Also, we read the dialogues in chapter 90. These come after the end of Pi's journal in chapter 89. We explored several different ideas, trying to explain what is happening in these conversations:
- are they imagined by Pi intentionally?
- are they hallucinations?
- how are they connected to his / Richard Parker's blindness?
- is there another entity (person, animal) present? more than one?
- how can we explain the physical evidence of another person Pi finds in chapter 91?
- how can we explain Pi giving voice to specific things he's never heard of before? (the detailed French cuisine, etc.)
- why does Pi raise a moral question with Richard Parker - did he feel bad about killing the people? why does he juxtapose this with acting on instinct?
- what is the role of story here - what do we make of the repeated banana story?
Chapter 92 further pushes our ability to believe in Pi's story - he explicitly anticipates this at the start of the chapter. What is it that makes this chapter so much harder than previous ones to believe?
At the end of chapter 93 Pi "turns to God." At the start of chapter 94 he finds land, and yet the main emotion in the book is with the lack of closure in his relationship with Richard Parker. Why is it so disturbing? Why was he expecting something different?
His time at sea comes to a close - we knew he would survive, but how can we explain it?
