The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Hello reader,

         This blog is a part of my classroom activity on The white Tiger by Aravind Adiga. 

 Click here to show worksheet of given task.


 

 
                                                   

          The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year. In the novel, Balram is writing letter to Wen Jiabao who will visit India soon in the narrative. Balram is telling him the story of his life and he interwoven the India which he has faced in his lifetime. Balram is talking about The India which is actually can be considered as “Real” India in the narrative. The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing Balram's journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India. Ultimately, Balram transcends his sweet-maker caste and becomes a successful entrepreneur, establishing his own taxi service.

(1): How far do you agree with the India represented in the novel The White Tiger?

            In the novel ‘The white Tiger’ Protagonist of the novel Balram Halwai tells story of real India in form of letter to Wen Jiabao who will visit India soon. 

    

        Adiga criticize India through the perspective of Balram Halwai. He says that;

                          “If anyone knows truth about India it’s me”.

This line suggests that he has experienced the truth of India. In his letter he deconstructs the image of ‘shinning India’. 

         A Balram talks about Laxmangarh, where he was born, is in the northern part of India, in the area along the Ganges River which Balram describes as "the Darkness." It is in this part of India that the majority of the population lives, where raw sewage flows through the town, where there is no access to fresh drinking water. Balram tells the Chinese premier not to touch the Ganges, because it is a supposedly sacred river and frequent destination for every people even after death also:  

“No!—Mr. Jiabao, I urge you not to dip in the Ganga, unless you want your mouth full of feces, straw, soggy parts of human bodies, buffalo carrion, and seven different kinds of industrial acids.”

         Some of the funniest parts of the book ridicule the political system in India. Laxmangarh politics is dominated by "The Great Socialist," whose quotes rise above the crumbling public hospital without doctors. When the landlords get mad over the amount of bribes they have to give to "The Great Socialist" they form their own political party. Although Balram has never seen a ballot box he has voted in every Indian election. His birth date was made up by a school teacher in order to sell the vote.

          Balram narrates Indian education system through his school. He tells about corruption in his school by teacher. How students were given name and the behavior of teacher which is an archetype of school in all Indian villages. As he said,

“The teacher turned aside and spat—a jet of red paan splashed the ground of the classroom. He licked his lips.”

               Balram also said that:             

“The teacher had a legitimate excuse to steal the money—he said he hadn't been paid his salary in six months. He was going to undertake a Gandhian protest to retrieve his missing wages—he was going to do nothing in class until his paycheck arrived in the mail. Yet he was terrified of losing his job, because though the pay of any government job in India is poor, the incidental advantages are numerous.”

            So through this novel Adiga highly criticize education systems, democracy, river Ganga even Buddha and Gandhi also. So in this novel we find representation of India very well.

(2) Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

          

             Yes, at some point we can agree with this point. Balram was an ordinary driver and from that position he has became an entrepreneur. He has that insight to looking towards the world differently.  He has always ‘thinks big’, ‘dream big’ and positive attitude for doing work. We can apply here Dhirubhaism in Balram’s story as far as ‘rags to riches’ is concern but here Balram has used not only his hard work to become rich but he worked very smartly. He became rich not after his hard work but after killing his master. He became a murderer and then he became rich. So here we can say that Balram’s story is not archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches' because every story’s hero did not murder his master to get successes or became rich like Balram.

(3) "Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to show that any text inevitably undermines its own claims to have a determinate meaning, and licences the reader to produce his own meanings out of it by an activity of semantic 'freeplay' (Derrida, 1978, in Lodge, 1988, p. 108). Is it possible to do deconstructive reading of The White Tiger? How? 

         Yes, it is possible that any text or novel deconstructed idea of novelist or author. In this novel Adiga use language as a sword. As novel begin that in first sense Balram talk about to Mr. Jiabao. He says that,

         “Neither you nor I can speak English but there are some things that can be said only in English”.

It means that Adiga knows about use of language as better way.

       This novel we also deconstructed on the basis of class conflict. Balram is servant and also driver of Honda city car. In India servant is always faithful to his master example like Hanuman. So here this idea of loyal or faithful servant of his master was deconstructed very artfully.

   (4) Is it possible to read The White Tiger in context of Globalization? 

            Yes, it is possible to read "The White Tiger" in the context of Globalization. Through out the novel we see some form of America seems to pop up in a key moment. for example when Balram is describing Ashok’s corruption on page 173,

 “you’ve got plenty of places to drink beer, dance, pick up girls, that sort of thing. A small bit of America in India.”  

 So here see effect of globalization clearly. India is being like America so here we see cultural diversity and open up new exiting world. Some how it is good thing but sometime it also harm to the culture. Next we see in the novel that Balram sees Ashok being transformed by the influence of American culture, the creeping globalization that is taking over Delhi.

 

Thank you...