Quartering "Life of Pi": Chapter 12-36

Quarter #2- Life of Pi 

Synopsis
The second quarter of this novel, in general, deals with Pi's central characteristics, well his piousness and his devotion to his religions. Throughout this quarter it becomes clear that Pi's life goes from fairly normal to tragic because his family is planning to move to Canada, this is the turning point of the novel.
Starting with Chapter 12, Pi explains that an animal will attack you for entering its enclosure only because you have threatened its territory and that most hostile behaviour is the expression of social insecurity. He gets to this point because he informs the reader about lion trainer facts and as a lion trainer you should know this important fact. Further on the author interjects and describes Pi's house, pointing out the tons of statues, paintings and photographs. Now, Pi starts to introduce all his religions to the reader beginning with the fact that is aunt called Auntie Rohini took him to a temple when he was a baby and that's why he loves all religions. He loves Hinduism because of its rituals, fragrances and its vibrancy. As he has grown up, he really believes in the principle of Braham saguna and Atman. Furthermore, at the age of fourteen he adds Christianity to his religious beliefs and he discovers the Islam at the age of fifteen as he joins a Muslim baker who teaches Pi about the Islam. Pi is very impressed by this religion. Pi imagines an atheist's death versus that of an agnostic and for him, doubt cripples the agnostic even in death. As the reader continues to read he finds out that Pi has to choose one religion because his imam, priest and pandit notice that he is going to the mosque, the church and the temple but of course Pi cannot decide since he believes in Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. After all, Ravi makes fun of Pi for practising so many religions and so Pi realises that he has got to lay low if he is going to practise so many faiths. He decides not to stop, just to be more discreet. At the fair end of the second quarter, Pi's mother and father announce their destination to Pi and Ravi to move to Canada and so they sell most of the zoo animals to other zoos and the family finally leaves India on June 21, 1977. At last the author interjects again and the reader gets to meet more of Pi's family in Canada, his son, daughter, cat and dog are introduced.
To finalise this quarter, the author assures that this story has a happy ending.
 
Characters introduced
Auntieji- Auntieji is Pi's foster mother in Toronto. She is a Quebecoise that's why her French-speaking mind still slips on occasion on the understanding of English sounds. -flat character/static character

Auntie Rohini- Auntie Rohini is an older sister of Pi's mother and she is the one who introduced Pi to Hinduism because she took him to a temple. -flat character

Father Martin- Father Martin is the priest who Pi meets in Munnar and who introduces Christianity to Pi's life. -flat character

Satish Kumar (baker)- Satish Kumar is a Muslim mystic and baker with the same name as Pi's biology teacher and he is the person who introduces the Islam to Pi and also teaches him about the Islam. -flat character

Meena Patel- Meena is Pi's wife. She is a second generation Canadian and she works as a pharmacist. -static character

Nikhil Patel- Nikhil is Pi's son who plays baseball. -static character

Usha Patel- Usha is Pi's four-year-old daughter. -static character

Tata- Tata is Pi's dog. -static character

Moccasin- Moccasin is Pi's cat.-static character

Point of view
At first there is a fictional author's note, explaining the origins of the book but later on the protagonist becomes the narrator at first person's view. This point of view only reveals the thoughts of the protagonist which is most important in the story. The reader is not interested on the personal feelings of the other flat characters so it is good that Yann Martel chose the protagonist to become the narrator.

Setting
At the very beginning the story takes place in Pondicherry, a former French territory of India in the 1990's but then Canada is the next setting in this novel.

Writer's Style
Yann Martel uses a diary-like writing style which is easy to understand and we can also find dialogues in his story. In this section the reader gets confronted with the interjections of the author and now we, as the reader, can really understand and follow the story because we got used to the interjections and know that there isn't only one story.

Statement of Themes
I think that there for sure is a minor theme representing Science and Religion or rather the connection between those two categories. Since Pi has a really strong focus on religion throughout this novel which gets clear in this second quarter, another theme would be the belief in God, accepting and sharing different religions.
The act of storytelling and narration is a significant theme throughout this novel. The author keeps interjecting and informs the reader about Pi's family in Canada, so there is more than one story in this novel that the author wants us to know.