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Chapter 43
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Life of Pi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival
Religion and Faith
Storytelling
Boundaries
Summary
Analysis
The day passes slowly and Pi listens to the flies buzzing around on the boat. Evening comes and Pi grows afraid of the approaching night. In the dark he will be invisible to rescuers, and the animals might become active and aggressive. The night is moonless and cloudy, so when darkness falls it is total and overwhelming. Pi hears snarls from the hyena and barking from the zebra, and then he hears sounds from underneath the boat as well. He realizes that the “battle for life” is taking place in the ocean as well.
Pi has been thrown into a world totally devoid of humans but teeming with animal life. He sees the reflection of his own struggle to survive – even against his own hope and reasoning – in all the animals “battling for life” around him. Pi’s father taught him about the violence in nature with the tiger-and-goat lesson, but now Pi is totally immersed in this world of savagery.
Themes
