompts

📌 most interesting life of pi essay topics, 👍 catchy life of pi essay questions.

• Life of Pi: Key Characters, Plot, and Themes First of all, Life of Pi is about the need to change and the survival instinct and its manifestations in life-threatening conditions.
• Film Studies: “Life of Pi” by Ang Lee Pi has to find a way for survival and gets into the boat as he and the animals start getting thirsty and hungry.
• “Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” Novel Analysis” Thus, the theme of Life of Pi is to show the difference between a human being and an animal and to indicate that no conditions can make it disappear.
• The Human and Animal Worlds in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi Thus, the animals on the boat and their behaviour reveal the degree of similarity between the world of animals and humans.
• The Role of Religion and God in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi as Influenced by Poe’s the Narrative of Arthur Grogon Pym of Nantucket As highlighted in the in the introductory part, religion is one of the themes that stand out in the Life of Pi.
• Taming One’s Id in Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” The novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a captivating chef-d’oeuvre that features three main parts, which follow the life of Pi and a tiger that is referred to as Richard Parker.
• Dual Consciousness in the Novel Life of Pi In the novel, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, the protagonist is found in a state where the realm of self-awareness and human consciousness fails to make the difference between reality and illusion.
• An Art of Literacy: “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel I took the liberty of talking to some of my old pals, and surprisingly enough, I realized we were actually not communicating. At the end of the day, they are all literacy arts and you […]
• Hope and Understanding: Comparing “Life of Pi” and “Bless Me, Ultima”
• How Tigers, Humans, and Animots Is Analyzed Through Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• The Animals as a Representation of Emotions Through Piscine Molitor Patel’s Fight to Survive in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Storytelling as a Means of Survival in Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• Use of Literary Devices in Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• How Negative Discoveries Can Lead to Positive Outcomes in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• The Potential Framework of Human Nature in the “Life of Pi”
• The Will to Survive in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Similarities Between Human and Animal Characters in “Life of Pi”
• The Fictitious Story of Survival at Sea With Richard Parker in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• “Life of Pi” and the Rise of Popular Literary Culture
• The Role of Religion in the “Life of Pi” and “The Scarlet Letter”
• The Concept of Ego in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• The Journeys of Survival in Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” and Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• Finding Oneself in Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• An Analysis of Self Preservation Through a Man’s Cooperation With Wild Animals in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• An Analysis of Survival in “The Story of Keesh” and “Life of Pi”
• The Carnivorous Island as a Symbol of Religion in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Determination and Perseverance in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• The Theme of Conflict in Human Life in Homer’s “The Odyssey” and Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• The Element of Water and Its Effects on Pi in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Tracing Narrative Threads in “Life of Pi”
• The Theme of Making Choices in the Novels “Life of Pi” and “Larry’s Party”
• The Practice of Hinduism by Pi in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• The Life-Changing Experience at Sea by Piscine Molitor Pi Patel in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• The Existence of Cooperation and Competition in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Religion Presented in “Dark Materials” and “Life of Pi”
• Comparing and Contrasting Sacrificial Scenes in the Poem “Sacrifice” and Chapter Eight of “Life of Pi”
• An Importance to Write Dowm Your Thoughts in “Life of Pi” and “The Diary of Anne Frank”
• Vegetarian to Carnivore in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• The Unusual Religious Convictions of Pi Patel in Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• The Role of Abraham Maslow in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Religion Triumphs Over Science in “Life of Pi”
• “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel: Living a Moral Life and Surviving in an Amoral World
• The Savagery in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• The Manipulation of the Color of Blue and Green in “Life of Pi”
• The Symbolism of Animals in Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”
• The Conflict Between Innate Evil and Good in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding and “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Aesthetic Theory in “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel
• Comparison of “Life of Pi” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”
• The Road Not Taken Topics
• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Research Topics
• The Outsiders Essay Titles
• The Old Man and the Sea Research Topics
• The Most Dangerous Game Paper Topics
• Hunger Games Questions
• The Alchemist Questions
• The Great Gatsby Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 8). 49 Life of Pi : Essay Prompts & Questions. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/life-of-pi-essay-examples/

"49 Life of Pi : Essay Prompts & Questions." IvyPanda , 8 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/life-of-pi-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2023) '49 Life of Pi : Essay Prompts & Questions'. 8 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "49 Life of Pi : Essay Prompts & Questions." December 8, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/life-of-pi-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "49 Life of Pi : Essay Prompts & Questions." December 8, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/life-of-pi-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "49 Life of Pi : Essay Prompts & Questions." December 8, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/life-of-pi-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

• Basic site functions
• Ensuring secure, safe transactions
• Secure account login
• Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
• Remembering privacy and security settings
• Analyzing site traffic and usage
• Personalized search, content, and recommendations
• Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

• Remembering general and regional preferences
• Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy .

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy .

by Yann Martel

• Life of Pi Summary

Life of Pi tells the fantastical story of Pi Patel, a sixteen-year-old South Indian boy who survives at sea with a tiger for 227 days. Pi, born Piscine Molitor Patel , grows up in the South Indian city of Pondicherry, where his father runs the zoo. A precocious and intelligent boy, by the age of fifteen Pi—Hindu from an early age—has also adopted Christianity and Islam, and considers himself a pious devotee to all three religions.

Thanks to government upheaval that has long been distressing Pi’s father, the Patels decide to close the Pondicherry Zoo and move to Canada when Pi is sixteen. Pi, his mother, father, and brother Ravi all board the Tsimtsum along with the zoo’s animal inhabitants (who are on their way to be sold around the world).

An unexplained event causes the Tsimtsum to sink, and Pi is the only human to make it onto the lifeboat and survive. Along with Pi, the lifeboat contains a hyena, a zebra, Orange Juice the orangutan, and Richard Parker the tiger. The hyena kills and devours both the zebra and Orange Juice, before Richard Parker kills the hyena. Pi is left alone on a lifeboat with an adult male tiger.

There is no land in sight and the ocean is shark-infested, so Pi builds a raft which he attaches to the lifeboat, to keep himself at a safer distance from Richard Parker. Eventually, however, life on the raft proves too exhausting, and Pi realizes that if Richard Parker gets hungry enough, he will swim to it and kill Pi. So Pi decides that he must tame Richard Parker. Using a whistle, seasickness, and a turtle-shell shield, Pi manages to assert his authority over Richard Parker and delineate his own territory on the lifeboat, where he is comparatively safe from the tiger.

While at sea, Pi and Richard Parker face many challenges, traumas, tragedies, and miraculous occurrences. They never have sufficient food and fresh water, and the constant exposure is highly painful. A severe storm, which they miraculously survive, destroys the raft. Pi manages to capture and kill a bird. They are almost crushed by an oil tanker, which then passes by without seeing them.

During an especially severe period of starvation, Pi and Richard Parker both go blind. While blind, Pi hears a voice, and realizes that they have drawn near another lifeboat that contains a similarly starving and blind Frenchman. Pi and this man converse for a while, and bring their boats together. The Frenchman climbs onto Pi’s boat, and immediately attacks him, planning to kill and eat him. He doesn’t realize that there is a tiger on the boat, however, and accidentally steps into Richard Parker’s territory. The tiger immediately attacks and kills him. Pi, saved at the cost of his attacker’s life, describes this as the beginning of his true moral suffering.

Pi and Richard Parker come upon a weird island that is made of algae with trees protruding from it, teeming with meerkats but no other life. Pi and Richard Parker stay on the island for weeks, eating the algae and the meerkats, growing stronger, and bathing in and drinking from the fresh water ponds. They never stay on the island at night, however, Pi because he feels safer from the tiger in his delineated territory, and Richard Parker for a reason unknown to Pi. Pi eventually starts to sleep on the island, and while doing so realizes that the island is carnivorous—it emits acid at night that dissolves anything on its surface. Greatly disturbed by this, Pi takes Richard Parker, and they leave the island.

Pi and Richard Parker eventually land on the Mexican beach. Richard Parker immediately runs off into the jungle without acknowledging Pi, which Pi finds deeply hurtful. Pi is found, fed, bathed, and taken to a hospital. There, two Japanese men come to question Pi about what caused the Tsimtsum to sink. He tells his story, which they do not believe, so he offers them a more plausible version, with the animal characters replaced by other humans, which casts doubt on the original story.

Throughout the novel, the story is interrupted by the author’s notes on Pi as he is now, telling this story to the author. After recovering in Mexico he went to Canada, where he spent a year finishing high school and then studied Religion and Zoology at the University of Toronto. At some point, he got married, and he now has two children. He still thinks of Richard Parker, and is still hurt by his final desertion.

Life of Pi Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Life of Pi is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

how pi describe the hyena

"I am not one to hold a prejudice against any animal, but it is a plain fact that the spotted hyena is not well served by its appearance. It is ugly beyond redemption. Its thick neck and high shoulders that slope to the hindquarters look as...

What is flight distance? Why is this important for zookeepers to know?

Flight distance is the amount of space that one animal will allow another animal before fleeing. Zookeepers need to be aware of this distance in order to keep from frightening the animals.

Please state your question.

Study Guide for Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a novel by Yann Martel. Life of Pi study guide contains a biography of author Yann Martel, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Life of Pi
• Life of Pi Video
• Character List

Essays for Life of Pi

Life of Pi essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Life of Pi written by Yann Martel.

• Living a Lie: Yann Martel’s Pi and his Dissociation from Reality
• A Matter of Perspective: The Invention of a Story in Martel’s Life of Pi
• Religion as a Coping Mechanism in Life of Pi
• Hope and Understanding: Comparing Life of Pi and Bless Me, Ultima
• Religious Allegories in Life of Pi

Lesson Plan for Life of Pi

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Life of Pi
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Life of Pi Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Life of Pi

• Introduction

• Bibliography
• More Referencing guides Blog Automated transliteration Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Automated transliteration
• Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Referencing guides

Life of Pi is a sensory delight with a powerful message: storytelling helps keep us alive

Life of Pi production. Evan Zimmerman/Supplied

• Title: Life of Pi
• Written by: Lolita Chakrabarti, adapted from the novel by Yann Martel
• Director: Max Webster
• Actors: Divesh Subaskaran, Fred Davis, Daisy Franks, Akash Heer, Katie Kennedy-Rose, Aizah Khan, Mark Matthews, Kate Rowsell
• Company: Mirvish
• Venue: CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre
• City: Toronto
• Year: To Oct. 6, 2024

The Frank R. Stockton short story The Lady, or the Tiger? – about a seemingly impossible choice – may come to mind as you watch another tiger magnificently roar to life in Life of Pi , Lolita Chakrabarti’s theatrical adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning 2001 book, now at the Ed Mirvish Theatre.

Teenager Pi (Divesh Subaskaran), short for Piscine (French for “swimming pool”), aptly finds himself at the mercy of the waters for more than 200 days. A shipwreck on his journey from India to Canada casts him away on a life raft with some of his family’s zoo animals – including Richard Parker, a tiger named via clerical error. His outsized tale of improbable survival and enduring faith confounds an investigator who is desperate to know the truth about the incident. But truth, like the fish that swim beside Pi’s lifeboat, is a slippery thing full of small, sharp bones.

Martel’s tiger tale, an epic story weighted with philosophical metaphor, was surely a daunting prospect to stage, but this Olivier- and Tony-winning production is more than up to the task. Combining stunning design and fluid, evocative puppetry with a streamlined, action-oriented rendering of Martel’s story, director Max Webster creates a sensory delight that succeeds in its new medium by emphasizing its message’s truth in both life and theatre: storytelling helps keep us alive, and a little suspension of disbelief holds great power.

Unlike Martel’s novel, there is no author here teasing out an older Pi’s past; instead, we begin in 1978, directly at the end of the adventure, in a Mexican hospital. In this version, the young man is attended by shipping company rep Mrs. Okamoto (Lilian Tsang) and Canadian embassy official Leela Chen (Bhawna Bhawsar). A classic good-cop, bad-cop team, Chen is compassionate and patient with the troubled teen, while Mrs. Okamoto is strict and no-nonsense, having a plane to catch and a mystery to solve. The similarly sterile white walls of the hospital change in an instant as Pi begins his recollection, warming the space while transporting us to the Pondicherry botanical garden and zoo operated by Pi’s family.

Tim Hatley’s creative jewel box of a set seamlessly opens up to become a market, then the deck of the Tsimtsum cargo ship, later fading into the background to focus on Pi’s claustrophobic lifeboat refuge made of panels that come together or fly apart at any given moment. In a particularly nice touch, Pi’s hospital bed forms the lifeboat’s stern, blurring the line between events as they happen and his recollection of the experience.

The warm tones of Pi’s hometown mimic that of the community Pi remembers: swimming instruction with the robust Mamaji (Chand Martinez), life advice disguised as science from Mrs. Biology Kumar (also Bhawsar), feuds with math genius sibling – in this adaptation, a sister – Rani (Riya Rajeev, appropriately annoying), and attendance at weekly temple, mosque, and church services to the confusion of his parents (a quietly warm Ameet Chana and Goldy Notay). God is everywhere, he muses, and religion is simply choosing the story you like best. Pi chooses them all, and he’ll return often to the subject of the expansiveness of faith and its relationship to storytelling.

Not just a method of instruction, the show’s intricate, finely crafted animal puppets are its chief delight. Evan Zimmerman/Supplied

Political unrest, however, forces Pi’s father to consider emigration to Canada; in the midst of teaching his son a painful lesson to never forget the dangerous nature of the wild beasts they care for, he posits that man is just as unpredictable an animal and even more dangerous.

Not just a method of instruction, the show’s intricate, finely crafted animal puppets are its chief delight. Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell’s designs show every detail of musculature in portraying a goat, hyena, orangutan, zebra, and the superlative beast Richard Parker, who in a sort of mutual taming takes Pi on an emotional journey from hatred to acceptance and even love.

Outside of one deliberately hallucinatory sequence, Caldwell’s direction of the animals’ behaviour feels impressively realistic, wild rather than Disneyfied. You can almost forget puppeteers Fred Davis, Daisy Franks, Akash Heer, Katie Kennedy-Rose, Aizah Khan, Mark Matthews and Kate Rowsell are there, and it’s hard not to instinctively recoil as your hindbrain reacts to the big cat leaping in your direction.

Another fine discovery is Subaskaran, who takes on the mammoth role of Pi in his professional debut with a keen grasp of the character’s wide spectrum of emotions. Pi is a sage-like character in his pronouncements about faith and fear, explaining how one elevates and the other destroys, and how assigning language to the concepts sustains the former and overcomes the latter. In his tiger and mouse game of logic with Okamoto, he elegantly makes the point that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in any person’s philosophy, and that a normal experience to one may seem fantastical to another.

Though he could give some of his larger pronouncements more space to fully land, Subaskaran smartly refuses to let Pi feel too remote, letting us see the scared, needy, sometimes petulant child peeking through.

That’s a good thing, because any story that boldly declares it will make you believe in God runs the risk of becoming heavy-handed, and Life of Pi has its share of obvious, Pi-in-the-sky moments.

The sheer elegance of its animal handling, however, prevents it from ever getting off-puttingly sanctimonious. As a puppeteer simply detaches from a deceased beast’s carcass and exits to the wings, you might swear you saw a flicker of a soul – the lady and the tiger.

In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a critic’s pick designation across all coverage. (Television reviews, typically based on an incomplete season, are exempt.)

Report an editorial error

Report a technical issue

Editorial code of conduct

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following .

Interact with The Globe