Spider-Man’s Dad Meets The Tiger From Life of Pi.

What’s the similarity between the 450 pound Royal Bengal Tiger in the movie ‘Life of Pi’ and father of ‘The Amazing Spiderman’?

The name Richard Parker.

In an interesting coincidence, I just watched both movies back to back and was surprised to note that both Spiderman’s father and the tiger in Life of Pi are named Richard Parker! I have watched both movies separately tons of times, but never noticed the similarity in names.

What’s even more strange is that Spiderman’s father died in a plane crash following a possible conspiracy and the tiger was named after several fictional and non fictional people named Richard Parker all of whom died as a result of ship wrecks, cannibalism and in some cases conspiracy.

Famed writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote several short stories and poems in his lifetime, but published just one novel titled “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket,” a fictional story of how Pym and two of his comrades killed all mutineers that attacked their whaling ship except one named Richard Parker, to help operate the ship. Unfortunately, they got shipwrecked and ran out of food. Parker suggested that cannibalism was the only option and drew lots. Parker lost and became dinner.

This novel was written in 1838. But, in a real creepy coincidence in 1884 a yacht named Mignonette sank. Just like in the story by Edgar Allan Poe, four people escaped into a lifeboat and started starving because they had no food. They did not draw lots, but simply killed a 17 years old cabin boy who had gone into coma. His name was Richard Parker.

In 1846 also, a real Richard Parker died in a shipwreck. However, there was no cannibalism or mutiny.

Even before Edgar Allan Poe wrote about the naval mutiny in his novel, there lived another Richard Parker who led a naval mutiny of the British Naval base at Nore, commandeering a number of ships. It was on the interestingly named ship HMS Sandwich that the Nore mutiny broke out. Here again, food started running out and he directed his fleet to France. Eventually, Richard Parker was hanged for treason.

Author of ‘Life of Pi’, Yann Martel mentioned that he named the tiger Richard Parker as a tribute to all the men named Richard Parker who died due to shipwrecks.

Though not directly related to Richard Parker but to strange literary forecasts of future naval disasters, Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan tells the story of an enormous ocean liner named the Titan that sinks in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage. The Titan was thought to be unsinkable and carried enough lifeboats for less than half the passengers. As a consequence, most of the 2500 passengers drowned.

Fourteen years after its publication, the supposedly unsinkable ocean liner Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage and sank. Without enough lifeboats, most of her 2200 passengers drowned.

Coming back to how the name Richard Parker is associated with ship wrecks and plane crashes, I can’t help but wonder if it was just a random coincidence that I ended up watching ‘Life of Pi’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ back to back, notice the similarity in names and delve deeper into the curious case of Richard Parker? Irrespective, the dark stories did leave me disturbed and I was looking for a positive conclusion to end this Richard Parker jinx once and for all.

Interestingly, the tiger Richard Parker shines brightly as a silver lining on a rather dark cloud of conspiracy and cannibalism. He survived the shipwreck, went against his animal instinct and chose to go hungry rather than eating human Pi, in sharp contrast to human cannibals.

Out on the open high seas, pushed to the point of existential crisis, the lines between man and beast get blurred. In one act of beastly desperation, man can kill (and eat) another of his own kind and in one act of greatness, a carnivorous predator accustomed to eating 5 Kgs of meat daily can choose hunger over killing a being that is showing him compassion, because it understands that true existence is much deeper than physical survival. Perhaps, the tiger Richard Parker resonated with the deep, metaphysical philosophy of Pi that transcends the physical divide between human and animal existence :

“In times like these, I remember that he has as little experience with the real world as I do. We were both raised in a zoo by the same master. Now we’ve been orphaned, left to face our ultimate master together”.