In case you weren't in class on Monday, here's the questions for our second day of discussion:

Discussion: Chapters 1-13 of Life of Pi

Pi believes that animals in a zoo are no worse off than animals in the wild. Do you agree with him?

What is the significance of the name "Pi?"

Early in the novel, we discover that the narrator majored in religious studies and zoology, with particular interests in a sixteenth-century Kabbalist and the admirable three-toed sloth. In subsequent chapters, he explains the ways in which religions and zoos are both steeped in illusion. Discuss some of the other ways in which these two fields find unlikely compatibility.

What is the connection between zoology and religion in Pi's life? Do you see connections between these fields? What do each of the fields teach us about life, survival and meaning?

Pi observes that “[t]he nature of the circus trainer’s ascendancy is psychological” (Martel 44). Is this true? If so, it this the distinction between animals and man?