1.Throughout Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, the theme of storytelling is weaved. As young children, we were exposed to storytelling through fairytales and fables. Fairytales were used to show the goodness of the world and that good always prevails over evil. These stories blocked out the reality of the world as not always a fair world. Fables were used to teach us a lesson. They would allow a child to learn about life lessons through interesting , creative stories, just as in Pi’s life, where he is taught the lesson about Richard Parker. Near the end, two stories emerge from Pi’s survival, one with animals and one without animals and just humans. We are asked what the better story is and which is more believable. Martel’s novel is a frame narrative with many different stories, the fictitious authors, Pi’s first-person account, and the Japanese account, all put together into one big framed novel. Why do you think Martel structures his novel this way? What is the importance of the author’s note in relation to the theme of storytelling? Which story do you believe to be true and why? Is that story the same or different story that you like better? Why do we tell stories in real life? What purpose do they have? How does storytelling reflect on the human self and how we deal with reality?

2.Throughout history there has been a struggle between the major religions of the world. This struggle is especially seen between people of the Islamic faith and Christian faith, the crusades being a prime example. These differences and actions have created all kinds of animosity between religions. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel uses religion to help make his plot move along. By making Pi and devout Hindu, Christian, and Muslim Yann Martel has set us up for a very intriguing situation. By making Pi follow these three religions he has seemed to perform an impossible task; eliminating the conflict that has been around for hundreds of years. In an early part of Life of Pi, Pi was confronted with all three of his religious teachers. During this part of the novel we see these three men fight over their own religions and claim that their religion is better then the other man’s. When these three men and Pi’s parents confront Pi on how he is able to follow all three religions at once, Pi gives them a very simple answer: “Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God” (69). My question is; does Pi successfully demonstrate that he can follow all three religions and are there other characters in other novels that are able to do the same thing?

3. In Life of Pi, Pi Patel tells a story throughout the novel about his dangerous voyage at sea that the reader believes. However, at the end, when the men from the Japanese Ministry of Transport do not believe it, he changes his story into another version that is just as believable. Pi does not get why they do not believe this and exclaims, “Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What’s your problem with hard to believe (297)?” He then tells his second version of story that involves humans and is more believable to the interrogators. Thus, the reader gets confused as to which story to believe and which one actually occurred. Believability plays a big part in accepting a story. Some aspects of a story make it more believable than others. What about the first story is more believable than the second story? Or on the other hand, why is the second story more believable than the first story. What aspects of a story make it more realistic or accepted by the reader? Why is it that some stories are believable when others are not?