In the novel Life of Pi, Piscine Molitor Patel, otherwise known as Pi, lives in a life of paradox. All of the things that occur in this novel balance out equally. Pi relied on his conventions during the beginning of the novel and threw them out the window once he climbed aboard the lifeboat. Animals and humans create one person in this novel, with the animals playing the role as another side of the humans; Pi forgets all conventions as a human when his animal side shines through.
A taboo is a topic difficult to have a conversation on, and on the opposite end of the spectrum is a convention which is an agreed upon subject that is safe and comfortable to talk about. Conventions are like a locked up room with walls on all four sides and the only opening secured shut. This border that allows you to wander around in the general area represents safety. Our brains are wired in the way that we sometimes fear the unknown therefore enjoy to have our own, fixed area. "Animals are territorial. That is the key to their minds." (17) Animals, like humans, need the assurance that they have safety. Near the beginning of this novel, Pi experiences the gruesome scene of a goat being torn to shreds and it involved so much pain that he wouldn’t dare express his feelings about it nor bring it up to talk about from that point on. Further along in the novel, Pi is stranded on a lifeboat and his survival mode kicks in. Then and only then is when the Bengal tiger climbs aboard. "I descended to a level of savagery I never imagined possible." (197) He becomes forced to live outside of conventions creating another side of himself.
Understanding how a man can survive on a small life boat with a ferocious tiger on board is very difficult to understand until the idea comes up that the man and the tiger are actually one, single person. Richard Parker, the name of the Bengal tiger, is not really tiger but rather an alter ego for Pi. He thought this terrible side of him would kill him since it...