Life of Pi Part 3, Chapter 99 Quotes
Life of Pi Part 3, Chapter 99 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
[Pi to Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba:] "What you don't realize is that we are a strange and forbidding species to wild animals. We fill them with fear. They avoid as much as possible. It took centuries to still the fear in some pliable animals – domestication it's called – but most cannot get over their fear, and I doubt they ever will. When wild animals fight us, it is out of sheer desperation. They fight when they feel they have no other way out. It's a very last resort. (3.99.105)
Pi considers – not for the first time – the fear he must have inspired in Richard Parker. And the fear human beings must inspire in all animals. And why not? Human beings, in Life of Pi, certainly are "a strange and forbidding species" (3.99.105). Their derangement causes them to needlessly kill each other, kill animals in zoos, eat each other, and demand that Pi settle on a way of worshipping God. Literature itself might be one great attempt to understand our weirdness.
[Mr. Okamoto:] "I'm sorry to say it so bluntly, we don't mean to hurt your feelings, but you don't really expect us to believe you, do you? Carnivorous trees? A fish-eating algae that produces fresh water? Tree-dwelling aquatic rodents? These things don't exist."
[Pi:] "Only because you've never seen them."
[Mr. Okamoto:] "That's right. We believe what we see." (3.99.47-9)
Some define madness as seeing things that don't exist. But Pi slyly questions this definition. Considering, especially, Pi's love for and obsession with God, it's a hop, skip and a jump to a defense of the Big Guy. It's possible Pi is asking Mr. Okamoto a super-secret hidden question: does the fact that most people don't see God mean God doesn't exist?
Quote 9
We laid him as comfortably as we could on a mattress of life jackets and kept him warm. I thought it was all for nothing. I couldn't believe a human being could survive so much pain, so much butchery. Throughout the evening and night he moaned, and his breathing was harsh and uneven. He had fits of agitated delirium. I expected him to die during the night. (3.99.248)
Like Mr. Okamoto and Mr. Chiba, we at Shmoop think Pi's second story is horrific and gruesome. But it's worth noting that in both Pi's stories extreme pain and suffering lead to madness. In some books, madness sneaks up on a character, or the character was always mad and the reader doesn't realize it until the end. But in Life of Pi madness happens after traumatic events; it's brought on by hunger or thirst. Every animal may have a mischievous, healthy streak of madness (1.10.2), but the heavy-duty delusions show up during or after great suffering. Does Pi learn anything from his worst episodes? Do Pi's delusions still communicate a sort of truth?