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Chapter 8
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
Pi describes the idea of “flight distance,” which is how far away a human can be before an animal runs away. An important part of zookeeping is reducing the flight distances of animals so that they are comfortable with humans nearby. Zookeepers can do this by providing good shelter, food and water, and personal attention. Pi says that his father was a natural zookeeper.
Pi expands on the ideas of territory and boundaries. The training of animals is basically a slow rearrangement of their territory, and in zoos the animals must accept humans living on adjacent territories to their own.
Themes
