Editing Life of Pi (section)

=== Part two ===

The second part of the novel begins in July 1977 with Pi's family aboard the ''[[Tsimtsum]]'', a Japanese freighter that is transporting animals from their zoo to North America. A few days out of port from [[Manila]], the ship encounters a storm and sinks. Pi manages to escape in a small lifeboat, only to learn that the boat also holds a [[spotted hyena]], an injured [[Grant's zebra]], and an [[orangutan]] named Orange Juice. Much to the boy's distress, the hyena kills the zebra and then Orange Juice. A tiger has been hiding under the boat's [[tarpaulin]]: it is Richard Parker, who had boarded the [[Lifeboat (rescue)|lifeboat]] with ambivalent assistance from Pi himself sometime before the hyena attack. Suddenly emerging from his hideaway, Richard Parker kills and eats the hyena.

Frightened, Pi constructs a small raft out of rescue flotation devices, tethers it to the bow of the boat, and makes it his place of retirement. He begins [[Classic Conditioning|conditioning]] Richard Parker to take a submissive role by using food as a positive reinforcer, and seasickness as a punishment mechanism, while using a whistle for signals. Soon, Pi asserts himself as the [[Dominance hierarchy|alpha animal]] and is eventually able to share the boat with his feline companion, admitting in the end that Richard Parker is the one who helped him survive his ordeal.

Pi recounts various events while adrift in the [[Pacific Ocean]]. At his lowest point, exposure renders him blind and unable to catch fish. During this period, he encounters another drifting boat with another castaway aboard; however, when they manage to connect their boats together, the other castaway attempts to murder Pi, only to be killed and eaten by Richard Parker. After this, Pi gradually recovers from his temporary blindness.

Sometime later, Pi's boat comes ashore on a floating island network of [[algae]] inhabited by hundreds of thousands of [[meerkats]]. Soon, Pi and Richard Parker regain strength, but the boy's discovery of the [[carnivorous algae|carnivorous]] nature of the island's plant life forces him to return to the ocean.

Two hundred and twenty-seven days after the ship's sinking, the lifeboat washes onto a beach in Mexico, after which Richard Parker disappears into the nearby jungle without looking back, leaving Pi heartbroken at the abrupt departure without even a farewell.