How Did Richard Parker Change Pi

Pi is alone with Richard Parker on the lifeboat and they both starve and suffer with dehydration. Pi starts catching fishes for both of them. He always gives the biggest share to Richard Parker as he is the strongest. One day, he decides to eat the largest part. He wants to calm his desire for hunger. He does not want to share anything with Richard Parker. Pi starts eating like an animal. Pi tells, “It came as an unmistakable indication to me of how I had sunk the day I noticed, with a pinching of the heart, that I ate like an animal” (Martel 183). The innocent boy is now as dangerous as an animal that can do anything for the food. His yearning for food makes him selfish. It is in pi’s hand not to sacrifices his integrity, but he chooses to sacrifice because he knows that at this critical situation it is right to do. Even though Pi loses his integrity, he gains the power of being the strongest one on the

1. The main characters in Life of Pi are Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) and Richard Parker the Bengal tiger. Pi is the protagonist he is hopeful and believes that things get better. He is very optimistic which gets him through a lot of his troubles. In the beginning of the book Pi seemed to have things the rough way and continues that way but he was very hopeful. In the beginning of his lifeboat journey he was sure things would get better but as time went by he wasn't sure anymore but he had things to remind him to keep going. I also think he became more grownup and stronger by the end of the book. Richard Parker is the tiger on the lifeboat with Pi he is there every step of the way with Pi. He helps Pi get through things. Richard Parker is very

The last animal, Richard Parker, symbolizes Pi, his animal like instincts when he was stranded at sea, as he must complete many tasks to survive which in the real world he would find very hard to do. Richard Parker can symbolize many things, Pi himself and Pi’s fears. Richard Parker represents Pi himself, and his inner strength. In Mexico, when Richard Parker left Pi and is never to be seen again, it shows that Richard Parker was only what Pi needed for strength and that he never was real. He also represents Pi’s fears, and how he overcomes all of his fears, mainly his major fear; death. The skills Pi had learned at his father’s zoo helped him face his fear of Richard Parker and in order to tame Richard Parker, he pretends that he is at a

I believe his time with the animals helped him survive as long as he did because he had another living being with him. He was surviving, but he wasn't surviving alone. I think loneliness would have gotten to him much worse if he didn't have someone else to live with. To the very end Richard Parker is Pi's rock, Pi lives so Richard Parker can live too. Pi spent a while waiting for someone to rescue him, a passing boat to see him and save him.

The way in which Pi assumed this power over Richard Parker was by establishing himself as an equal to him. As Pi brought food to the tiger, Pi would use whistles to remind Richard Parker of who provided him with food and water: “…not forgetting to blow the whistle hard several times, to remind Richard Parker of who had so graciously provided him with fresh food” (Martel 206). This method Pi had developed proved to be successful on his mission to become equals with Richard Parker when Pi “stared into [Richard Parker’s] eyes, wide-eyed and defiant, and [they] faced off” (Martel 246). Pi knew that if he looked away and backed down, the tiger would never see him as an equal, because Richard Parker would see

The novel’s flavor would have changed immensely if Richard Parker was not the sole surviving animal. If Pi had ended up living on the boat with the zebra, the book would not have been very exciting. For starters, tigers are my favorite animals, so to me the zebra would have made the novel less interesting. The zebra was a weaker animal, and more submissive and boring. If the zebra was the sole surviving animal, Pi may have went crazy from boredom or given up hope much more quickly. The zebra seems rather useless compared to Richard Parker. The zebra could not have helped Pi catch flying fish like Richard Parker did with his claws. The novel may have been more dull and ended sooner if Pi had died with the zebra. Pi would end up exerting a lot of energy helping the zebra survive, especially since the zebra is a herbivore and food would be scarce to come across. We wouldn’t have seen such a religious and personal growth in Pi.

The violent outbreak of Richard Parker, along with his silent departure at the end of the novel, portrays how futile it is to try to change a wild animal into a civilized being. Richard Parker seems, at first, to have experienced a spiritual breakthrough and transformation after Pi’s attempt to training. Even in the end, Pi’s ability to survive such a journey with a beastly killer seems evidence enough that Pi trained the tiger. Pi’s main goal, along with survival, is to establish a level of equality between himself

On the other hand, Pi uses Richard Parker as a way to separate his ID and superego. Richard Parker is the part of Pi that does not have a moral conscience, it is his animalistic instinct. Pi is a devout vegetarian, until it comes down to survival. Richard Parker is quick to kill flying fish, yet Pi gets emotional when killing anything. In the novel Pi says, "Lord, to think that I'm a strict vegetarian.

Bengali polymath, Rabindranath Tagore, once said “you can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Pi, faces many challenges at sea while being accompanied by a tiger by the name of Richard Parker. This tiger, though a nuisance, proves to be essential in the role of Pi’s survival. Throughout the story, Richard Parker symbolizes survival, a reflection of Pi, and a being of God.

By sharing a lifeboat, Pi had a zoomorphic arrangement with Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. At first, Pi and Richard Parker did not coexist well, but then both had to adapt to living on a lifeboat with limited supplies and together they went through traumatizing experiences, such as the storm. By going through this experience with Richard Parker, Pi noticed a bond growing between them. Pi was first scared of Richard Parker, but then as time went on, he thought of him as a friend rather than an enemy. To some degree, Pi even loves Richard Parker and sees him as a human. Once the lifeboat reached Mexico, Richard Parker disappeared into the jungle unceremoniously, which troubled Pi. Humans often expect goodbyes when someone is leaving from their life and this shows how Pi had seen Richard Parker as almost human

Richard Parker, the tiger, is a symbol of Pi himself. Pi directly correlates himself with Richard Parker. If Richard Parker “give[s] up” (121) then Pi is giving up. When swimming toward the life boat Richard Parker “look[s] small and helpless” (121) much like Pi actually is. Next to the tiger, zebra, and hyena Pi is small and feeble; he has no way to defend himself against the other animals. Pi egging Richard Parker on, toward the boat; “keep[ing him] swimming” (122) shows Pi’s resilience for survival; determined for Richard Parker to survive, which is actually his determination to survive. It is often mistaken in the novel as to whether Pi is speaking of himself or of Richard Parker because they could be the same being.

First, one way Richard Parker helped Pi survive, is by giving Pi something to live for. If Pi didn’t have to feed Richard Parker, then he might not have gotten up to even feed himself. Yann Martel writes, “Sunrise to mid-morning: wake up, prayers, breakfast for Richard Parker….”(Martel 190). As Pi had to get food for Richard Parker, he had something to look forward to. Even if Richard Parker took some of Pi’s supplies, he at least gave him a job and something to look at other than the ocean.

Furthermore, his vast knowledge of animals, having grown up at a zoo, helps him to tame Richard Parker. Pi knows tigers’ psychological thinking and exploits this by classically conditioning Richard Parker. Likewise, Pi’s experience of watching a tiger kill a goat in his early childhood taught him the fundamental lesson that ‘an animal is an animal’, enabling him to strategically and mentally survive his long and testing time at sea. In addition to that, during the early parts of Part 2, Pi comes across a survival manual, a crucial object for his continued existence. The book gives him critical information on the do’s and don’ts of survival at sea and it is hard to imagine that Pi could have survived without this book which also gave him the opportunity to write down his words which were “all he has left’’.

Furthermore, Pi confesses to wanting Richard Parker to live primarily for Pi’s own survival when he states, “A part of me did not want

Pi contacted with animals when he was very young. Therefore, when he was in trouble and afraid to solve the problem, his savagery will help him. “We fight to the very end. It’s not a question of courage. Its something constitutional, and inability to let go. It maybe nothing more than life-hungry stupidity. Richard Parker started growing that very instant as if he had been waiting for me to become a worthy opponent. My chest became tight with fear”( Martel p.187). Pi finally chose to face the tiger, and save himself. He did not choose to stay until the tiger eats him. Even if he knows that it’s difficult to survive, he did not give up. Pi stayed with animals when he was a child. His curiosity made him have a great interest in animals. He might learn something from the wild animals. Moreover, if animals did something very cruel and their behavior will probably leave a deep impression about those things in Pi’s mind. Therefore, Pi’s savagery leads him to have the determination to against the tiger, Richard