The simplest and clearest change that Pi undergoes is that he starts eating meat after being a vegetarian. In India, Pi was a vegetarian, but when he is stranded in the ocean he is forced to eat fish and turtle in order to avoid starvation.
Pi also tames Richard Parker, the tiger, so that the two of them can live together peacefully in the cramped space of the lifeboat. Both Pi and Richard Parker change from this. Although Richard Parker is not completely wild, –because he was a caged zoo animal- Pi teaches the beast to be afraid of him instead of instinctively wanting to kill him. Pi changes from this event because his father had once taught him to be afraid of and to not trust Richard Parker, for obvious reasons. However, when Pi realizes his best chance is to tame the tiger, he says, “I looked at Richard Parker. My panic was gone. My fear was dominated. Survival was at hand” (182). He is brave enough to use a whistle to tame him, which irritates Richard Parker so much that he roars and claws the air.
Pi also physically changes when he becomes very weak and loses a lot of weight because of limited food and water. He even loses his eye sight for a couple days.
Another way in which Pi changes is that he becomes very alone because he loses everything he has ever known. In the beginning he has a family, lives in India, and has grown up in a zoo. Then his family dies, along with most of the animals he loves and the one surviving tiger ends up abandoning him. On top of that, Pi is still sent to Canada, instead of his home country, where he is placed with a foster family.
All the changes are because Richard Parker and Pi are stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat together after their ship sinks.
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