Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
Contents
Chapter Eighty Five
Overview
In another violent storm, Pi witnesses lightning strike the ocean with terrifying force, including a bolt that lands dangerously close to the lifeboat. Richard Parker reacts with visible terror, but Pi experiences the opposite response: spiritual awe and exhilaration.
Praising Allah, Pi reframes the danger as a “miracle,” and the moment becomes one of his few instances of genuine happiness, reinforcing how wonder and faith help him endure the ordeal.
Summary
A fierce storm returns, turning the sky so black that day looks like night as heavy rain and rising wind batter Pi Patel and the lifeboat.
Pi watches lightning strike the sea at a distance, where the impact briefly makes the water appear threaded with white “roots,” like a towering tree standing in the ocean. Pi points it out to Richard Parker and sees the tiger flattened on the boat’s floor, trembling in fear.
A second bolt crashes much closer, exploding with hot air and spray and bleaching the world into stark white light and black shadow. Pi is left dazed but not afraid, and he praises Allah, trying to command Richard Parker to stop trembling.
Unable to fully name what he has witnessed, Pi lies back on the tarpaulin, soaked and chilled yet smiling. The encounter becomes one of the rare moments in the ordeal when Pi feels genuine happiness, lifted into a sense of vast, reverent wonder.
Who Appears
- Pi PatelNarrator; witnesses lightning at sea, feels spiritual wonder, praises Allah, and feels rare happiness.
- Richard ParkerBengal tiger on the lifeboat; flattened and trembling in fear during the lightning storm.