Likability of Pi Patel, from Life of Pi

How likable is the narrator of your book?

The narrator in Life of Pi is a teenage Indian boy by the name of Piscine Molitor Patel, or Pi Patel for short. He is a very likable character because he is very humble and open to ideas, and he shows great enthusiasm to those ideas. In the beginning of the book, he becomes a follower of Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity all simultaneously. Despite that ideological conflict of interest, it made Pi a likable character because he was so nice to all types of people and open to their ideas. Pi is also very likable because he is honest. He leaves out no detail, however crude or demoralizing, of his arduous journey across the Pacific. Most people would be unwilling to express certain truths that would reflect poorly upon themselves, so the fact that Pi does so makes him very likable and expresses his humility. The character of Pi Patel agrees more along the thinking of Jennifer Weiner, because while Life of Pi is still essentially genre fiction, it also contains very powerful literary and moral elements. One of the focuses in the book is the importance and morality of truth, a complex theme that goes beyond the reach of mindless genre fiction. I believe that in a book such as Life of Pi it was incredibly important to have such a likable narrator because for a majority of the story, Pi was the only character that we heard from because he was stranded alone on a lifeboat. Had the audience not liked or been comfortable with Pi’s character, it would have turned people away from the book since he is such a strong focus. In my opinion, the fact that Pi was a likable character not only made the book a more entertaining read, but it also enhanced the literary elements and themes of the book.