Going through a series of traumatic events, like having your whole family die in a ship that sunk where you were the only surviver, calls for some kind of company to comfort you as you grieve. Although Richard Parker wasn't someone that Pi would have thought of to comfort him during this time, he ended up being the perfect companion. Without Richard Parker, Pi definitely would not have survived. He would have been sad, afraid, and alone and in the end the tiger was someone to talk to. Pi knew that the tiger couldn't talk back but without him Pi would have absolutely no chance of surviving. Imagine being alone on a lifeboat, now imagine it with a tiger. Yes, he was afraid of the tiger but if he kept his distance and knew well enough not to mess around with him then nothing bad could happen to him. Towards the end of the book, I think that the tiger and Pi developed a close companionship. Also in the book, Pi goes on about different species learning to live together in the zoo, he talks about what they need to do in order to survive. He referred to this as zoomorphism which is when an animal sees another animal of a different species as a member of its own species.There are many examples of animals coming to surprising living arrangements. "All are instances of that animal equivalent of anthropomorphism: zoomorphism, where an animal takes a human being, or another animal, to be one of its kind. (1.32.1)." This is why Pi connects with Richard Parker, loneliness. It's ironic because in the beginning of the book Pi's father shows him how dangerous tigers are by putting a goat into the cage where one was. Pi saw for himself that he was looking at "the animal seen through human eyes" (1.8.5). but now he saw that they weren't the kind of animal that you can bother/play with. .
Throughout his day, Pi was very busy with keeping everything in order and ensuring the survival his and Richard Parkers life.