Richard Parker Saves Pi

As Pi reaches the second level of the hierarchy of needs, he finds himself on the level of safety he needs to figure out how to stay safe while on the life boat. While Pi was on the boat he was so scared of Richard Parker that he had jumped off the boat to go in the water, but then realizes that there are predators just as scary as Richard parker or maybe even worse that he has to avoid to staying safe. “I noticed the presence of sharks around the life boat…The sharks were makos-swift, point-snouted predators with long murderous teeth that protruded noticeable from their mouths” (Martel 179). Once Pi tries to overcome his fears and tames Richard like a zookeeper would do and once he does, he ends up having a companion that helps Pi get through the struggle to survive. Pi finds an island where he is safe and is able to regain his strength but as he finds a tooth in the algae, 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

“Without Richard Parker, I wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story.” The significance of this quote is that the presence of Richard saves him from the effects of loneliness. “The lower you are, the higher your mind will soar.” This quote is important because when Pi is at his lowest point, he reaches for his only remaining sources of salvation, which is his faith and imagination. “Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The element couldn’t be more simple, or the stake higher.” The quote significance is that the few that survive the ship are force to face each other in a strategic battle of wits to see who will

Pi’s life before the boat crashing was full of hope and wonder. His presence was ethereal, making a purpose out of everything around him. His family ran a zoo, which gave him a tight-knit relationship with animals. Pi loved to try new things. He met new people which led to his exploration

-The author meets Pi’s two children and declares Pi’s story has a happy ending. Part 2: - Pi finds himself on the lifeboat, and tries to rescue Richard Parker before he realizes the danger of having a tiger on board. HE doesn’t realize that despite the danger, Parker saves him from the other animals. - The narrator returns to the night of the official sinking and tells the story of how Pi was able to escape the boat alive.

Desperation forced him to try and move towards the safety box that was near Richard Parker who has the ability to easily attack him. Once Pi is near the safety box he illustrates the feeling of satisfaction by saying, “oh, the delight of the manufactured good, the man-made device, the created thing! That moment of material revelation brought an intensity of pleasure -- a heady mix of hope, surprise, disbelief, thrill gratitude, all crushed into one … I was positively giddy with happiness." (Martel 141). He finds water in the box as he hoped for and this has brought him a confidence boost. Even though Pi completed the first of many stages in the hierarchy, he is still stranded in the ocean. He acknowledges the fact that animals or very territorial and in turn marks his own territory within the boat. Pi insists that, “I had to fix in his mind that the top of the tarpaulin and the bow of the boat, bordered by the neutral territory of the middle bench, was my territory and utterly forbidden to him” (Martel 168). He urinated on the parts of the boat that he claims as his part of the boat and does it in a way that Richard Parker who is an animal would understand.

When he is on the lifeboat with Richard Parker, it is a lot like they are in captivity. They are in a confined space, they can't leave because of the walls of ocean surrounding them. During this time in “captivity,” they experience starvation, extreme thirst, and many other things. This is an example of captivity at it's worst. I think Pi's opinion about animals in captivity changed when he was stranded in the ocean.

In this journal, I will be questioning whether Pi will survive in the ocean. First, Pi has animals to keep him company aboard the raft. Even though the animals like to fight with each other it still makes Pi feel less lonely, and therefore more willing to try and survive. This shows how Pi will survive because he is determined to. Secondly, Pi begins to learn how to gather food and water to survive. “With time and experience I became a better hunter” (Martel 173). Pi begins to eat quality amounts of fish and turtles, and feeds Richard Parker the tiger some of the fish. This shows how Pi will learn to survive and adapt to the climate around him. Lastly, Pi is realizing what he has to do to survive. Pi was a vegetarian before he became stranded, so having to eat fish is different to him.

Pi speaks of Richard Parker saving his life several times in the book, “It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness.” (Martel 162). It is quite an interesting situation that the beast that could maul him at any moment is the thing that keeps him alive. Pi also admits how this tiger aids in his survival, “It is the plain truth: without Richard Parker, I would not be alive to tell you my story”(Martel 164). Richard Parker gives Pi something to do while he’s alone for this long.

It carries all the necessary items for survival, yet a large adult Bengal Tiger has marked it as his territory. He knows going on the boat could lead to certain death, yet he needs the supplies to live as well. Either way, his life is at risk. During Pi’s search for water, he comes to the conclusion that there must be some supplies in Richard Parker’s territory underneath the tarpaulin. He says “I felt like a dried-out lizard. I pushed down on the tarpaulin. It was tautly stretched. If I unrolled it, I would give myself access to what supplies might be stored below. But that meant creating an opening onto Richard Parker’s den. There was no question. Thirst pushed me on” (140). Here Pi decides that it is worth it to risk his life exploring the lifeboat for water. However, although he goes onto the lifeboat for supplies, he makes sure not to become too comfortable in the presence of Richard Parker. This is why Pi starts considering alternative options than housing with a fully grown tiger. He says “I had to organize my survival. Not a second to waste. I needed shelter and right away… I had no proof that hanging at the end of the oar provided real safety from Richard Parker, he might easily reach and nab me. I had to find something else. My mind worked fast. I built a raft” (148). Pi knows because of how dangerous the lifeboat is, he needs an

Pi has had many fears throughout his story being stranded on a small boat with a tiger. “I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the Pacific, hanging on to an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging above me” (Ch. 40 Yann Martel). Pi was very limited on resources and was caught up in a storm. He had nothing but a long stick to protect himself from the Bengal tiger. Things can’t get any worse for Pi, but he proves that he’s tough.

At the beginning of the novel Pi finds himself stranded on the Pacific Ocean after the ship he and his family were on sank with nothing but his beliefs, a lifeboat, a survivor’s manual, and a tiger he calls Richard Parker. Throughout the novel Pi is in a constant struggle with both his humanity and what he needs to do to survive. He learns of the cruel survival instincts within himself that he never thought possible. At the beginning of the novel Pi was nothing more than a boy who only saw the good in the world and in humanity. By the end of the novel, however, he becomes a man who has had to face things that no person should ever have to face alone even if one believes in

His only hope was Richard Parker, as he was taking care of him, he had things to do during the day and took his mind off of the darker side, which is him being stranded in the Pacific Ocean with absolutely nothing for a long period of time. He created a raft immediately with life jackets to get a good distance from the tiger and the lifeboat and claimed: “I felt like a prisoner being pushed off a plank by pirates. ”(83) Pi had a list of steps to train Richard Parker; he had to mark his territory for Parker to somehow understand that one side is his and the other side is Pi’s. After a long time, realizing that they are all each other have, Pi creates comfort towards Richard Parker and expresses love for his companion through his habit of taking care of the

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

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’’.