Life of Pi question

The tiger WAS part of Pi. It was that part--the wildness, connection to nature, and the basic animal instinct--that allowed him to survive. As Pi reached the shore, and therefore civilization, he no longer needed his basic "animal" instincts because humans are governed by unwritten laws of conduct. The tiger/animal instinct/survival mode just simply vanished.

He's a tiger, he does what he wants.

The tiger stood there at the edge of a new phase of life and waited for a moment, deciding if he should move forward or not. Once you make the decision to move forward we should do it with all faith and not look back at the old world, the old life. It is a leap of faith. It is a new mission and the boy no longer needed him.

The tiger, to me, represented the brutal animal/survival instinct that lies within us all. Once Pi reached shore it was important for that part of him which had resulted to killing and cannibalism to completely leave so that he would be able to function in normal world.

When the tiger left the boat he was starving! He could have turned round and eaten Pi but didn't. Pi was at his weakest and the Tiger would have known that. Pi was easy prey that the Tiger did not take That was him showing that there was a bond there.

Also Tigers are proud creatures. Turning his back on Pi is his way of saying "You don't own me, you never did, you never will". Pausing briefly before moving into the jungle does show some mark of respect however.

Since RP is Pi, maybe it shows that Pi cannot forgive himself for not having properly said goodbye to his loved ones.

I think that the tiger wasn't actually a tiger. It was a part of him. A part of him that was cruel, sadistic, but helped him survive. When he said the the tiger killed the cook, it was actually Pi himself who killed the cook. The tiger just represented the wild, cruel being inside of him that was brought out when he needed it in the boat. The tiger left him because when he landed on the beach and the people came and rescued him, he was back in the real world and didn't need that cruel part of him anymore, so it just vanished. These are just my thoughts.

Wait, I thought the tiger was his mom?

Thanks for your answers everybody! For some reason I never looked into this...
Wow!

I think Richard Parker left without a goodbye because he was expecting Pi to be at the boat when he got back. Just like at the other island, Richard always returned to the boat, just like Pi did. So Richard didn't say goodbye because he assumed that they would meet again to the end of the day, just like on the other island.

I dunno what im saying :P

The tiger was Pi, the tiger walking away and not looking back was just a representation of all that Pi had to do to survive. He could live back in the world of humans, no longer had to survive using his basic instincts.
Besides, it made for a better story.

That was the tiger soul the real tiger had died in the island. The tiger did not walk into the jungle its that island which have thousand merkats(sorry for the bad english)

I took it as a lesson in self-reliance. Pi spoke of how, if not for Richard Parker, he would not have kept the both of them alive...he just would have ended it. But then after all this time Richard Parker just walked away into the jungle, so it wasn't the tiger: it was Pi who outsmarted the tiger and became the alpha in their relationship, caught the food, navigated the ocean dangers and storms. Despite Pi's sorrow in Richard Parker's silent disappearance, he has the confidence to continue his life, and he benefits from the departure of the tiger: What would a man do with a pet tiger in the western world?

My view was that the Tiger, Richard Parker, is the beast awaken inside of Pi. The survival instinct that Pi needed to survive alone in the Pacific ocean is projected into the tiger. The beast leaves Pi, and he is better for it.

Richard Parker lived in a zoo. Why would he look back at his captor when freedom is on the horizon?

Too much expectations sometimes lead to sorrow. If we recall the entire lifetime of Pi then we see that whenever Pi expected something whether it be from his parents or beloved..He lost hope! So Richard Parker, the Tiger was also a nominal figure of his emptiness, leading him to future of his own.

Interesting to think about why the cry as richard parker disappeared... remember Pi was searching for truth at the beginning, he explored several religions and seemed to take it very seriously before the trip. I think Pi was used to looking for meaning in things, which motivated much of the way he looked at and made sense of the world around him.

Possibly the long cry was the realization that his challenge was without meaning. His tiger receded without ceremony, explanation or acknowledgement... he saw the 'indifference of nature' in his inability to find a purpose for his suffering. It simply happened, and then it was over.

I think this interpretation lends itself to the sort of nihilistic faith he expresses in his explanation at the end. 'Which version do you prefer?' implying truth is subjective and there is no absolute meaning. His journey 'cured' him of belief in a real, and freed him to believe in whatever reconciled himself with himself.

What do you think?

Well, considering there are two possible scenarios (or a combination if you prefer), then there should be 2 reasons that are in line with each other as to why 1) the tiger left and did not look back and 2) why Pi should not look back. In one scenario, it's obvious as Pi noted and his father had told him.... No matter what you think, the Tiger is not your friend. He believed during those 227 days that this had changed but it was made clear in the end that the tiger is what he is (a product of his own nature). The tiger was his saviour but never was he going to permanently connect with it, and couldn't and shouldn't. The temporary connection was there to help him on his journey. In the other scenario, the animalistic part of himself (Pi being Richard Parker or Pi being Pi, take your pick) had to vanish and not look back into the darkness of those 227 days and get back to being a product of his own nature). As painful as it was for PI when he and long time only friend Richard Parker parted ways and he no longer had that safety net to keep him sane (ie: refer to Tom Hanks in Castaway and his friend Spalding). It was time to get back to reality and not look back, to move forward, start a life and a family.

Why would the tiger have the sentimentality to look back?.... [Although I did find it heartbreaking]

I think it depends on which story you believe.

My Interpretations as below
why is pi expecting the tiger to say good bye?
1. there was a reference earlier in the story- pi explicitly says he never remembered of saying GOOD BYE to Anandhi, his love interest. he already sobered because he is leaving his love(girl and the land india) without a good bye. this unfulfilled desire in him outbursts when tiger leaves without a good bye.
2. He knew it was himself anyway
there was places where sea sickness and mental conditions discussed in the movie- like pi's visit to a noman island, seeing his mother in the ocean during night,etc. all these are proofs to assume that pi was in a mental condition during his all alone travel in sea which lead to all these delusions.

The tiger helped him survive That's why God had the tiger with him an wen they arrived on the island the tiger mission was done

In a "practical" way, I think the tiger knew he could find food there, like he did in the algae island.
In a more "spiritual" way, Richard Parker, as Pi said, was the reason which kept him alive. Once Pi is finally saved in land, he has no more to do in the story.

During the movie, I always feed my thought that Richard Parker will say something to Pi. But he doesn't. Finally, he is still a tiger, a truly tiger.

He didn't deserve the love of RP. From RP's perspective, Pi was part of those that enslaved him, he left him to die in the sea and only changed his mind in the very last moment. He tamed him and scared him. Sure, Pi did take care of RP, but only after RP submitted to Pi, betrayed his nature, became docile and accepted the authority of Pi. The precondition for Pi's care and acceptance and love was that he gave up being who he was. There is no reason to thank Pi and there is no reason to stay with somebody that only loves you and lets you feel safe if you surrender and give up your freedom. Leaving this relationship without looking back is the best thing the tiger could do.
I get, that from Pi's perspective things look different and the tiger was a real threat to his life and he had to behave the way he did. And obviously, RP represents both the loss of relationships and his wild side that helped him survive but that he didn't need once he was safe. And there are many other reasonable interpretations.
But I just relate more to the tiger and it broke my heart when Pi nearly let him die and he tamed and dominated RP even if Pi cared for RP.

I think the tiger in the story is represented as the worldly fear. The fear that drives us, in our day to day life, it keeps us alive. We survive, exist by the very sense of this fear. In the ocean of life, Pi (represents us) has to go through all the calamities, troubles and only the fear of falling back or sense of death keeps us alive!

I bet the tiger represents something. I don't know exactly what. But all I know is that Pi cared for Parker after the long voyage, and that the tiger went away.

I suppose this could represent how things in life change all the time. Just as Pi felt his life was over, he had Parker by his side. And when Parker left, Pi still finished the journey and started a family of his own. Life has lots of ups and downs.

I agree with the symbolic answers - that the tiger represented an animalistic part of Pi that he no longer needed.

I think the story is also fundamentally a spiritual journey, and one of the most critical parts of any journey, and life in general, is to let go.

The tiger was a part of the liferaft that brought Pi from one place to another,and as such it was also part of Pi himself. The tiger fulfilled a role and function in time that was absolutely real, but when that came to an end he was no longer needed.

The greatest mistake Pi could have made was to hang on to the objects that helped bring him to safety. To me that was the reason the tiger left without looking back.

Ashley
That`s the more mundane explanation.

For me, the fact that the tiger didn't look back makes the first story all the more plausible. He's a tiger, he doesn't do tearful goodbyes. I think it's very clever that it can also be interpreted as a side of Pi's character that he no longer needs, but I prefer the first scenario.

I believe the tiger moved without looking back as he had a specific job during the whole story and once he finished it, he just go, without looking back, his job was to keep Pi alert during the journey to survive. And if we agreed the this is a journey to search for God, then tiger is the prove that God is there everywhere and he granted survival of Pi through sending this tiger in the journey. Once Pi is survived, the tiger has gone. I mean it was not about the tiger itself, the tiger was just a method of survival from God, that's why he moved out once he finished his job without saying bye.

Probably because he might have been feeling the same as Pi and he didnt want to drive into emotions because both of them had their own lives ahead!
Its difficult to live with a tiger!!

I agree with Laraine. If you remember when Pi is first beginning to train Richard Parker and he says, "He keeps me alive and alert." The tiger helped him have a purpose in life. I do not think the tiger was literally God, but I believe he was a part of the tangible part of Life (or God) and he was there so Pi could remember there is always something to live for.

A lot of comments on here claim Richard did not look back because he was an animal. This is true, but there is more to it than that. The tiger did not look back because although in that form his job was finished, he would always be in Pi's life in whatever form of life he took. (So in a figurative sense, Richard Parker represented God.)

There is a lot of mystery in this book about Richard Parker and his motives. He is an animal, so he is limited in many ways and could resort to his animal ways if necessary. However, he did not. He bonded with Pi because they shared a mutual trust and love for one another. This is how a person's relationship with God should be.

In conclusion, Richard Parker showed Pi that we can overcome our human survival instincts and become better beings who love, care, and do good all around as they interact with life/God.

Pi brought/got God into his life unknowingly, as he brought RP into the boat. Then God/RP became integral part of his life-helped him learn in life and live both in his life and the lifeboat.Now that, RP doesn't say goodbye, it's sure that, pi'll be grateful and live his life being dedicated to God.

I was thinking about this story the other day and I was wondering on everyone's opinion of something. We know that the Tiger was Pi (or that's what the writer said symbolized him). However, does anyone else think that Pi (the Pi in the story NOT the tiger) could symbolize God? Like God was helping him all along the way (like how Pi providing fish and food for the Tiger was God providing food for the real Pi)? Sorry if that is really confusing but it goes along with that whole "God will provide" saying in this story. Any thoughts?

The tiger is wild and he just follows instinct, as soon as he could he left because he belongs somewhere else, the tiger wants to go look for some female tigers

So that the savage side of his nature that had allowed Pi to survive, deserted him forever without looking back when it was time to become a civilised human again.

As with another discussion on here, just goes to show how you can interpret one thing in so many different ways!

I choose to look at Pi's reaction the the tiger NOT looking back. Both creatures needed each other for survival, yes, but they were never equal in the sense that a human is not the same as an animal. A human creates religion, a human creates art, a human creates story, a human creates an anthropomorphism in a wild animal, all of which makes a human existence so rich and fragile and tragic and fascinating.

The tiger helped him survive. He protected him. Taught him everything . And that was God !!!

Animals don't look back.