To say I was baffled by the end of The Life of Pi would be an understatement. For starters, Pi's entire personality changed, for the better in my opinion, from that of a bipolar doomsayer to that of a bitterly humorous parasite. Of course, being alone with a tiger for 227 days may have had a little to do with that... Then there was the whole dual story predicament where Pi retold his story in a gruesome, human-affiliated way. This seemed not only hideous and disgusting, but extremely symbolic and meaningful. I think it represented the author's belief that introducing humans to a situation changes it for the worse, a belief that Mr. Robert Sutton shares. And finally, I have one final question: What exactly did Pi have under his blanket at the hospital? It must have been pretty gross considering what he kept pulling out of there.
Pi's religious belief seemed to fade in this last part, not to say that it wasn't there, it was just mentioned less and less as it went on. Another observation I made was that the two interviewers were jerks. Pi just got off the Pacific Ocean after 227 days, and they just treated him like a mentally incapable/useless person. Another thing that bothered me was the departure of Richard Parker. RP was my favorite character throughout this book (Out of a big field might I add: Him or Pi? Hmm, which to choose...), and he just dropped off like Boromir from the Lord of the Rings.
My final thoughts on The Life of Pi are that it's a novel that shares many traits with its protagonist: At times exciting and funny, yet at others exhaustingly repetitive and tiringly austere. I enjoyed it for the most part, excluding the dreadful parts of course, and I'll have mostly fond memories as I think about it in years to come.
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