Editing Life of Pi (section)

=== Richard Parker and shipwreck narratives ===

The name Richard Parker for the tiger was inspired by a character in [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s nautical adventure novel ''[[The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket]]'' (1838). Richard Parker is a mutineer who is stranded and eventually cannibalized on the hull of an overturned ship, and there is a dog aboard who is named Tiger. Martel also had another occurrence in mind in the famous legal case ''[[R v Dudley and Stephens]]'' (1884), where a shipwreck again results in the cannibalism of a cabin boy named Richard Parker, this time in a lifeboat.<ref>[http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2012/07/nautical-coincidence-lifeboat-morality-richard-parker-and-the-mignonette/ Oldsaltblog.com]</ref> A third Richard Parker drowned in the sinking of the ''[[Francis Spaight]]'' in 1846, with a cabin boy cannibalized during an incident involving the same ship in 1835.<ref>{{cite book | last = Simpson | first = A. W. B. | author-link = A. W. B. Simpson | date = 1984 | title = Cannibalism and the Common Law: The Story of the Tragic Last Voyage of the Mignonette and the Strange Legal Proceedings to Which It Gave Rise | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | pages = 128–135 | isbn = 0-226-75942-3}}</ref> "So many victimized Richard Parkers had to mean something", Martel suggested.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.canongate.net/News/BehindLifeOfPi | title = Yann Martel on tigers, cannibals and Edgar Allan Poe |date=14 May 2002 |publisher=[[Canongate Books]] |access-date=1 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080318173941/http://www.canongate.net/News/BehindLifeOfPi |archive-date=18 March 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=309590 | title = How Richard Parker Came to Get His Name |author=Martel, Yann |author-link=Yann Martel |publisher=Amazon.com |access-date=1 September 2010}}</ref>