This part shows various problems are revealed which affect one another. Political strife that affected India made Pi’s father comes to a decision to move the
family to Canada and sells their zoo. This case affected Pi as the main character who is against this decision. Meanwhile, he cannot do anything but to accept it.
This problem somehow seems to fade away a little bit as Pi tries to accept the fact and make the best of it. However, the beginning of the major conflict is revealed
after they set sail on a cargo ship to Canada.
3.3 Climax
In the beginning of Part Two, Pi describes when the ship sinks and sees Richard Parker seeking for help and later on he goes back in time just before the
ship sinks. In this part, the author found several major conflicts which lead to critical situation and struggles.
The first major conflict is revealed; the ship begins to sink. Pi clings to a lifeboat and encourages a tiger, Richard Parker, to join him.
The ship sink. It made a sound like a monstrous metallic burp. Things bubbled at the surface and then
vanished. Everything was screaming: the sea, the wind, my heart. From the lifeboat I saw something in the
water.
I cried, “Richard Parker is that you? It’s so hard to see. Oh, that this rain would stop Richard Parker? Richard
Parker? Yes, it is you”
I could see his head. He was struggling to stay at the surface of the water.
Martel, 2010: 97
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Then he realizes his mistake in bringing a wild animal abroad, he tried to push the tiger away with an oar as it’s trying to get on the boat, but the tiger
succeeded. “Hold on tight, I’ll pull you in. Don’t let go. Pull with
your eyes while I pull with my hands. In a few seconds you’ll be aboard and we’ll be together. Wait a second.
Together? We’ll be together? Have I gone mad?”
I woke up to what I was doing. I yanked on the rope. “Let go of that lifebuoy, Richard Parker Let go, I said.
I don’t want you here, do you understand? Go somewhere else. Leave me alone. Get lost Drown
Drown
He was kicking vigorously with his legs. I grabbed an oar. I thrust it at him, meaning to push him away. I
missed and lost hold of the oar.
I grabbed another oar. I dropped it in an oarlock and pulled as hard as I could, meaning to move the lifeboat
away. All I accomplished was to turn the lifeboat a little, bringing one end closer to Richard Parker.
I would hit him on the head I lifted the oar in the air. He was too fast. He reached up and pulled himself
aboard. “Oh my God”
Martel, 2010: 99
Pi is terrified at the sight of a 450 pound Bengal tiger gazing at him, Pi then jumps into the ocean.
I had a wet, trembling, half-drowned, heaving and coughing three-year-old adult Bengal tiger in my
lifeboat. Richard Parker rose unsteadily to his feet on the tarpaulin, eyes blazing as they met mine, ears laid
tight to his head, all weapons drawn. His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth.
I turned around, stepped over the zebra and threw myself overboard.
Martel, 2010: 99-100
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Then the narrative jumps back in time as Pi describes the explosive noise and chaos of the sinking.
I think there was an explosion. But I can’t be sure. It happened while I was sleeping. It woke me up.
Martel, 2010: 101 I shook Ravi. I said, “Ravi There was funny noise.
Let’s go exploring.” He looked at me sleepily. He shook his head and turned
over, pulling the sheet up to his cheek. Oh Ravi I opened the cabin door.
Martel, 2010: 102 A shiver of cold went through me. I decided it was a
storm after all. Martel, 2010: 103
Inside the ship, there were noises. Deep structural groans. I stumbled and fell. No harm done. I got up.
With the help of the handrails I went down the stairwell four steps at a time. I had gone down just one level
when I saw water. Lots of water. It was blocking my way. It was surging from below like a riotous crowd,
raging, frothing and boiling. Stairs vanished into watery darkness. I couldn’t believe my eyes. What was this
water doing here? Where had it come from? I stood nailed to the spot, frightened and incredulous and
ignorant of what I should do next. Down there was where my family was.
Martel, 2010: 103 The ship was sinking. My mind could hardly conceive
it. It was as unbelievable as the moon catching fire. Martel, 2010: 103
Then the crewmembers thrust him a life jacket and throw him into a lifeboat, where he soon finds himself alone with a hyena already on board and a
zebra.
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I noticed an orange whistle dangling from the life jacket. The men were nodding vigorously at me. When
they took hold of me and lifted me in their strong arms, I thought nothing of it. I thought they were helping me.
I was so full of trust in them that I felt grateful as they carried me in the air. Only when they threw me
overboard did I begin to have doubts.
Martel, 2010: 105 I landed with a trampoline-like bounce on the half-
unrolled tarpaulin covering the lifeboat forty feet below. It was miracle I didn’t hurt myself. I lost the life
jacket, except the whistle, which stayed in my hand.
Martel, 2010: 105
The storm subsides and Pi contemplates his difficult situation. Pi holds onto an oar which he put through a lifebuoy so that the ring holds him. Pi looks
around for his family and other survivor, but all is gone, his family is gone. I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the Pacific,
hanging on to an oar, adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me. Ha d I considered
my prospects in the light of reason, I surely would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping that I might
drown before being eaten. But I don’t recall that I had a single thought during those first minutes of relative
safety. I didn’t even notice daybreak.
I held on to the oar, I just held on, God only knows why.
Martel, 2010: 107
Pi stays in the position over the night until he realizes that sharks are wandering beneath him. Then he wedges the lifeboat’s tarpaulin up with an oar
and decides he might survive if he can stay on top and keep Richard Parker beneath it. Over the next week an orangutan arrives which adds up to the animal
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group. However, they started the tense over the days; the hyena kills the zebra and then the orangutan.
Pi makes a raft out of oars, life jackets and buoyant ropes. Then suddenly Richard Parker reveals himself: the tiger has been in the bottom of the lifeboat all
along. Soon the tiger kills the hyena, and Pi and Richard Parker are alone together in the sea. This is where another major conflict takes place where he is abroad
with a huge carnivore. Pi soon learns to catch fishes and turtles in the sea and stock of canned
water and filtered seawater, and emergency rations help him survive. He tries to find an idea on how to kill Richard Parker, but instead Pi trains Richard parker
with a whistle and treats from sea as well marking territory on the boat, and then it settles down a bit after they become close. Pi feeds the tiger every time they have
food supply. I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized
this necessity. It was not a question of him or me, but him and me. We were, literally and figuratively, in the
same boat. We would live – or we would die – together.
Martel, 2010: 164 I looked at Richard Parker. My panic was gone. My
fear was dominated. Survival at hand. …I rose to my feet. Richard Parker noticed. The
balance was not easy. …”Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, without
further ado, it is my pleasure and honour to present to you: THE PI PATEL, INDO-CANADIAN, TRANS-
PACIFIC, FLOATING
CIRCUSSSSSSSSSSSS TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE
TREEEEEE TREEEEEE” I had an effect on Richard Parker, at the very first blow
of the whistle he cringed and he snarled. Ha Let him jump into the water if he wanted to Let him try
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“TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE”
He roared and he clawed the air. But he did not jump. He might not be afraid of the sea when he was driven
mad by hunger and thirst, but for the time being it was a fear I could rely on.
“TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE TREEEEEE”
He backed off and dropped to the bottom of the boat, the first training session was over. It was a resounding
success. I stopped whistling and sat down heavily on the raft, out of breath and exhausted.
And so it came to be: Plan Number Seven: Keep Him Alive.
Martel, 2010: 165-166
Then at a certain point, the two become so hungry and ill that they lose their sight and come across another blind man. Pi and the man talk for a bit about
food and suddenly the man tries to kill Pi to eat his flesh. However, Pi was being strangled by the man until the man is attacked by Richard Parker and it eats him,
Pi is thankful to the tiger. Then Pi gets his vision back for tearing up upon finding stock of food and water in the dead blind man’s boat.
Still floating along alone and desperate, the two come across an island made of algae. They disembark and Pi begins eating algae. He regains his strength
during the day and sleeping on the boat. Pi also explores the island and discovers a huge colony of meerkats who sleep in the trees and freshwater ponds. However,
Pi soon discovers that the island produces acid in the night hours. Pi then finds human teeth in a tree’s fruit and comes to the conclusion that the island is
dangerous and eats people. So, they leave the island immediately.
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3.4 Falling Action
