Richard Parker

Authors Note: I know you might be thinking this piece is really short, well it is, but I think it get’s the point across and explains it pretty good.

A lifeboat floats over a never ending blue abyss; it sees nothing but dark brackish water. The smell is unbearable. The four animals – an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena and a Bengal tiger – stain the boat with urine and soil it with their waste, but Pi resists the smell for now. He knows that the most threatening animal underneath the tarp is ironically the one thing keeping him alive. In Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, the Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker and the stranded boy named Pi Patel are symbolically one.

Richard Parker embodies the natural instinct Pi is forced to use to survive. Pi was furious at the hyena when he killed the beloved Orangutan. It was at that point Richard Parker arose from his den and killed the hyena. It is not coincidence that when Pi was angry, Richard Parker went in for the kill. This example connects the two as one. When Richard Parker came up from the den he awoke the inner savage in Pi. Pi had to transform himself from a strict vegetarian to a cold hunter. Then he continued on his way killing fish, and consuming their flesh.

Pi tried to find out ways to eliminate Richard Parker, but then realized that he must keep him alive because if he were to kill him then it would be like you were killing a part of yourself. Richard Parker wasn’t a nuisance to Pi and he wasn’t a threat. Richard Parker was life.