a) how is life of pi a story within a story within story? ( i know the first part a story within a story, but the other within the story, i am confused)

Question

b) i am going to write an essay about story telling on Life of Pi by Yann Martel and so far have ideas such as the type of story, narrators, truth vs story telling and purpose of story telling.

I need suggestions how to go about with them, and if you have more please add, and which three do you think fit better

Answer 1

Frame stories:
http://www.answers.com/topic/frame-story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_story (See Use of Frame Stories)

Think about unifying your different ideas in (b) by means of ritual:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi

I have read only the summaries of this, but there are many other "frame stories" that all of us have read (or seen, if it's been made into a movie). James Michener is one author who made wonderful use of this technique. So is Edgar Allan Poe in this very short story:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/POE/oval.html