The Problem With Cohabitation

It is interesting that despite all of the conflict concerning the danger of traveling with a tiger, Pi in convinced that he would not have survived without the company of Richard Parker. While readers can be sure that Richard Parker would not have survived without Pi to provide and plan ahead for him, what did Pi really gain from Richard Parker, other than companionship? If there had been no tiger in the boat, Pi could have drunken more than twice as much water, as well as eaten more than twice as much food. He could have focused more easily on the tasks at hand, protected himself with the tarp instead of sacrificing it as Richard Parker’s territory, and he could have had a greatly diminished feeling of stress, not worrying about both survival and a tiger, but merely focused on survival while sleeping comfortably in the boat. Perhaps Pi’s point is that without Richard Parker there would be nothing to hope or trust in (not that Richard Parker was really trustworthy). At any rate, it is interesting to think about why Pi felt he needed R.P.