English Modern American Literature Part 4 Name s1

English Modern American Literature Part 4 Name:

The Life of Pi : Study Guide : CHAPTERS 71 - 91

Vocabulary: Use the contextual cues to predict the meaning of the highlighted vocabulary word.

1. “Be quick to be affronted” (ch. 71, p. 204).

affronted:

2. “Don’t wait to construe—misconstrue as fast as you can” (ch. 71, p. 204).

construe:

3. “The point here is to make your animal understand that his upstairs neighbour is exceptionally persnickety about territory” (ch. 71, p. 204).

persnickety:

4. “Just one shrill blow and you will see your animal shudder with malaise and repair at top speed to the safest, furthest part of its territory” (ch. 71, p. 205).

malaise:

5. “The shield was heavier than I would have liked, but do soldiers ever get to choose their ordnance?” (ch. 72, pp. 205–06).

ordnance:

6. “I wonder if those who hear this story will understand that my behaviour was not an act of insanity or a covert suicide attempt, but a simple necessity” (ch. 72, p. 206).

covert:

7. “Conversely, to hide them, or try to, was a sign of deference—of deference to me (Chapter 76, p. 210).

deference:

8. “It fell into my cup with a clink, and no doubt I will be considered to have abandoned the last vestiges of humanness by those who do not understand the degree of my suffering when I say that it sounded to my ears like the music of a five–rupee coin dropped into a beggar’s cup” (ch. 77, p. 214).

vestiges:

9. “The taste was acrid, but it wasn’t that” (ch. 77, p. 214).

acrid:

10. “They were like curmudgeonly old friends who would never admit that they liked me yet came round to see me all the time” (ch. 79, p. 218).

curmudgeonly:

11. “A shark’s skin is covered with minute tubercles that make it as rough as sandpaper” (ch. 79, p. 220).

tubercles:

12. “They would emerge a short distance away, sometimes three or four of them, a short–lived archipelago of volcanic islands” (ch. 84, p. 230).

archipelago:

13. “These gentle behemoths always lifted my spirits” (ch. 84, p. 230).

behemoths:

14. “Twice I saw an albatross” (ch. 84, p. 230).

albatross:

15. “Another time, a short distance from the boat, two Wilson’s petrels skimmed by, feet skipping on the water” (ch. 84, p. 230).

petrels:

16. “We at last attracted the attention of a short–tailed shearwater” (ch. 84, p. 231).

shearwater:

17. “I had better luck with a masked booby” (ch. 84, p. 231).

booby:

18. “Blessed be you in all your manifestations, Allah–Brahman!” (ch. 86, p. 234).

manifestations:

19. “Richard Parker finally sensed the looming juggernaut” (ch. 86, p. 235).

juggernaut:

20. “It kept Richard Parker in partial subjugation” (ch. 89, p. 238).

subjugation:

21. “We were two emaciated mammals, parched and starving” (ch. 89, p. 239).

emaciated:

22. “I was more affected by his imminent demise than I was by my own” (ch. 90, p. 242).

imminent:

23. “Where were these disgusting, sacrilegious recipes coming from?” (ch. 90, p. 245).

sacriligious:

24. “Don’t be so obtuse” (ch. 90, p. 247).

obtuse:

25. “His eviscerated torso, with its broken ribs curving up like the frame of a ship, looked like a miniature version of the lifeboat, such was its blood–drenched and horrifying state” (ch. 91, p. 256).

eviscerated:

Study Questions : Using the information from Chapters 71 through 75, answer the following:

1. How does Pi set about training Richard Parker?

2. How does Pi manage to keep his faith in God despite unremitting hardships?

3. Chapter 75 is one sentence only: “On the day when I estimated it was Mother's birthday, I sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her out loud.” What effect does this have on the reader?

Study Questions : Using the information from Chapters 76 through 84, answer the following:

1. What are some signs of Pi’s physical and spiritual deterioration?

2. The storm in chapter 83 causes much loss. What remains to keep Pi from certain death?

3. How does Pi regard birds and mammals that are not prey?

Study Questions : Using the information from Chapters 85 & 86, answer the following:

1. “I remember that close encounter with electrocution and third–degree burns as one of the few times during my ordeal when I felt genuine happiness” (ch. 85, p. 233). How can this be?

2. “At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far” (ch. 85, p. 233). Comment on Pi’s use of opposites here. Have you ever felt similarly?

3. In chapter 86, Pi’s hopes are dashed when a massive ship bears down on them without ever seeing them. How does he recover from such a crushing blow?

Study Questions : Using the information from Chapters 87 through 91, answer the following:

1. These chapters represent extreme anguish for Pi. Describe some of the worst things to befall Pi during this section.

2. In chapter 90, Pi has a hallucinatory conversation between a carnivorous sailor who tries to strangle him, and himself, a peace–loving vegetarian. What is the purpose of this chapter?

Questions for Essay and Discussion: Pick ONE of the following discussion questions to answer.

1. “To be a castaway is to be a point perpetually at the centre of a circle.…The circumference is ever great” (ch. 78, pp.215–16). Comment on this geometric observation from Pi’s viewpoint and from your own.

2. Reread the last paragraph of chapter 78, p. 217. Write about some of the highs and lows that Pi experiences as a castaway.

Vocabulary: Give the dictionary definitions for each of the following vocabulary words