Life of Pi characters

Also known as Piscine Molitor Patel

Appears from the start

The narrator, a boy growing up in Pondicherry, India, where his family runs the local zoo. Given the name Piscine Molitor after a swimming pool in Paris, he adopts the nickname Pi to escape the teasing his full name invites. Curious and unusually spiritual, he is drawn to religion so strongly that he practices Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam at the same time and refuses to choose among them. Thoughtful and observant, he is fascinated by animals and by the workings of his father's zoo.

First appears in chapter 37

A large adult Bengal tiger from the Patel family zoo. Through a clerical mix-up long ago he was given a human name meant for the hunter who caught him. After the ship carrying the family and their animals toward Canada goes down, he ends up sharing a lifeboat with Pi. Powerful and deadly, he is at once a constant threat to Pi's life and, across the long ordeal that follows, the focus that keeps Pi alert, disciplined, and determined to survive.

First appears in chapter 2

Pi's father, a practical, self-taught businessman who owns and runs the Pondicherry Zoo. Having come to the work through hotel-keeping rather than a love of animals, he treats the zoo as a demanding enterprise and holds firm, unsentimental views about wild creatures. He teaches his sons to respect the danger animals pose, most memorably by forcing them to watch what a tiger can do. Worried about India's political climate, he decides to sell the zoo and move the family abroad.

First appears in chapter 2

Pi's mother, a well-read, loving woman who anchors the family. Without strong religious ties of her own, she watches her younger son's simultaneous devotion to three faiths with a mixture of amusement and concern. She shares Pi's love of books and supports his education, and she stands by the family's difficult decision to leave India for a new life across the ocean.

First appears in chapter 2

Pi's older brother, athletic and popular, far more interested in sports than in religion or study. He teases Pi affectionately about his piety and his nickname. He is among the family members who board the ship bound for Canada.

Also known as Mamaji

Appears from the start

An old family friend and former competitive swimmer whom Pi calls Mamaji. He teaches Pi to swim as a boy and is the source of Pi's unusual name, having greatly admired a particular swimming pool in Paris. Years later it is he who first points a visiting writer toward Pi and his extraordinary story.

First appears in chapter 45

A gentle female orangutan from the family zoo who survives the shipwreck and reaches the lifeboat afloat on a mass of bananas. Dignified and maternal in her bearing, she is a familiar and comforting presence to Pi amid the chaos of the disaster.

First appears in chapter 97

A figure from the second account of the sinking that Pi gives to investigators after his rescue. In that grimmer version there are no animals in the lifeboat but people: a brutal French ship's cook, an injured young sailor, Pi, and Pi's mother. The cook is violent and self-serving, and his cruelty drives the horrors of that telling.

First appears in chapter 95

An official from the Japanese Ministry of Transport who, with a junior colleague, interviews Pi in a Mexican hospital after his rescue in order to learn why the cargo ship sank. Methodical and skeptical, he presses Pi for a believable explanation and struggles to accept the account he is given.