Summary
Pi imagines that the alert has gone out about the sinking
of the Tsimtsum and that help is on the way. The
hyena whines, but the animals are otherwise quiet. Pi tries to make
his spot on the tarpaulin as safe as possible, throwing the net
over the middle, but there is almost no barrier between him and
the animals. The hyena begins to act strangely, jumping up onto
a bench and looking into the water, then racing around the zebra
over and over again. Finally the hyena vomits and nestles into a
small space just behind the zebra, where it remains for a time.
The zebra remains silent.
Daylight begins to fade and Pi contemplates the coming
night with horror. In the dark, a rescue ship won't be able to spot
him, and the animals might attack him. Night falls. It is cloudy
and there is no moon, so the darkness is complete. Pi hears snarls
coming from the hyena and barks from the zebra, as well as “wet
mouth sounds.” Still, the animals do not come near him. He hears
sounds from under the boat and notes that the animals in the water
are also battling for life.
After that first full night in the lifeboat, the sun rises,
and Pi's thoughts turn to rescue and seeing his family again. But
when he looks into the lifeboat, he sees an appalling sight: the
hyena has bitten off the zebra's broken leg and is eating it. The
zebra is alive, still silent but grinding its teeth.
Pi feels queasy. He sees Orange Juice near the boat's
gunnel, panting with seasickness, and laughs at the orangutan's
humanlike demeanor. She looks out at the water. Upon reflection,
he finds it strange that Orange Juice remains unhurt by the hyena.
Pi fantasizes about a zoo enclosure in which orangutans and hyenas
live together peacefully and contentedly. A sea turtle bumps against
the hull of the boat; Pi tells it to go find help, and the turtle
slips back down into the sea.
Pi notices that the water around the boat is full of mako
sharks and other fish. Orange Juice sits up and looks around at
the open water; Pi realizes she is looking for her two sons the
same way that Pi has been searching the horizon for his family.
Pi is devastated.
Suddenly the hyena attacks the zebra, pulling off a large
expanse of its hide and then sliding headfirst into its side, eating
it alive from the inside. Orange Juice roars in protest and the
hyena howls back. The two animals engage in a fierce standoff while
the zebra fades. Some blood falls over the side of the boat, and
sharks begin to circle and bump the hull. Pi fears that they will
break the boat, causing it to sink, but soon the standoff between
the hyena and orangutan ends, and the sharks swim away. Horrified
and scared, Pi admits to himself that his family has likely perished.
As he sinks deeper into his grief, the hyena continues to eat.
The zebra finally dies later the next day. Afterward,
the hyena attacks Orange Juice. The orangutan puts up a fight, thumping
the hyena on the head and impressing Pi with her savagery, but she
is no match for the hyena, who decapitates her. Pi cries and goes
to the edge of the tarpaulin, ready to throw himself to the hyena,
when he sees Richard Parker's head under the bench. He goes back
to the bow and falls into a delirious sleep.
Analysis
Pi's true education in nature's savagery begins in this
gruesome section. In Part One, Mr. Patel teaches Ravi and Pi about
animal nature and its violent tendencies, but it is not until he
finds himself in a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, orangutan, and
tiger that Pi truly understands the vicious behavior of wild animals
in close quarters. Somewhat naïve, Pi is stunned by much of what
he sees—for example, when the hyena eats the zebra's leg and when
the gentle orangutan acts out violently to protect herself from
the hyena.
The brutality of the animals teaches Pi another lesson:
the qualities a human or animal exhibit when unprovoked can vary
radically from those that same human or animal will show if attacked
or threatened. He is astonished when Orange Juice, a maternal creature
that grew up at the Pondicherry Zoo, strikes the hyena with a powerful
blow. Pi has never before seen her make any outward displays of
aggression; he had assumed her nature was sweet and her disposition
even and benevolent. The strike Orange Juice gives the hyena is
like a slap in the face to Pi: suddenly he realizes that personality
is something separate and distinct from instinct.
Equally surprising to Pi is the fact that life continues
in the face of unimaginable pain. The clearest and most obvious
example of this is the poor zebra, whose slow death takes place
over the course of days. To live in such physical misery is horrifying
to Pi. To the reader, however, Pi himself stands as a clear example
of heroic endurance. Pi's body is unharmed, but his emotional and
spiritual anguish is intense. He says that his second night in the
lifeboat was one of the worst of his life. Yet, in the face of great
mental anguish, he endures.
Alone and grief stricken without his family or any other
human survivors, Pi finds both solace and sadness in the presence
of Orange Juice. He notes that Orange Juice seems to be having some
very human reactions to her predicament: she looks queasy and seasick, holding
herself up at the edge of the lifeboat like a nauseated person might.
More significantly, she looks out at the open water in a way that
Pi instantly recognizes as both hopeful (awaiting the appearance
of her two sons) and hopeless (not really expected them to appear
after all). Though comforted by Orange Juice's humanlike demeanor,
Pi is also saddened by their common bond—their loss of family.
