Life of Pi: Close Reading

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Life of Pi Close Reading
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Close Reading Practice1. Genre eg. Novel
or Poetry science fiction, romance, realism,
magic realism 2. Point of View/Narrative
Perspective eg. first person, third person
(fixed or unfixed), third person omniscient
intrusive narrator, unreliable narrator,
dialogue 3. Tone/Mood eg. ironic, satiric,
parodic, sentimental4. Image/Text Relations5.
Page Design eg. typeface, white space,
etc6. Objects7. Figures of Speech eg.
simile, metaphor, metonymy, dead metaphor, etc
8. Style eg. diction accented speech
complex syntax
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• Passage 1. Chapter 58 pg. 184
• I pulled out the survival manual. Its pages were
  still wet. I turned them carefully. The manual
  was written by a British Royal Navy commander.
  It contained a wealth of practical information on
  surviving at sea after a shipwreck. It included
  survival tips such as
• Always read instructions carefully.
• Do not drink urine. Or sea water. Or bird
  blood.
• Do not eat jellyfish. Or fish that are armed
  with spikes. Or that have parrot-like beaks. Or
  that puff up like balloons.
• Pressing the eyes of fish will paralyze them.
• The body can be a hero in battle. If a castaway
  is injured, beware of well-meaning but
  ill-founded medical treatment. Ignorance is the
  worst doctor, while rest and sleep are the best
  nurses.
• Put up your feet at least five minutes every
  hour.
• Unnecessary exertion should be avoided. But an
  idle mind tends to sink, so the mind should be
  kept occupied with whatever light distraction may
  suggest itself. Playing card games, Twenty
  Questions and I Spy With My Little Eye are
  excellent forms of simple recreation. Community
  singing is another sure-fire way to lift the
  spirits. Yarn spinning is also highly
  recommended.
• Green water is shallower than blue water.

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• Passage 2. Chapter 31 pg.93
• Mr. and Mr. Kumar looked delighted.
• A zebra, you say? said Mr. Kumar.
• Thats right, I replied. It belongs to the
  same family as the ass and the horse.
• The Rolls-Royce of equids, said Mr. Kumar.
• What a wondrous creature, said Mr. Kumar.
• This ones a Grants zebra, I said.
• Mr. Kumar said, Equus burchelli boehmi.
• Mr. Kumar said, Allahu akbar.
• I said, Its very pretty.

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• Passage 2. Chapter 31 pg.93
• Mr. and Mr. Kumar looked delighted.
• A zebra, you say? said Mr. Kumar.
• Thats right, I replied. It belongs to the
  same family as the ass and the horse.
• The Rolls-Royce of equids, said Mr. Kumar.
• What a wondrous creature, said Mr. Kumar.
• This ones a Grants zebra, I said.
• Mr. Kumar said, Equus burchelli boehmi.
• Mr. Kumar said, Allahu akbar.
• I said, Its very pretty.

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Passage 3. Chapter 45 pg. 133The zebras
broken leg was missing. The hyena had bitten it
off and dragged it to the stern, behind the
zebra. A flap of skin hung limply over the raw
stump. Blood was still dripping. The victim
bore its suffering patiently, without showy
remonstrations. A slow and constant grinding of
its teeth was the only visible sign of distress.
Shock, revulsion, and anger surged through me. I
felt intense hatred for the hyena. I thought of
doing something to kill it. But I did nothing.
And my outrage was short-lived. I must be honest
about that. I didnt have pity to spare for long
for the zebra. When your own life is threatened,
your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible,
selfish hunger for survival. It was sad that it
was suffering so muchand being such a big,
strapping creature it wasnt at the end of its
ordealbut there was nothing that I could do
about it. I felt pity and then I moved on. This
is not something I am proud of. I am sorry that
I was so callous about the matter. I have not
forgotten that poor zebra and what it went
through. Not a prayer goes by that I dont think
of it.
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Passage 3. Chapter 45 pg. 133The zebras
broken leg was missing. The hyena had bitten it
off and dragged it to the stern, behind the
zebra. A flap of skin hung limply over the raw
stump. Blood was still dripping. The victim
bore its suffering patiently, without showy
remonstrations. A slow and constant grinding of
its teeth was the only visible sign of distress.
Shock, revulsion, and anger surged through me. I
felt intense hatred for the hyena. I thought of
doing something to kill it. But I did nothing.
And my outrage was short-lived. I must be honest
about that. I didnt have pity to spare for long
for the zebra. When your own life is threatened,
your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible,
selfish hunger for survival. It was sad that it
was suffering so muchand being such a big,
strapping creature it wasnt at the end of its
ordealbut there was nothing that I could do
about it. I felt pity and then I moved on. This
is not something I am proud of. I am sorry that
I was so callous about the matter. I have not
forgotten that poor zebra and what it went
through. Not a prayer goes by that I dont think
of it.
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• Passage 4. Chapter 34 pgs. 99-100
• A deputation of three Americans came. I was
  very curious. I had never seen real live
  Americans. They were pink, fat, friendly, very
  competent and sweated profusely. They examined
  our animals. They put most of them to sleep and
  then applied stethoscopes to hearts, examined
  urine and feces as if horoscopes, drew blood in
  syringes and analyse it, fondled humps and bumps,
  tapped teeth, blinded eyes with flashlights,
  pinched skins, stroked and pulled hairs. Poor
  animals. They must have thought they were being
  drafted into the U.S. Army. We got big smiles
  from the Americans and bone-crushing handshakes.
• The result was that the animals, like us, got
  their working papers. They were future Yankees,
  and we, future Canucks.

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• Passage 5. Chapter 1 pgs. 3-4
• Is this passage funny? How does the humour
  fail, or how does it succeed?
• There are two-toed sloths and there are three
  toed-sloths, the case being determined by the
  forepaws of the animals, since all sloths have
  three claws on their hind paws. I had the great
  luck one summer of studying the three-toed sloth
  in situ in the equatorial jungles of Brazil. It
  is a highly intriguing creature. Its only real
  habit is indolence. It sleeps or rests on
  average twenty hours a day. Our team tested the
  sleep habits of five wild three-toed sloths by
  placing on their heads, in the early evening
  after they had fallen asleep, bright red plastic
  dishes filled with water. We found them still in
  place late the next morning, the water of the
  dishes swarming with insects. The sloth is at
  its busiest at sunset, using the word busy here
  in the most relaxed sense. It moves through the
  bough of a tree in its characteristic upside-down
  position at the speed of roughly 400 meters an
  hour. On the ground, it crawls to its next tree
  at the rate of 250 meters an hour, when
  motivated, which is 440 times slower than a
  motivated cheetah. Unmotivated, it covers four
  to five meters in an hour.