Infographic

Destiny and Fate infrographic

Justin Middleton

Framed Narration

These two stories are perfect examples of a frame narrative. Life of Pi is as such whereby Yann is the author of the novel itself, but within the novel there is a fictitious author who is telling the story of Pi within the book. It is in the author’s note that we realize that the author mentioned is not Yann Martel. The story of Slumdog Millionaire is told through a set of episodes of Jamal’s life told in flashback but slotted in sequence between questions he is answering in “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. Each flashback explains how he, the slumdog, knows the answers to some very difficult questions.

Justin Middleton

Magic Realism

Magic realism plays a deep role in Life of Pi and does make appearance in Slumdog Millionaire. Yann Martel puts in very detailed and meticulous bits of knowledge all over in the novel such as the eating and sleeping habits of sloths and tigers and how lions see themselves as the alpha male and in order to be superior you must prove super-alpha male status. This lulls the reader into having full faith in the absolute rationality of Pi’s world, which is not in fact the case. Simply Pi’s survival of a journey of 227 days on a lifeboat across the Pacific Ocean is very much out of the ordinary, let alone with a Bengal tiger. The presence of a carnivorous island in the middle of the ocean is also quite impossible, yet the ordinariness in which Yann explains every detail forces the reader to believe every word. Magic realism is more underlying and blurred in Slumdog Millionaire, however a large fantastical element is that the slum boy, Jamal is able to win the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” despite being so uneducated and having just survived a tough childhood in the slums of India.

Justin Middleton

Childhood and Adulthood

Childhood and Adulthood is a very protruding theme in the stories of Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire. Life of Pi begins as being told through Pi’s older self as an adult who explains his childhood. The explanation of Pi growing up in a zoo, the establishment of his name, ‘Pi’ and how he got his full real name, how he came about having faith in three separate religions and then the story of his survival came from his adult self telling the story of his younger (child) self. A very similar theme is used in Slumdog Millionaire whereby the story of Jamal’s younger self growing up from very young child to teenager is slotted between questions on the game show as his older self. Both stories outline the ‘growing up’ factor in the lives of Pi and Jamal.

Justin Middleton