At this point in the story Pi and Richard Parker go blind. This is due to malnutrition and other medical problems but that is not the true meaning as to why they went blind. Pi first hears a voice which then starts speaking to him. Pi responds with what is on his mind- food. The voice speaks of beef and brains and all sorts of food that Pi finds distasteful. From here Pi assumes he is hearing the voice of Richard Parker. The reason why I think Pi concludes that this is Richard Parker who he is talking to his because the voice seems like a meat eating being like he has become. Pi asks the voice if he has ever killed anyone, and the voice says yes, a man and a woman. I think the reason for his blindness and his encounter with ‘another blind boy’ is a way that he will find his existentialism. This other being is someone Pi never wants to become, so by meeting this boy, Pi can compare himself to him and can see a side of him that he doesn’t want to ever release. The voice belongs to a castaway like Pi, and they join their boats together. The man climbs aboard Pi’s boat and tries to strangle and cannibalize him. But when he steps down onto the floor of the boat, Richard Parker kills him. Pi cries for the dead man which relives some of his blindness. He then rinses his eyes with seawater and his vision comes back. Yann Martel included this is the story because he wanted this to be a major stepping stone to Pi’s realization of his meaning in life. After meeting this man Pi knew he never wanted to become like him, and this imagination was exactly the opposite of who Pi was. Pi never wanted to kill a person, or eat like a savage. So being blind just symbolized that Pi still had no sight or vision as to what his meaning was. But once the hallucination had disappeared, Pi’s eyes opened and his vision slowly healed. Pi now knew what his meaning was in life (his existentialism).
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