Richard Parker's Perception In Life Of Pi

Power of the Mind

“Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger”, states the last line of the novel, Life of Pi, an outstanding novel by Yann Martel. The novel chronicles the journey of Pi Patel, a young Indian boy whose family decides to move to Canada with their zoo animals. After the tragic sinking of the ship, Pi finds himself on a lifeboat with the ship’s cook, his mother, and an injured sailor. However, the story Pi tells involves him being trapped on the lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a tiger known as Richard Parker. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel explores the human ability for psychological adaptations in order to survive life-threating
Three examples in the novel of how Pi’s mental perception adapts in order to survive include living with Richard Parker; how Pi changes his perception to survive 227 days on the lifeboat; and how Pi mentally adapts to his current situation by imagining people as an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and a tiger. To begin, Martel illustrates his theme of human adaptability through Pi’s perception of living with the tiger, Richard Parker. First, Pi denies the fact that Richard Parker is on the lifeboat, and then proceeds to try to out-muscle him. When this fails, he tries to make friends with him, but when Pi yet again does not succeed, he tries ignoring Richard Parker, which is also unsuccessful (Martel 174, 178). Pi finally decides he needs to train Richard Parker, and so he does (Martel 183). The five
This exploration involves Pi’s acceptance of his co-existence of the tiger, Richard Parker, by paralleling the stages of grief; through the change of his perception of animals and their role in his survival; and his imaginative representation of the people he is with by animals. Martel demonstrates the mind is a powerful thing, capable of making dramatic changes in order to