Who is Richard Parker? - An Analysis of the Tiger Character in Life of Pi

摘要

As the main leading role in the Booker Prize winner Life of Pi in 2002, the Bengal tiger named Richard Parker has gained great popularity and various analysis that comes along. Was Richard Parker a real tiger once in the life of Pi? If not, what was he? In this paper, with the help of Lacan's Mirror Image Theory, the analysis of the tiger starts from the existing doubts and by expounding the importance of his presence, the tiger's identity is to be verified and the reasons that Pi makes him become clear.