Perspective and Narrator

Life of Pi is told from the first-person point of view, with most of the narration by the protagonist, Pi Patel; shorter sections in italics are narrated by the visiting writer.

Tense

Pi narrates Life of Pi in the past tense. The visiting writer narrates in the present tense as he meets the adult Pi and in the past tense for the Author’s Note.

About the Title

Life of Pi describes influential events in the life of Pi Patel, whose first name refers to the mathematical symbol pi, an irrational number (3.14159) that continues indefinitely without repeating numerals in a pattern. The symbol reflects Pi’s quest to understand the universe and the infinity of life, which is also why the author left the article out of the title: “Like pi, life is not finite.”