Life of Pi

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

What are the correct digits for the number pi?

1. 3.1498342
2. 3.1438173
3. 3.1435091
4. 3.1415926

After watching this clip, in which genre would you place this book?

The ship sank. It made a sound like a monstrous metallic burp. Things bubbled at the surface and then vanished. Everything was screaming: the sea, the wind, my heart. From the lifeboat I saw something in the water. -> Search for literary devices

Dawn came and matters were worse for it. Because now, emerging from the darkness, I could see what before I had only felt, the great curtains of rain crashing down on me from towering heights and the waves that threw a path over me and trod me underfoot one after another. Dull-eyed, shaking and numb, one hand gripping the rain catcher, the other clinging to the raft, I continued to wait. Sometime later, with a suddenness ephasized by the silence that followed, the rain stopped. The sky cleared and the waves seemed to flee with the clouds.
-> search for the definitions just given

Which one of the literary divices fits best with this fragment?

1. Alliteration
2. Antagonist
3. Allegory
4. Aestheticism

“The ship sank”

Yann Martel highlights that in his novel, the sinking of the Tsimtsum is communicated in just three words: “The ship sank.” Although there is a brief description of the immediate aftermath, the narrative swiftly moves on to Pi. (This moment can be found on p. 97)

In the film and theatre version, the storytelling requires the sinking of the ship to be presented in a visual way. Martel comments that the film version of Life of Pi depicts the sinking in a richly visual, extended, and very dramatic scene.

TASK: In exactly 100 words, re-write a prose description of the ship sinking that could easily be turned into a film or theatre scene. Focus on using strong visual imagery in your writing, and aim to use at least three of the following techniques:

• Similarity or metaphor

• Personification

• Alliteration

• The five senses