The Tiger Richard Parker In The Life Of Pi

Student’s Name Course Instructor Date The Tiger in the Life of Pi The book Life of Pi gives a story of a young boy from Pondicherry named Piscine MolitorPatel (Pi) who struggles to survive at sea for 227 days with a tiger, Richard Parker. The book was written by Yana Martel and includes both human and animal characters. The main human characters are Pi Patel, Francis Adirubasamy, Pi’s brother Ravi, his father Santosh and mother Gita Patel. The main animal character is the tiger that is given the human name Richard Parker. In the story,16-year-old Pi finds himself at sea with the tiger after his whole family is killed. He struggles to remain alive with so many animals aboard and especially with the presence of the flesh-eating tiger. Pie finds a way to tame the tiger and sails safely to land after many days at sea.The book uses the character both symbolically and as a metaphor. It is a representation of fear, of Pi’s animalistic instincts and symbolizes hope and survival. The tiger in Life of Pi has been used as a metaphor for fear. Pi finds himself stranded on an island all alone after the death of his family members. With all other connections lost, he has to live in that desolate state where he is haunted by loneliness and the fear of the tiger. He speaks of this fear when he says, “fear and reason fought over the answer…he was a fierce, 450-pound carnivore. Each of his claws was as sharp as a knife.” The continuous struggle with the tiger shows his struggle to deal with the haunting life of loneliness and gr...