Describe Richard Parker’s reaction on seeing the lifebuoy.
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summary
Pi tells the story of Richard Parker’s capture. A panther had been killing people near Bangladesh, and a professional hunter was called in to try to capture it. Leaving a goat as bait, the hunter instead attracted two tigers, a mother and her cub. The hunter sedated the mother and picked up the cub, sending them both off to the Pondicherry Zoo. In the accompanying paperwork, the name of the hunter who had picked up the cub, Richard Parker, gets mixed up with the name of the cub, Thirsty. The mix-up so amuses Mr. Patel that he decides to call the tiger cub Richard Parker.
Back on the lifeboat, Pi is so certain the tiger will kill him that he actually cheers up a bit. There’s nothing he can do now. Suddenly he is overcome by thirst and explores the lifeboat looking for water. He observes the details of the boat: its benches and oarlocks, its bright orange color, its dimensions—twenty-six feet long and eight feet wide. Pi discovers a locker containing emergency supplies under the end of the lifeboat under the tarpaulin, where Richard Parker has his “den.” Carefully, he opens the locker and assesses the contents, greedily drinking some canned water and eagerly eating emergency rations. He tallies his supplies: he has 31 cartons of rations and 124 cans of water, among other survival items.
Pi decides that to survive with Richard Parker as a companion he needs to build a raft to put some distance between himself and the tiger. He creates a raft using oars, a lifebuoy, and life jackets, then tethers it to the lifeboat. As he is doing so, the hyena starts whining and Richard Parker begins to growl. The tiger kills the hyena, who dies without a whimper. Richard Parker turns around and starts to approach Pi but gets distracted by the rolling of the boat and the bounciness of the tarpaulin. At that moment, a rat appears and runs up onto Pi’s head. Pi grabs and throws the rat at Richard Parker, who devours it, giving Pi just enough time to escape into his raft.
The raft proves seaworthy, but Pi knows he is floating just above a vast ocean, with sharks all around. Rain falls and Pi uses a rain catcher to trap fresh water for drinking. He continually checks the knots in the ropes holding together the parts of the raft. Unable to sleep, he entertains fanciful ways of killing Richard Parker. Finally Pi decides to wait for the tiger to run out of water and starve. The next day he realizes the flaws in his plan: Bengal tigers can swim and drink saline water. If Richard Parker gets hungry, he will jump into the ocean and swim out to Pi. If he gets thirsty, he will drink seawater.
For now, though, Richard Parker is sated, having drunk rainwater and feasted on the hyena. While looking at Pi, he makes an unusual noise that sounds like prusten. Pi recognizes it as the rare sound tigers use to express harmless intentions. At this moment, Pi decides to try to tame Richard Parker. He uses a whistle on one of the lifejackets as a whip and shouts across the water to prove his alpha status. Richard Parker intensely dislikes the sound of the whistle and lies down in the bottom of the lifeboat.