Boundaries

• The situation of much of the novel is a contradiction between boundaries and freedom.
Pi is surrounded by the boundless ocean and sky but is trapped in a tiny lifeboat, and
within that lifeboat he has his own clear territory separate from Richard Parker.

• Pi marks his territory – the raft and the top of the tarpaulin – with his urine and
“training whistle,” and Richard Parker has his territory on the floor of the lifeboat.

• From the very start of his tale Pi muses on the nature of animal territories, especially
regarding zoos, as his father is a zookeeper. Pi explains that animals love rituals and
boundaries, and they don’t mind being in a zoo as long as they accept that their
enclosure is their territory.

• As a castaway at sea, Pi then uses his zoological knowledge to “tame” Richard Parker,
presenting himself as the “alpha” of the lifeboat and keeping himself safe.
• This idea of boundaries moves into the psychological realm with Pi himself, as he
(possibly) creates the character of Richard Parker as a way of dealing with the darkness
and bestiality within himself.

• By making his brutal actions belong to a totally different being, and not even a human
being, Pi sets a clear boundary in his mind.

• Richard Parker disappears when Pi first crawls ashore, showing that the tiger (if he is
fictional) was a part of Pi that existed only on the lifeboat, where he needed to do
terrible things to survive.

• Pi is then able to move on with his life – he goes to school, gets married, and has
children – because of that boundary between himself and Richard Parker. He kept
himself sane and human by symbolically cutting off the animal part of his nature.
Quotes & Theme Tracking
 Chapter 4
Don’t we say, “There’s no place like home”? That’s certainly what animals feel. Animals are
territorial. That is the key to their minds. Only a familiar territory will allow them to fulfill the two
relentless imperatives of the wild: the avoidance of enemies and the getting of food and water. A
biologically sound zoo enclosure – whether cage, pit, moated island, corral, terrarium, aviary or
aquarium – is just another territory, peculiar only in its size and in its proximity to human territory.
In this passage, Pi tries to defend the concept of zoos from critics who suggest that zoos are like prisons for
animals. Pi claims that all beings on the planet need a familiar territory- -they all need a home (he even
quotes from The Wizard of Oz to make his point, reinforcing his novel's fantastic qualities). Therefore, it's
not cruel at all to put an animal in a smaller-than-usual environment, provided all its needs are met--the
animal appreciates its new boundaries and its new territory.

Pi's argument is especially interesting because it foreshadows his own time on the ocean, during which
he’ll have an incredibly small, limited set of boundaries (thanks to the presence of the tiger, Richard
Parker). Pi has lived by his own argument: he's truly come to believe that people, as well as animals, need
boundaries. As we'll come to see, Pi learns to embrace his own boundaries and find freedom in the
"territory" of his mind and spirit.
 Chapter 4
In the literature can be found legions of examples of animals that could escape but did not, or did and returned...
But I don’t insist. I don’t mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife
remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces.
Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both. The Pondicherry Zoo doesn’t
exist any more. Its pits are filled in, the cages torn down. I explore it now in the only place left for it, my memory.

In this passage, Pi continues to defend zoos (but also denies defending them) from accusations of
cruelty and imprisonment. Zoos do not, he insists, imprison animals at all--rather, they at least
protect them and allow them to live relatively normal lives by making them safe and giving them
a stable, unchanging environment in which they can develop a new territory for themselves. The
passage is interesting in that it makes an analogy between zoos and the belief in God. Those who
dismiss zoos as cruel and backwards are the same kinds of people, Pi suggests, who dismiss God.
Just as God is the being who gives people boundaries and rules by which to live, the zoo gives
animals boundaries in which they must survive. It's
easy to dismiss God as a "tyrant," just as it's easy to say that boundaries of any kind are
imprisoning--and yet Pi claims that some boundaries are vital to happiness and, ironically, to
freedom.
 Chapter 13
“So you see, if you fall into a lion’s pit, the reason the lion will tear you to pieces is not
because it’s hungry – be assured, zoo animals are amply fed – or because it’s bloodthirsty, but
because you’ve invaded its territory.”

Here Pi puts forth more theories about animals and territories, further setting the scene for the
"territory" he will inhabit on his lifeboat. Pi claims that in zoos, dangerous animals like tigers or
lions would attack people only because they perceive people as invading their territory.
Boundaries are a sacred right for all animals--an animal reacts immediately when someone starts
to steal its space and upset the regularity of its life.

The passage reinforces the points Pi has been making about the value of boundaries. Most
people would say that confining a person to a limited set of places is a form of imprisonment. Pi,
on the other hand, sees such acts of confinement as a liberation. An animal, or a human being,
embraces its home and its space, and indeed, it will defend its space from invaders of all kinds
 Chapter 49
“To be afraid of this ridiculous dog when there was a tiger about was like being afraid of splinters
when trees are falling down. I became very angry at the animal. “You ugly, foul creature,” I
muttered. The only reason I didn’t stand up and beat it off the lifeboat with a stick was lack of
strength and stick, not lack of heart.Did the hyena sense something of my mastery? Did it say to
itself, “Super alpha is watching me – I better not move?” I don’t know. At any rate, it didn’t move.
In this interesting passage, Pi comes to realize that his problems are bigger than he thought.
There's a huge tiger, Richard Parker, in his boat, hidden beneath a tarp. The tiger is an enormous,
dangerous animal--the other animal on his boat, a hyena, is tiny and pathetic by contrast. Pi
begins to despise the hyena, and even imagines beating it away with a stick out of pure anger and
disgust. The passage shows Pi beginning to master his surroundings. Paradoxically, his awareness
of a greater danger--the tiger-- helps him gain more control over the smaller, more manageable
dangers in his life, such as the hyena. Critics have interpreted Pi's boat as a metaphor for the
human consciousness (a fact signaled by the original cover art for the book). Thus, one could say
that Pi, the rational human, being learns to master his own anxieties and neuroses (the
hyena) by accepting the fact of his own inevitable death (symbolized by the tiger)
 Chapter 80
“For two, perhaps three seconds, a terrific battle of minds for status and authority was waged between a boy and
a tiger. He needed to make only the shortest of lunges to be on top of me. But I held my stare. Richard Parker
licked his nose, groaned and turned away. He angrily batted a flying fish. I had won… From that day onwards I felt
my mastery was no longer in question, and I began to spend progressively more time on the lifeboat… I was still
scared of Richard Parker, but only when it was necessary. His simple presence no longer strained me.

In this chapter, Pi faces off against Richard Parker, and wins. Having just caught a dorado (fish)
that jumped into the boat, Pi stares Richard Parker (who's suddenly gone into attack position) in
the eyes, knowing that there's a good chance he could be killed and eaten in competition for the
fish. Yet Pi’s reckless bravery and willingness to sacrifice his life intimidates Richard Parker into
submission, reaffirming Pi as the "alpha" on the lifeboat. Pi here further learns to control the
"territory" of the lifeboat, dominating Richard Parker with his own confidence and bravery. By the
same token, Pi learns to master his own fears and anxieties, again transcending death by
accepting death. The passage closes by reinforcing something we already knew: Pi is the ultimate
adapter. He embraces multiple religions at once, and learns to control Richard Parker because of
his fundamental desire to survive. In short, Pi learns to carve out a place for himself in the
universe, rather than accept defeat and die.