Aslan, C. S. Lewis's symbol for Christ, who is "not a tame lion."

However, in the second story Pi tells, he himself plays the part of Richard Parker. This suggests that the tiger is closely identified with Pi and symbolizes his own unconscious mind or animal instincts. Like Pi, Richard Parker has to kill to survive; there is no moral judgment involved in his killing. None of this is compatible with Richard Parker symbolizing God. The tiger is also mortal in his fallibility, for instance, in his seasickness.

God is a vague category. One might argue that Richard Parker has more in common with the arbitrary Greek gods, who suffer from mortal passions and weaknesses, than with the transcendent God of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. Even within a single religious text or tradition, God is not necessarily consistent. The reader who sees God in Richard Parker cannot, therefore, be proved wrong. However, the idea of the tiger as Pi's unconscious mind is more thoroughly supported by the text.