Author's Note: This is my essay response to Life of Pi.
Author's Note: This is my essay response to Life of Pi.
Rocking back and forth, alone, on a small lifeboat, feeling hungry, thirsty, and weak. A fierce 450 pound Bengal Tiger by my side, or so I thought. This is what Pi Patel, a sixteen year old boy, was forced to live with for the past 277 days in the middle of the ocean. But what really made me think was, is it true that Richard Parker (the tiger) was on the boat, or was this Pi's conscience?
It may seem that Pi has company, but he actually doesn't, physically at least. Throughout the story there are characters that come along, such as Richard Parker and a mysterious blind man, but the question that came to mind was, were these characters actually Pi's conscience? At first when Pi meets the blind man, he seems friendly, until suddenly, 'The blind man landed upon Pi forcing them both to slam their bodies onto the cold boat floor. The blind man trying so hard to reach Pi's throat!' You may think this is just an accident because this man is blind, but then 'Richard Parker leaps out from under the tarpaulin and attacks the blind man.' If my theory is correct, that means there are two sides to Pi's mind. The blind man seems to be the more vicious mind, that would do any thing to survive, even if it means hurting himself. On the other hand, Richard Parker is the more sympathetic side to Pi, staying out of others way unless it has to. If it weren't for 'Richard Parker,' Pi would have killed himself, in a way.
Throughout all the hardships, the toughest one Pi had to face was taming Richard Parker, who I believed was himself, the more sympathetic side. Pi had to learn how to control his anger and thoughts, to save him from turning to his evil side(aka The blind man.) In the beginning of the book Pi's father showed him how dangerous animals in the zoo really are. The most viscous one, the Bengal tiger ferociously attacked a young helpless goat after not being fed for days. I think this was just a lesson in disguise to Pi saying that you can't let your dark side overcome the good in you.
From beginning to end of Pi's experience, he had to overcome all different parts of himself, good and evil. He was not accompanied by an Adult Bengal tiger or a blind man, but all in all, trying to survive by himself is just the same. It is hard to imagine a sixteen year old boy surviving on a lifeboat for 277 days, but some how, by perhaps taming the tiger, Pi found a way.
