Life of Pi #2

Two things grabbed my attention as I read part two of Life of Pi. One was Pi's fall to savagery, and the other was Pi's relationship with Richard Parker. I couldn't decide which was more notable, so I'll write about both.

Pi begins his journey as a peace-loving, pious, and vegetarian man. However, as he struggles to survive in the lifeboat, he feels himself changing. Time passes, and he slowly runs out of emergency rations. Even though he's a devout Muslim, in order to survive, he makes the decision to fish. He has no luck with catching a fish for a while, but he miraculously encounters a school of flying fish. He has an extremely difficult time coping with the idea of killing a living thing: "A lifetime of peaceful vegetarianism stood between [Pi] and the willful beheading of a fish" (183). Pi tries to make it as humane as possible by covering the fish's head with a blanket and everything. As he kills the fish for the first time in his life, he empathizes and agonizes over its death: "I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul" (183). By killing this fish, Pi has become a killer. Pi says that he always includes this fish in his daily prayers.

Even though many people go fishing for leisure, Pi feels remorseful
for killing a tiny little fish for survival.

His downgrade to savagery has only begun with the first murder. Soon, he got used to killing and eating fish: "a person can get used to anything, even to killing" (185). Because the survival manual recommends that turtle blood is a great source of nutrition that also quenches one's thirst. At one point, hunger drives him to try eating Richard Parker's feces; Pi notices that he "descended to a level of savagery [he] never imagined possible" (197). Yet, he does not forsake his humanity. When the blind man he meets tries to kill him walks on Richard Parker's territory, Pi tries to save the man who tries to kill him.

Pi falls to this level of savagery due to his survival instincts.

His relationship with Richard Parker changes throughout the journey. At first, he rescues him because he wanted companion, but he realized as soon as Richard Parker got on the lifeboat that it was a mistake to save a tiger. First, Pi fears Richard Parker as he is a predator. Richard Parker saves Pi from the hyenas and becomes a savior figure. Nevertheless, Pi's makes a raft off the lifeboat to be safe from the tiger. Pi mentions that it is interesting that Richard Parker, a figure that frightens him, also calms him down: "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" (162). While Pi is on the raft off the boat, Richard Parker expresses that he has no harmful intention towards Pi by making a prusten. The relationship progresses to a point where they stand on equal grounds; Pi splashes his urine on the tarpaulin to mark his territory because he believed that "if I could make the tarpaulin mine, we might get along" (171). Later, he takes over the dominance figure by training Richard Parker with a whistle and turtle shields. As time passes, Pi grows so attached to this potentially harmful being that he "loves" it. He sees the tiger as a partner who is also struggling for survival and depends on him for emotional support: "I love you, Richard Parker. If I didn't have you now, I don't know what I would do. I don't think I would make it. No, I wouldn't. I would die of hopelessness" (236).

Richard Parker and Orange Juice?