User:Paulhnoble/sandbox

Plot
Life of Pi’s third section begins after Pi is rescued on the western coast of Mexico. He is confronted by two Japanese men in a hospital. Tomohiro Okamoto, director of the Japanese ministry of transport, met with Pi to hear his story of why the Tsimtsum, a Japanese freighter, sank. Pi relates his story to the men. Due to the “sporadic” nature of Pi’s story, the Japanese men do not believe his story and ask him to tell a better one. Following Pi’s story, the narrator relates Mr. Okamoto’s final report to the insurance company, in the report he uses Pi’s first story. This challenges the reader to choose the story they believe most, the “better story.”

Style
Life of Pi consists of a very broad writing style, it has a basis upon religion and the idea of faith or believeing in something larger than yourself. As Brandon McFarlon states in his article, “[Life of Pi] destabiliz[is] the boundires between story, belief, and plot.” While some critics enjoy the idea of a religious story, “a complementary investigation of religious beliefs.” Others do not, “[Life of Pi] is an allegorical castaway story,” “A post modern variant on the Noah’s Arch tale,”Gordon Houser argues in his review.

Awards/Nominations
Life of Pi was awarded England's most coveted literary award, the Booker prize. Martel's work won the prize because "This is a novel of such rare and wondrous storytelling that it may, as one character claims, make you believe in God." Critics agree that Martel's Life of Pi is a well written story deserving of this award, Gordon Houser writes in his review, "[Martel] sets up his delightful story with a clever 'author's note.'"

Characters
Piscine Molitar Patel, is the main protagonist of the story. He gives himself the mathematical nickname of "Pi" after he is teased by his classmates that his name, Piscine, sounds like "Pissing." He has to explain his name to all of his classes reciting the formula for a circles circumference, which includes pi, and the first few letters of pi (3.14159).