Structure: Parallel Plots and Jazz Music

The structure in Life of Pi is confusing at first, but it enhances the story once the reader figures out what is going on. It's kind of like Jazz music; nothing matches rhythmically, but it presented as a whole song. This does a lot for the person on the receiving end, some listeners like jazz for intricacy and mismatched sounds, but most others call it noisy garbage.

The structure in life of Pi was kind of like that for me, I didn't like it until I could see what Martel was doing, and the effects of the structure.

Parallel Plot/Fictional Author
The main story is about Pi's life, his childhood and surviving the Pacific (first person, Pi.) The subplot is from the fictional author's viewpoint, reflecting on the material he receives from his interviews with Pi, and who Pi is now (first person, author.) This double-journey adds complexity and believability to the story, especially with the first part cleverly disguised as an 'Author's Note,' embellishing facts and enhancing realism.

I think the other reason the subplot is unique is because it's a 'flash-forward' instead of a 'flashback.' It provides a lot of foreshadowing, and also helps vary the pace of the novel. This helped me maintain focus when reading, so that part one (descriptive as it was) wouldn't be as drawn out. It also explains some details without needing to inject more into Pi's main story.

I predicted that this would be an hourglass plot, but it is a true parallel, because the stories never really meet. The italicized author's story is never mentioned in the main story.

Chapter Length/Parts
Another interesting structure point is that the length of chapters is inconsistent. I think that the reason for this to to mimic someone telling a story orally; that some memories will be more detailed than others, some will be episodic (the three religious men approaching Pi at once) and some will be reflections (Pi talking about animals in the zoo.) I think it was done effectively, not just for pacing, but to give an impression of how Pi may have told the author about the story.

Sometimes the chapters break off mid-sentence. It's kind of discontenting to end a chapter that way, reflecting the events that were in the chapter (Martel does this most in Part 2, The Pacific Ocean.) I also had the feeling that maybe 'future-Pi' couldn't continue talking about the sinking (and the loss of his family) and stopped talking to the author for a moment.

What interested me about dividing the book into parts was that part one and two were about the same, but much longer than Part 3 (which was only a few pages.) What actually happened to Pi is small compared to his creative account. The attention (or lack of) given to the 'true story' is shocking; it completes the loose ends and proves that we'd prefer the miracle-driven story. Pi reveals a profound connection to the animals he has personified; who were additional survivors that died violently, but the novel doesn't really dwell on it. After reading, I kept thinking about the end because I felt it didn't really conclude, but perhaps that is Martel again, making his book mirror how life works, where there are always loose ends.

Other Interesting Things:

The font in part three changes when the inspectors are speaking Japanese. We can see that they doubt Pi, but are polite to him in English anyway.

Pi is technically an unreliable narrator; where the person telling the story is actually deceiving the reader. The only other one I can think of would be The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and another where a french-resistance spy spins a tale to confuse the Nazi intelligence. The timeframe of Part Two didn't actually happen the way he described, which puts him in this category.