Richard Parker In Life Of Pi

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Life of Pi In Life of Pi, Richard Parker and Pi go on an adventurous journey; and along the way we find out that Richard Parker is not only a bengal tiger, but a human with human traits. Richard Parker and Pi influence each other immensely along this great journey. Although, Richard Parker is a tiger, but he shows his human traits along side of Pi with such as food/hunger, Pi’s well being and the outcome and actions of Pi. First, Richard Parker shows human traits by eating somewhat like a human. The type of diet Richard Parker ate is not a typical diet, which a tiger could live off of. Usually, tigers eat pounds and pounds of meat everyday. The fact that Richard Parker had to eat the amount of food humans usually eat shows his human traits. Pi is originally a vegetarian, and eats an average amount of food everyday, so Richard Parker shows his human side by …show more content…

Since Richard Parker is somewhat like Pi, they both were civil beings in their homes/zoo, but when it came to surviving they both acted like wild savages. Richard Parker and Pi have a back and forth conflict with who has the raft, which proves that Richard Parker is a “human”. For example, when Pi states this about Richard Parker, “ For two, perhaps three seconds, a terrific battle of minds for status and authority, was waged between a boy and a tiger,”(Martel 222) it shows that both a human and a tiger want what they want and will do anything to get it. The two characters fighting over the raft can mean that RP and Pi are both humans and tigers. Second, Richard Parker is a human because he shows us fear. In the world we all are afraid of somebody or something. RP shows the overcoming of his fears when Pi states, “ I was still scared of Richard Parker, but only when it was necessary. It is simple presence no longer strained me,”(Martel 247) meaning that Pi had a fear of RP and RP having a fear of Pi and both of them overcoming those

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