Richard Parker, Animal Alter Ego:
An Examination of the Nature of Id in Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
Nurul Kamilah Mat Kamil
1007C10614
Period 3
ENG4U
Mr. S. Wise
7th
March 2011
As a device of the poetic imagination and rhetorical flourish,
metaphors give as much colour and emphasise to a particular message; be it a
social critique or even a psychological examination (Lakoff). Animals are
widely used as metaphors in Yann Martel’s Life
of Pi, for example, Richard Parker; a full-grown Bengal tiger is used as a
metaphor for the id of the protagonist, Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi.
The id is one of the three psychic zones in Sigmund Freud’s model of the
subconscious mind. It is the dark, inaccessible part of human personality
governed by the pleasure-principle and is oriented towards one's internal
instincts and passions (“Id”). As the metaphor of the id, Richard Parker acts
out in violence which eludes Pi’s own potential for violence. Pi also has to
tame Richard Parker in order to coexist with a carnivorous beast in the same
way as one would repress the dangerous inclinations of the id. Due to this, Richard
Parker’s presence creates emotional tension within Pi. Thus, Richard Parker
embodies Pi’s id as he has violent tendencies, is difficult to restrain and creates
inner conflict within Pi.
Evidences of violence are illustrated in the killings of
the hyena, blind Frenchman and the meerkats on the carnivorous island by
Richard Parker. In Pi’s narrative of an alternate version of his survival
story, the hyena was actually the cannibalistic cook who killed Pi’s mother and
a Chinese sailor. Pi has admitted to killing the cook and says that, “A knife
has a horrible dynamic power; once in motion, it’s hard to stop. I stabbed him
repeatedly” (391). It proves that human beings do have an innate capacity for
evil and destructiveness (Daniels). Other than that, Richard Parker also kills
the blind Frenchman. Even before the killing, Pi has a delusional conversation
with Richard Parker, suggesting vile menus like “brain souffle’” (309). Pi not only transgresses his vegetarian
principles, but he also goes as far as using the dead Frenchman for his bait
and chews on his meat. Cannibalism becomes a necessity in dire circumstances
and is even recognized
by even such a great authority such as the Catholic Church upon the conduct of
life, which shows that a human being is mostly likely to resort to cannibalism
as an animal would (“Donner”). At the same time, the human
consumption of human flesh has also been a means to enforce social control (Goldman). When chancing upon an island, Richard Parker
also kills a group of meerkats “that he did not even eat” and it was “beyond
his [own] need” (339). In contrast to the situation when he killed the blind
Frenchman, this is not an act out of necessity; rather it is due to the frustration
of basic needs (Wollstein). Pi has been deprived of company and food, and this
deprivation causes him to lash out in aggression, evident by Richard Parker
whose “pent-up hunting instinct” (339) is unleashed by the sight of many preys.
This suggests Pi’s mental state at that time. As a result, the aggression is actually
the reaction to circumstances in which essential requirements of human nature
are unfulfilled (Wollstein). All in all, all these evident killings by Richard
Parker are an illustration of the violent tendencies of Pi’s id.
Due to the murderous nature of Richard Parker, he has to
be restrained. However, it is done with much difficulty. If Pi has not set the
boundaries on the lifeboat or establish that he is the alpha animal on board,
Richard Parker could have easily made him his meal, as he was the biggest
threat to Pi’s survival. Richard Parker is only concerned in satisfying his own
basic needs and Pi could have been “[his] next goat” (124). The need to eat, to drink, to eliminate
wastes, to avoid pain, and to gain sexual pleasure, Freud believed that
aggression is also due to these basic biological drives (“Freudian”). This
parallels the description of the destructive nature of id. The id seeks
immediate gratification of these impulses (“Freudian”). If it were released, basic
human nature would only lead to destruction. Therefore, there is a need to
control human nature with the hypothetical super-ego (“Learning”). The
super-ego is the total opposite of the id. It represents internalization of . . . the rules of society,
and functions to reward and punish through a system of moral attitudes,
conscience, and a sense of guilt (“Superego”). Pi’s
inclination to religion provides him his moral compass and forms his superego.
Although circumstance forces Pi outside of his religious norms and even go
against some of his principals, he still expresses guilt and feels a need to
control Richard Parker, his id. Pi realizes that he cannot get
rid of Richard Parker, “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”
(206). In doing so, Pi’s attention is redirected from fearing Richard Parker to
taming Richard Parker. For this to happen, another element of the human
personality comes into play, the ego. The ego is the representative
of the outer world to the id and is oriented
towards perceptions in the real world (“Ego”). Pi as the ego satisfies
within certain boundaries the needs of the id (Phaneuf). Pi has to provide
Richard Parker’s only with consideration that he has the means to do so despite
the fact that Richard Parker needs to be constantly fed the same way the id always
demands immediate gratification, yet the ego has to sometimes defer
gratification due to the lack of means to satisfy the id. Being the biggest threat that needs
to be controlled due to its nature of demanding immediate gratification,
Richard Parker is a strong embodiment of Pi’s id in the sense that he is
difficult to be restrained.
“I was thirty or so feet from the lifeboat, the distance
that about rightly balanced my two fears: being too close to Richard Parker and
being too far from the lifeboat” (195). Conflicts arise as the id, ego and
superego compete over dominion, yet one cannot make do without the other, so is
the case with Pi and Richard Parker. Richard Parker has always been a source of
conflict for Pi as Pi fights an internal battle to gain control over Richard
Parker, yet he is afraid of him. At the same time, his worst fear also becomes
a dear companion throughout the ordeal and he feels mixed emotions when Richard
Parker leaves him without saying goodbye. “It is the irony of this story that the one
who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace,
purpose, and dare I say even wholeness” (204). If in order to satisfy the id,
the individual transgresses the superego’s laid down moral sanction, this will
cause an inner conflict within the constituent parts of the mind, [inclusive of
id and ego] (Thornton). At times, Pi has to rely to his id to give him the
drive to fight for life, while at certain times, the superego or ego acts to
control the id. “Richard Parker was such a magnetic pole of life” (122). Richard
Parker plays an important role in his survival as he gives Pi the spirit to
keep on living. The
influence of an individual's needs and desires both have a strong impact on the
direction of their behavior (Rabideau). However, as Pi washed
up the shore of Mexico, Richard Parker leaves Pi. Pi’s return to civilisation
shows Pi’s return to order and civilisation, the superego’s stronghold. The
super-ego creates within the subject boundaries and therefore a sense of the
territory of the self, it enforces the external by linking it to a more or less
naturalised sense of identification and, finally, it polices the relationship
and attitudes of the subject in relation to the external reality which is now
moralised as ‘civilisation’ (Tester). Pi testifies “I couldn’t have done it
without you” (361), and still misses Richard Parker even in years to come as he
relates his story to the author. Being
alone could be very painful; a time of utter despair, which is why Pi needed
Richard Parker with him (Rokach). He would have gone insane if he were on his own.
When marooned, the superego has a smaller voice as opposed to the id. Among the
conflicts that challenges Pi’s principles is the killing of animals for food.
He feels guilt at first when killing a fish, but as he progresses, he no longer
feels the guilt as it becomes a necessity for him to kill. Pi is most intimate
with Richard Parker during his time of near death. He goes blind and has a conversation
with Richard Parker. At this time, his superego is the weakest and Pi “lost all
fear of death, and [he] resolved to die.” (305). One of the innate desires of id is the
instinct of death. Every person has an unconscious wish to die (Boeree). Death
is a means of escape to the hardships of life, an end to sufferings. Sometimes
this desire for peace, for escape from
stimulation is directed away from the self and is released in the form of
aggression, cruelty, murder, and destructiveness (Boeree). All in all, despite
fearing Richard Parker, Pi seeks to control Richard Parker, who ends up being a
dear companion to him at times of dire circumstances. This, in turn, causes Pi
to have mixed feelings about Richard Parker. Ultimately, as Pi’s id, Richard
Parker is an inseparable entity from Pi’s self.
In conclusion,
the embodiment of Pi’s id by Richard Parker is most apt as Richard Parker
displays violent motives, is difficult to restrain and creates inner conflict
within Pi. Despite those qualities in Richard Parker, he has somewhat enabled
Pi to survive as the tenacity and the drives of the id pushes one to keep
fighting for his life. The id is the “madness that moves [people] in strange,
sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving” (51). Although one is
compelled to find means of fulfilling the demands of the id, at the same time,
he has to control the id to ensure that it will not be his destruction. The id
also gives one a purpose and a drive to keep on living. All in all, the id is
not merely a negative side to the human nature; it is a life force that keeps
one going.
Word count: 1749
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