When one is reading Life of Pi, one will most likely notice that there are multiple italicized chapters. There are many, even though they have absolutely nothing to do with what’s going on with the book. These are called stories within a story, and are written by the author to add realisticness to the book. Basically, the story within the story is what is supposedly happening to author as he/she is writing the book. Not true at all, of course, but it definitely causes the story to seem more real.
These stories within stories can also add more than realisticness. For example, in Chapter 33, which is one of the italicized chapters, adult Pi, while talking to the author, mentions how he couldn’t remember his mother’s face and voice. Now, this is before the part where the boat, Tsim-Tsum, sinks, so Chapter 33 gives some foreshadowing. It makes the reader wonder, what’s going to happen to Pi’s mother?
Another example is Chapter 36 , which is right before Part Two, where the boat sinks. Once again, it’s an italicized chapter. In this chapter, the last words are, “This story has a happy ending.” It’s as if the author’s preparing and clueing you for a tragedy about to occur, which happens to be the boat sinking. Placement of these stories within a story are important, too.
There are many reasons why the author places these chapters where they are, and one of these ideas is to prevent the reader from thinking that the next few events that are about to occur are unreasonable and unrealistic. It brings the reader back to reality, to Pi telling the author the story, and it just adds even more realisticness than ever.
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