Life of Pi Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the characters, themes, and key concepts from the Life of Pi study guide.

Yann Martel

The Canadian author of Life of Pi, born in Salamanca, Spain, in 1963, who wrote the novel after a backpacking trip to India in 1996.

Autofiction

A fictionalized autobiography, a term coined by Serge Doubrovsky, used to describe the novel's combination of autobiography with fictional elements.

The Indian Emergency

The period between 1975–77 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, restricted personal freedoms, and imprisoned political opponents.

Piscine Molitor Patel

The full name of the protagonist, Pi Patel, named after a beautiful swimming pool in Paris, France.

Richard Parker

A 450-pound Bengal tiger that survived the shipwreck and remained in the lifeboat with Pi for 227 days.

Tsimtsum

The Japanese cargo ship carrying the Patel family and their zoo animals that sank in the Pacific Ocean on July 1, 1977.

Mr. Francis Adirubasamy

A champion swimmer and family friend, known as Mamaji, who taught Pi to swim and introduced the visiting writer to Pi's story.

Mr. Satish Kumar (Teacher)

Pi's biology teacher in India who was an atheist and believed that religion was 'darkness.'

Mr. Satish Kumar (Baker)

The Sufi and Muslim mystic who introduced Pi to Islam and whose humble living quarters felt sacred to Pi.

Father Martin

The welcoming parish priest in Munnar who introduced Pi to Christianity and the concept of sacrifice.

Max and the Cats

A 1981 book by Moacyr Scliar about a boy shipwrecked with a panther, which Martel acknowledged as the 'spark of life' for his own novel.

Anthropomorphism

The practice of giving animals human qualities, traits, or costumes of the imagination.

Zoomorphism

A process where an animal treats another animal as one of its own kind, suspending the predator-prey relationship.

Theodicy

The theological question or account of why a loving, involved deity allows bad things and suffering to happen.

Prusten

A puffing snort made through the nostrils by a tiger to express friendliness and harmless intentions.

Mathematical Pi

An elusive, irrational number ($3.14159$) representing a circle’s ratio, reflecting the protagonist's name and his quest to understand the infinity of life.

Algae Island

A carnivorous floating island made of algae and home to meerkats that turns acidic and kills its inhabitants at night.

Orange Juice

A Borneo orangutan from the Pondicherry Zoo that floated to the lifeboat on an island of bananas and was eventually killed by the hyena.

Mr. Okamoto

An official at the Japanese Ministry of Transport who interviewed Pi in Mexico and ultimately selected the animal story as the 'better story' in his official report.

Blind Frenchman

A castaway and unapologetic carnivore who Pi met while temporarily blind and who was killed by Richard Parker when he attempted to eat Pi.

Tsimtsum (Kabbalist term)

A Hebrew term expressing divine presence and absence, signifying the idea that the divine is concealed from human view.

The Sailor

In Pi's second story, a Tsimtsum employee with a broken leg who is parallels the zebra and is eaten by the cook.

The Cook

In Pi's second story, a 'brute' similar to the hyena who killed Pi's mother and was later killed and eaten by Pi.