Life of Pi: Chapters 78–100

by Yann Martel
When a violent storm sinks the ship carrying his family from India to North America, Pi is trapped alone in a lifeboat with an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra, and a man-eating tiger named Richard Parker.

Here are links to our lists for the Booker Prize-winning novel: Chapters 1–15, Chapters 16–36, Chapters 37–53, Chapters 54–77, Chapters 78–100
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. harrowing
    causing extreme distress
    To be a castaway is to be caught in a harrowing ballet of circles.
  2. curmudgeonly
    brusque, surly, and forbidding
    Otherwise, I grew quite fond of sharks. They were like curmudgeonly old friends who would never admit that they liked me yet came round to see me all the time.
  3. juggernaut
    a massive inexorable force
    A huge wave girdling it was advancing towards us relentlessly. Richard Parker finally sensed the looming juggernaut.
  4. languish
    experience prolonged suffering in an unpleasant situation or place
    The ship slid by for what seemed like a mile, a mile of high, black canyon wall, a mile of castle fortification with not a single sentinel to notice us languishing in the moat.
  5. unfettered
    not bound or restrained, as by shackles and chains
    “I love you!” The words burst out pure and unfettered, infinite.
  6. subjugation
    forced submission to control by others
    As for the sun, it roasted everything. It kept Richard Parker in partial subjugation.
  7. timbre
    the distinctive property of a complex sound
    The voice had its very own timbre, with a heavy, weary rasp.
  8. unwieldy
    difficult to use or handle because of size or weight
    The Pacific is no place for rowers, especially when they are weak and blind, when their lifeboats are large and unwieldy, and when the wind is not cooperating.
  9. olfactory
    of or relating to the sense of smell
    Finally, it was my nose that was the judge of land. It came to my olfactory sense, full and fresh, overwhelming: the smell of vegetation.
  10. diurnal
    of or belonging to or active during the day
    It is an agile and keen-sighted creature, diurnal and social in habits, and feeding in its native range — the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa — on, among other things, scorpions, to whose venom it is completely immune.
  11. pliable
    susceptible to being led or directed
    My good fortune, the fortune that saved my life, was that he was not only a young adult but a pliable young adult, an omega animal.
  12. consternation
    sudden shock or dismay that causes confusion
    I was wondering what further surprise these animals held in store for me when I noticed with consternation that the ones from the pond closest to me had surrounded my tree and were climbing up the trunk.
  13. docile
    easily handled or managed
    I thought they were coming to attack me, that here was the reason why Richard Parker slept in the lifeboat: during the day the meerkats were docile and harmless, but at night, under their collective weight, they crushed their enemies ruthlessly.
  14. surreptitiously
    in a secretive manner
    Their car broke down and the mechanic who fixed it surreptitiously cannibalized the motor of parts, putting in used parts instead, for the replacement of which they had to pay the rental company and which resulted in the car breaking down a second time, on their way back.
  15. conjecture
    the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence
    Stress of weather combined with structural fatigue a possibility, but conjecture.
Created on Mon Nov 12 14:01:25 EST 2012 (updated Fri Sep 12 12:02:51 EDT 2025)

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