TaviaMaeBradshaw

Even though humans see themselves as civilized, some of their instincts are quite primitive. This is creatively illustrated in Yann Martel’s best-seller, Life of Pi. Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger, is used as a symbol of “the beast” within Pi, representing the fear in his own mind. The majestic tiger also symbolizes “the beast” inside Pi; his strong side. He motivates Pi to do the thing he must to survive while trapped on the lifeboat. Confined with them are a male hyena and a female orang-utan named Orange Juice, later suggested to be the ship’s cook and Pi’s mother respectively. In their desperation they act in ways better described in the behaviour of animals than in humans. In Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, animals are used as symbols of the struggle to balance our civilized and primal natures.

Fear is a monster that paralyzes even the strongest of men, but is merely a creation within their own mind. Pi’s fear is represented by the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker. “It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same one who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness” (Martel 179). When Pi is telling his first story he expresses his fear as fear of Richard Parker himself. In his second story, Richard Parker is absent and it becomes clear that the tiger is a part of him. “So the Taiwanese sailor is the zebra, his mother is the orang-utan, the cook is… the hyena - which means he’s the tiger” (346). Since bother Pi and Richard Parker are in the first story, Richard Parker must represent only a part of Pi. He must learn to tame both Richard Parker and his fear. “I had to tame him. It was at that moment that I realized this necessity. It was not a question of him or me, but of him and me” (181). At the end of Pi’s story both his fear and Richard Parker disappear without a second thought. But fear is not the only “beast” Richard Parker represents in Pi.

The majestic tiger also symbolizes Pi’s “inner beast” which provokes Pi to do what he must to survive. The zookeeper’s son, who begins his trip as a vegetarian has now taken the initiative from Richard Parker and is following his animalistic instincts. “The flying fish was dead… I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I had ever killed. I was now a killer” (203). He compares his own behaviours to that of Richard Parker, another hint that he is a symbol of Pi’s personality rather than an actual tiger. As time goes on, it becomes much easier for Pi to do the things he must, but he becomes more disgusted by it. “It came as an unmistakable indication to me of how low I had sunk the day I noticed, with a pinching of the heart, that I ate like an animal, that this noisy, frantic, unchewing wolfing-down of mine was exactly the way Richard Parker ate” (249-250). He is disgusted with what he has to do to survive, but realizes it must be done. In Pi’s first story, his most extreme actions are done by Richard Parker. “This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker. He gave me a life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man’s frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled me nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life” (283). It’s easier for Pi to blame this murder on somebody else rather than take responsibility for it. This self-preservation is the main reason for the fabrication of Richard Parker.

Pi is not the only one who surrenders to his primal natures. In Pi’s first story, Orange Juice the orang-utan steps out of her, usually calm, comfort zone and attacks the hyena. “Orange Juice hit the hyena on the head with her other arm, but the blow only made the beast snarl viciously. She made to bite, but the hyena moved faster” (144). In his second story, Pi tells a similar tale with different characters. After hearing both stories the Japanese investigators assume the real subjects of the fight are Pi’s mother and the ship’s cook. “The next time the cook was close by, Mother slapped him in the face, a full hard slap that punctuated the air with a sharp crack. It was something shocking coming from my mother” (341). Even in the second version, Pi notes how strange it is for his mother to act this way. On would be more likely to see this kind of encounter between two animals. The cook, portrayed in the first story as the hyena, is the first to turn to his animalistic ways. “The cook promptly butchered him… He cut up everything, including the sailor’s skin and every inch of his intestines. He even prepared his genitals” (341). The cook is also the most brutal. He sees what he is doing merely as a means of survival; the rest see it as nothing less than cannibalism. The animals inside oneself come out in the most desperate of times.

In Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, he uses animals to represent his characters’ primal natures as they fight to sustain their civilized ways. Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s fear, as it is “the beast” eating him inside. The tiger also represents the strength Pi finds within himself to survive. The orang-utan and hyena embody Pi’s mother and the cook when they act in ways he does not want to conjecture a human could. No matter the steps taken to avoid it, everyone succumbs to their primal instincts.

-Tavia Mae Bradshaw

Work Cited:

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Toronto: Vintage Canada Edition, 2011. Print.