Edition note: An independent English rewriting for readers of Life of Pi. It preserves the Chinese argument while reorganizing its sequence for an English-language essay. Full-film spoilers.
When the Tsimtsum sinks, Pi loses his family before he has even understood that he has lost them. On the lifeboat he first finds an injured zebra, a hyena, and Orange Juice, the orangutan who arrives amid floating bananas. The hyena kills the zebra and Orange Juice. Then Richard Parker rises from beneath the tarpaulin and kills the hyena.
The surviving pair are a sixteen-year-old boy and an adult Bengal tiger. The name Richard Parker is itself a clerical accident: the hunter and the cub called Thirsty were entered in the wrong fields. Unlike Pi, the tiger cannot reclaim or even understand the name. It belongs to the human story laid over him.
Pi's first workable insight is not companionship. It is distance. He builds a raft from oars, life jackets, rope, and a lifebuoy, then tethers it behind the boat. Richard Parker occupies one space; Pi tries to survive in another.
Distance alone cannot last. The raft is fragile, supplies are finite, and storms do not honor a territorial agreement. Pi begins using food, a whistle, the tiger's seasickness, and repeated gestures to divide the boat. He does not turn Richard Parker tame. He makes their behavior predictable enough, often enough, for another day to become possible.
That difference matters. Domination promises that the dangerous other has been changed from within. A boundary asks less and requires more maintenance: this side is mine, that side is yours, and tomorrow we establish it again.
Pi also feeds the animal he fears. Partly this is calculation. Hunger would make Richard Parker more dangerous. But the tiger gives Pi something in return without entering a contract: a schedule. Fishing, collecting water, repairing the raft, and maintaining the boundary prevent the days from dissolving into passive despair. Pi later says that Richard Parker kept him alive. The claim does not require the tiger to have intended rescue.
During a violent storm, Pi opens the tarpaulin and calls Richard Parker to witness what he sees as the hand of God. The tiger cowers. Pi is overwhelmed by beauty until the sea reminds him that revelation can drown both of them. He apologizes and struggles to protect the animal.
Faith here is neither a safety system nor a proof. It can enlarge the world at the same moment it distracts him from immediate terror. Care begins when he notices that his experience of wonder is not the tiger's experience.
The carnivorous island offers the opposite temptation. By day it provides fresh water, vegetation, and rest. At night its pools turn acidic; a human tooth hidden in a leaf suggests where permanent refuge ends. Pi prepares food and water, waits for Richard Parker, and leaves. Survival is necessary, but a place that sustains him only by gradually absorbing him is not yet a life.
On the Mexican coast, Richard Parker walks toward the jungle. He pauses but does not look back. Pi weeps because he had imagined a closing gesture: some sign that 227 days counted on both sides.
He says his father was right—the tiger never saw him as a friend. In the next breath, he admits that he must believe there was more in Richard Parker's eyes than his own reflection, even though he cannot prove it. The film preserves both statements.
That is more honest than declaring either pure attachment or pure conditioning. Pi kept a tiger alive; fear of the tiger helped keep Pi alert; repeated boundaries made coexistence possible. We cannot enter Richard Parker's experience and certify what any of it meant there.
The lack of a returned gaze does not erase Pi's actions. Nor does Pi's grief authorize him to turn an animal into a person who secretly shared his story. Their strange life together mattered to him. Its meaning need not be symmetrical to be real.
版本说明：中文原作；简体与繁体同页切换。片名、人名、关键情节与过强措辞已作校订。全片剧透。
一条救生艇，在太平洋中间。艇上有一个十六岁的男孩，和一只成年孟加拉虎。
男孩坐在艇尾，手里拿着一根棍子和一个哨子；老虎在艇头，趴着，看着他。两个人之间是一堆用救生衣捆起来的东西，那是一条线。
那家人决定移民加拿大。动物园卖了，剩下的动物装上一条日本货轮，一起走。
沉船那一夜片子拍得很短：半夜，暴风雨，船身开始倾斜；派跑到甲板上，喊叫，看见船员在跑，他没有找到他的家人。 一个船员把他推上了救生艇，放了下去。然后那条船沉了。
天亮之后，派发现艇上不止他一个。一只斑马，腿断了，是从船上跳下来砸进艇里的；一只鬣狗；一只红毛猩猩，是抱着一堆香蕉漂过来的；还有一只老虎，藏在防水布下面。
接下来几天发生的事，片子拍得毫不含糊。鬣狗先咬死了斑马，那一段很长，斑马还活着的时候就被开始吃；然后鬣狗攻击了猩猩，猩猩打了它一巴掌，而它是一只老猩猩，打不过，它被咬死了；派冲上去，而他打不过鬣狗。就在这时候，老虎从防水布下面出来了，一口结果了鬣狗。
艇上剩下两个：一只老虎，和一个男孩。这只老虎的名字叫理查德·帕克。
这个名字的来历，片子交代过：当年抓它的猎人叫理查德·帕克，那只小虎被登记成"口渴"；填表的人把两栏写反了。从此那只老虎叫理查德·帕克，那个猎人叫口渴。
请把它和上一篇那个名字接上。上一篇写过：派被人取了一个名字，被人叫成另一个名字，最后自己定了第三个。而这只老虎的名字，是一次登记错误——它自己完全不知道，也不可能知道。一个名字被安在一个东西身上，而那个东西对此毫无办法，这就是这只动物的处境。
派活下来的第一步，是做了一个判断：他不能跟这只老虎待在同一个空间里。 他做了一只筏子，用桨、救生衣和绳子扎起来，拖在艇后面，他睡在筏子上。这是他划的第一条线。
而接下来那个决定，是这部电影最要紧的一处：他决定要让这只老虎活下去。 他开始钓鱼，一部分给自己吃，一部分喂它；他收集雨水，分给它；他每天算它的食量和水量。
派后来说过原因，意思大致是：是理查德·帕克让他活了下来。 因为要喂它，他必须每天钓鱼；因为要防它，他必须一直保持清醒；因为要照顾它，他每天有事情要做。一个人在一条船上漂两百多天，最危险的不是饿，是没有任何事情要做——而这只老虎给了他一份日程。
这一节要说准，因为它是这一篇的落点。
派试过训练它。他用哨子，他用晕船——他摇船，让老虎难受，让它学会哨声一响就退回自己那一半。而他从来没有让它变得温顺：他没有喂它到亲近，没有摸过它，没有一天可以放松警惕。
他做的事情是：划出一条线，然后让它成立。 那条线的一边是老虎的地盘，另一边是他的；他每天维护这条线，而不试图取消它。
这一点跟他父亲那一课也接得上。父亲说的是"忘了它是什么的人会送命"，而派没有忘——他一天都没有把那只老虎当成朋友。 而他也没有照父亲的另一半去做：父亲那一课的用意是"离它远点"，而派每天在喂它。
漂了很久之后，来了一场大的。天开了，雷电，浪打过来。派做了一件事：他把防水布掀开了。
他站在艇上，冲着天上喊，喊的意思大致是：你还要拿走什么？你已经拿走了我的家人，你把我逼到这里，你还要什么？而他一边喊，一边转身去护那只老虎。 老虎缩在艇底，怕得发抖，派冲它喊：出来看，这是神。
请把这一场的两个动作放在一起：一个是对着天空的质问，另一个是伸手去护住那只随时可以咬死他的东西——这两个动作是同时发生的。
风暴之后，两个人都快不行了，然后他们漂到了一座岛。
那座岛上有淡水，有植物，有成千上万只狐獴。他们上岸，吃，喝，睡——这是两百多天里唯一一次安稳。 而到了夜里，那些水变成了酸的，狐獴全都爬到树上去。派后来在一朵莲花里，找到了一颗牙。
他重新装好船，带上淡水和食物，把老虎叫上来，走了。
这一节要点一句：那座岛能让他活着，而只是活着。它白天给你一切，夜里把你消化掉。 那里有吃有喝，没有风险，不需要做任何决定——而它不通向任何地方。他自己走的。
后来他们漂到了墨西哥的海岸。派爬上沙滩，趴在那儿，动不了。
那只老虎从艇上跳下来，走到沙滩上，站了一会儿，然后它走进了丛林。它没有回头。
派躺在沙滩上哭。他后来说的意思大致是：他一直以为会有一个告别，他以为它至少会回头看一眼；而它就那么走了。他说：这件事让他难过了很多年。
请回到上一篇那只羊。他父亲说过：你在那只老虎眼睛里看到的，不是它的感情，是你自己的感情反射回来的。
而在那片沙滩上，这句话并没有被简单证实或推翻。 那条线确实让两百多天的共处成为可能；但老虎是否也形成了某种不能用“朋友”概括的经验，电影没有替它作答。线不再需要维持的那一刻，它走了。
而这不是一个失败。派难过，是因为他希望那两百多天在对方那里也算数。而那两百多天在他这里是算数的——他划了那条线，他维护了那条线，他喂了它，他护住了它，他把它带上了岸。这些事情是他做的，而它们不需要那只老虎回头来确认。
下一篇写他上岸之后。有两个人来问他这两百多天发生了什么，而他们不信。
本文所依据的版本为二〇一二年李安执导版。