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Dialect
Chapter 38
Explanation and Analysis—Sinking of the Tsimtsum:
While the majority of the novel is Pi’s reflection on past events, Pi also uses a flashback to disrupt the narrative early in Part 2. Part 2 abruptly starts with the sinking of the Tsimtsum after a touching scene of the modern-day Pi and his family. This extreme switch in tone, setting, and mood shocks the reader, leaving them disoriented. However, Pi does this again in the next chapter. Instead of progressing with an account of life on the lifeboat, he returns to the moments before the ship sank. Despite telling us how the Tsimtsum sank and Pi became stranded on a lifeboat with Richard Parker the tiger only pages before, the flashback in Chapter 38 depicts Pi’s obliviousness to what’s to come:
Weather like this surely wouldn’t sink a ship? Why, I only had to close a door and the storm was gone. I advanced onto the deck. I gripped the railing and faced the elements. This was adventure.
“Canada, here I come!” I shouted as I was soaked and chilled.
By switching the order in which the reader receives this information, Pi’s excitement for what’s to come becomes painful to read, as the audience knows that his incoming “adventure” will mean suffering. The flashback also demonstrates how Pi’s memory is jumbled, especially in these early moments of distress and loss. He has to tell the reader first about the sinking of the ship, getting it out of the way before he can take a moment to reflect on how it all came to be. This storytelling technique is consistent with the other ways he avoids spending time talking about particularly vulnerable moments in his journey.
Related Themes:
