When your dad owns a zoo in India, as Pi’s dad does, it’s perhaps natural to regard animals as your buddies. Cool if you’re talking goats and turtles; less cool if the animal you decide you want to pet is a Bengal tiger.
“He’s an animal, not a playmate,” his terrified father shouts. “Animals have souls,” the boy replies gently. “I have seen it in their eyes.”
Fast forward a few years, and Pi will get a chance to test that theory when his family closes the zoo and is accompanying the animals on a sea voyage to their new home in Canada. A terrible storm swamps their freighter, and it starts to sink. Thinking of the animals, Pi races below deck to free them and sees zebras swimming past him. He barely manages to escape himself.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
