Life of Pi By Yann Martel

FRAME NARRATIVE

What is a FRAME NARRATIVE?

• In a nutshell, a frame narrative is a “story within a story”

Examples of FRAME NARRATIVES...

• Titanic – (the movie) the story of “Old Rose” revisiting the site of the Titanic “bookends” the love story of Jack and “Young Rose” onboard the ship in 1912

• Forrest Gump – Forrest (in the present) is telling his life story (of Forrest in the past) to various citizens on the park bench

• Can you think of any others?

Another way to view FRAME NARRATIVES...

• We can look at frame narratives as a diagram• For example, with Titanic:

“Old Rose”

Love story of “Young Rose” and Jack

FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi

• Martel uses a FRAME NARRATIVE• Begins with an author’s note, narrated by

an anonymous author figure, presumably Martel himself

• This creates the illusion that the book is fact/real, when in fact it is FICTIONAL

• Why do you think he may have done this?

FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi

• The italicized passages are the voice of an anonymous author (Yann Martel) who is writing Pi’s story, told in his own words

• Provides a description of how he learned about Pi and his interviews with Pi in the present

FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi

• The story has THREE narrative voices (plus a “mystery” voice...)

• The author of the novel itself, Yann Martel• The “author” of the Author’s Note (who is talking

about meeting with Francis (Mamaji) Adirubasamy and interviewing “real” Pi while researching for the novel

• Piscine Molitor Patel (“Older Pi”) narrating the story of his younger self

• Can you figure out the “mystery voice”? See if you can once you have finished the novel

FRAME NARRATIVE in Life of Pi

• Now that we have all the “voices” for our FRAME NARRATIVE, draw a diagram to represent them

Yann Martel

Author’s Note

“Older Pi”

?

So what is the PURPOSE of a FRAME NARRATIVE?• The shifts in point of view (POV) serve to create a

sense of verisimilitude• Verisimilitude – the appearance of something to be

real or true – when what we are reading appears to be true

• e.g. A character in a book cuts his/her finger and the finger bleeds. We believe it is happening – if the book said the cut finger produced sparks of fire rather than blood, the story would NOT possess verisimilitude

So what is the PURPOSE of a FRAME NARRATIVE?• Even fantasy or sci-fi novels/stories which deal

with impossible (or very improbable) events can possess verisimilitude if the reader is willing to suspend their disbelief

• Willing suspension of disbelief – when a reader/viewer temporarily and willingly sets aside their beliefs about reality in order to enjoy the “make-believe” of a play, novel, poem or movie– e.g. We can watch Harry Potter without feeling

“gullible” as long as we, the audience, set aside our sense of what is “real” for the duration of the movie.

FIN