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Entry #4 – Narration and Point of view

Life of Pi

Narration and point of view

Martel chooses a very complex first person point of view for Life of Pi. The
prefatory Author’s Note is written in first person by the author, who explains how he
came to hear the story we are about to read from Pi Patel himself. We come to
realize through this that the story is not about the author himself. The narrator tells
Pi's story to us as if he were Pi. The majority of the book happens from Pi's point of
view as retold by the author, who is also a character in the book.

Other sections of the book are told through the author’s point of view as he is
interacting with Pi. The author is telling the story from “present time” (or what was
present time when the book came out.) And pi’s point of view is being told from the
past. Every so often, the author comments on Pi's story, presumably to remind us
that he's still there. We end up with a mix of first person (peripheral narrator) and

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