Life of Pi Part 2 (The Pacific Ocean) Chapters 84 - 94 Summary

     As he was lying on the tarpaulin, trying to have some rest and dry in the sun, Pi got splashed with water, while Richard Parker began to growl. Perplexed, he turned his head and noticed a black object floating in the water. It took him some time to realize what he was looking at. It was a whale. Since that was not the first time to encounter a whale, Pi believed that whales somehow communicated among themselves and came to see him out of pure curiosity. Besides, dolphins were regular visitors, while birds were rare. However, he had some luck with masked booby, whom he managed to catch and turn into a meal. Although it may seem that presence of birds announced land, that was not the case, but something else inspired Pi with hope- he noticed a ship. He was overwhelmed with pure happiness, believing that the end had come to his sufferings. Ship was coming right toward them, no way he could have passed by them without not noticing them in the lifeboat. Pi did not find it necessary to shoot the flare, as it was obvious that the ship is coming for them. But alas, the boat was not noticeable enough for the huge tanker that run them over, passing by them so closely that the waves from its walls pushed the boat up. They could only watch it pass by until it disappeared from the sight. Pi met Richard Parker's eyes. They did not denote the understanding that their hope for salvation was gone. Overwhelmed with emotions, Pi shouted the words of love to the tiger, promising to get him to land.

     One day they ran into the trash. Water was filthy, smelly, with objects floating around. Pi sought the opportunity to find useful objects, but since there were no any, he just took one wine bottle and used it for a short message where he introduced himself and described what had happened. He sealed the bottle and threw it back into the ocean, hoping that it would reach land.

     Further chapters describe Pi's sufferings. It seems that he had lost hope of survival and was giving up on life. Richard Parker was not looking good either. They were both lying motionlessly, too exhausted for any activity, even for finding food. Pi felt death was near. He even wrote it down in his diary. Richard Parker was also close to dying, had no strength to react when Pi approached to check if he was breathing. But that was not all- the tiger became blind. Pi recalled Richard Parker rubbing his eyes and meowing intensely for several days. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to Pi shortly after. He immediately knew what was about to happen. Blindness did not come suddenly, he was losing his sight slowly. They became unable to fight for survival. It was over. Pi said farewell to the tiger, feeling sorry for letting him down.

     As he laid down waiting for death, he heard a voice asking if anyone was there. Not believing his ears, Pi did not answer, but the question was repeated. Pi believed that he had gone mad, so decided to play a game with the voice. The conversation quickly turned into discussion about food, where each of them expressed preferences about the meal. When Pi's question about eating a carrot remained unanswered, he was sure that he was talking to Richard Parker, but then he realized that this voice has strange accent, pronouncing "the" as "ze," like he is French or something. However, Pi could not identify his speaker. They continued about supplies they had on their boats and eventually, Pi invited him onto his boat, so they could share their sorrow. Just as the voice agreed to move on Pi's boat, it revealed its real reasons of coming over by saying that he wanted Pi's liver and flesh, but before he managed to do anything, he was attacked and killed by Richard Parker. Pi felt sorry for the poor man, but surviving instinct outweighed and he used some of his skin as a bait and some as a substitute for a food, until he caught a fish. Tears he shed for the death of his fellow rinsed his eyes and he regained the eye sight.

     Couple of days later, he spotted trees. Believing that they were the illusion, he did not react. However, the boat was moving toward it, so trees grew bigger and bigger, until Pi could not deny its existence. As he came closer, he was shocked to learn that the island had no soil, rather a dense mass of vegetation, making Pi believe that this was not an island but a living organism. As he investigated the island, he realized the island to be inhabited with hundreds of thousands of meerkats, who showed no fear for Pi's presence. It seemed that they had never encountered any predator, which turned out to be fatal, as Richard Parker seized the opportunity not only to eat, but to satisfy his killer instinct. However, something about that island made the tiger come back to sleep on the boat every night, so Pi decided to make himself a bed on the island, where he could be on his own. That is when he noticed meerkats to run wildly onto the trees as soon as the night approached. Ponds of fresh water were actually a killing machine, as they boiled with dead fish during the night. All the tasty and healthy algae Pi ate during the day released deadly acid during the night, killing everything nearby. Over and above, when Pi tried to reach a fruit on the highest branches of trees, it turned out not to be a fruit, but human teeth folded into layers and layers of tree leaves. The peaceful and refreshing island turned into killer during the night. Pi had to leave the place as soon as possible. The following morning Pi and Richard Parker left the island.

     In chapter 94, Pi finally reached a proper land. He was in Mexico. Richard Parker jumped from the boat and disappeared into woods, without even turning head to look at Pi for the last time. This struck Pi hard, as he expected some theatrical good-bye, something memorable, to prove that Richard Parker actually had some emotions.

     Pi was found by peasants. They informed authorities about him and he was rushed to hospital.



Related Links:

Life of Pi Part 2 (The Pacific Ocean) Chapters 84 - 94 Quiz
Life of Pi Part 3 (Benito Juárez Infirmary, Tomatlán, Mexico) Chapters 95 - 100 Summary
Life of Pi Part 1 (Toronto and Pondicherry) Chapters 1 - 9 Summary
Life of Pi Summary
Life of Pi Quotes
Life of Pi Important Characters
Life of Pi Quiz
Literature
Literature Summaries


To link to this Life of Pi Part 2 (The Pacific Ocean) Chapters 84 - 94 Summary page, copy the following code to your site: