The narrator, Pi, says intense past suffering left him sad and gloomy, but academic study and a steady religious practice gradually revived him. After one year of high school, he attends the University of Toronto and completes a double major in religious studies and zoology, writing theses on Isaac Luria’s cosmogony and on the thyroid gland of the three-toed sloth.

Pi explains that he chose the sloth because its calm nature soothed him, then describes his fieldwork in Brazil observing three-toed sloths. He emphasizes their extreme slowness, heavy sleeping habits, and dull senses, and argues that their very indolence helps them survive by avoiding predators’ notice. Pi admires how the sloth’s algae-coated fur camouflages it, and he compares the animals to meditative hermits, linking his scientific fascination to his sense of God.

Pi contrasts his experiences among religious-studies students and scientists, finding the scientists friendly and uncomplicated. He reports strong academic success at St. Michael’s College and many zoology awards, but he still feels stung that a cheerful, “pink” classmate beat him to the University of Toronto’s top undergraduate medal and later the Rhodes Scholarship. The disappointment feeds Pi’s broader reflections on ambition, suffering, and death’s persistent closeness to life.

Pi briefly dismisses his working life and notes his affection for Canada despite missing India’s heat and everyday sights and sounds. He admits he has nothing to return to in Pondicherry, and that Richard Parker remains vivid in his mind; Pi dreams of him in nightmares that are still tinged with love, and Pi cannot accept how Richard Parker left without any sign of farewell.

Pi recalls the hospital in Mexico, where doctors, nurses, and fellow patients treated him with kindness after hearing his story. He describes his physical recovery—anemia, swollen legs, dehydration-related imbalances, scars, and a shock at the abundance of running water. Later, in Canada, a waiter’s remark at an Indian restaurant reawakens Pi’s trauma, making him abandon eating with his fingers and self-consciously adopt knife and fork.