Presentation on “The White Tiger” by Arvind Adiga

Prepared by:

Sejal Chauhan

Riddhi Jani

Urvi Bhatt

Kaushal Desai

Jayshri Kunchala

Vinod Rabhadiya

Shabana Khalani

“The White Tiger”- Key Fact

• Full title: The White Tiger

• Author: Aravind Adiga.

• Type of work: Novel

• Genre: Fiction novel, Epistolary novel, Dark Comedy, Satire

• LANGUAGE: Indian English

• Date of first PUBLICATION: April 22, 2008

• Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2008

• NARRATOR: Balram Halwai

• Technique: Flashback

• Climax: Balram kills his master Ashok and run away to Bangalore.

• Protagonist: Balram Halwai• Antagonist: Society, poverty and situation• Setting (time): Present-day• Setting (place): Various location in India including

Laxmangarh, Delhi, Dhanbad, Bangalore.• Point of view: The novel is from the perspective of Balram

Halwai, who is the mouthpiece of Arvind Adiga himself.• TENSE: Past,Present• Themes: The Indian family, Lightness and Darkness, Marriage

in India, Globalization, The cast system, India’s relationship to china, Freedom, Individualism, corruption, Class Conflict, Good v/s Evil, Old Morality V/S New Morality, Eurocentrism

• SYMBOLS: Rooster Coop, Chandelier, Cars, Delhi’s Road, Green Lizard, Black fort, black ogre in car etc.

• Motif: India of light and India of darkness

The White Tiger- Characters

• Balram Halwai

• Mr. Ashok

• Pinky Madam

• Vikram Halwai

• Kusum

• Kishan

• Mr. Krishna

• The Stork

• Mukeshsir

• Wen Jiabao

• The Wild Boar

• The Buffalo

• The Raven

• Ram Prasad

• Vijay

• Great Socialist

• Vitiligo-Lips

• Dharam

• Uma

• Dilip

• Ram Bahadur

The White Tiger- Plot

• Beginning

• Letter

• Flashback

Rising Action

• Middle

• BalramkillesMr.Ashok

Climax

• Balramsucceeds in escaping and becomes an entreprene-ur

Falling Action

Plot Devices

• MacGuffin:

“A plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. The most common type of MacGuffin is an object, place or person; other, more abstract types include money, victory, glory, survival, power, love, or some unexplained driving force.”

• Balram’s quest for freedom and individual identity

Balram goes to Delhi, Accident

by Pinky madam and

Ashok’s murder by Balram

Balram leaves the school,

Balram finds work at

Stork’s home

Plot Movers

Balramsucceeds in

escaping and becomes

entrepreneur in Bangalore

Unities

• The Unity of Time:

The novel goes in flashback technique. So, it swings between past and present.

• The unity of Place:

It is also broken by Adiga. The novel moves in various places of India.

• The unity of Action:

It can be seen here at many extent. There is not any considerable subplot here.

Motif

• “The India of Light and the India of Darkness.”

• “Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness.”

• An entrepreneur who emerges from the ‘India of Darkness” and enters into the ‘India of Light’

• Two ‘Indias’ in one India.

Annotated Bibliography

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_%28narrative%29

• From this site we can see the definition of ‘Plot’ or narrative and the deep description of it.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin

• It is a site (and hyperlink) for the description about this plot device named MacGuffin.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

• It is a site for the detailed description about the plot device named Red herring

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun

• It is the site for the information about the plot device named ‘Chekhov’s Gun”.

• http://www.gradesaver.com/the-white-tiger/study-guide/character-list

• It is the site used for the information about all major and minor characters. We can see the information of almost every characters of the novel.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Tiger

• This site gives us information about the main aspects and about the key facts of the novel. Mainly it gives

the plot summary and various themes.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unities

• This is the site, which gives detailed description about the three unities of time, place and action.

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CgWCZnR2c9zya6N7gjAdvcuVKaDYKN0_FPXEWhX717M/edit

• This is the link of the Google drive made by some of our senior students, in which we have added our things. From it we can get the detailed information about most of the aspects of the novel.

“The White Tiger”- Themes

Identity

• The opening chapter establishes the theme of identity

• The novel explores how identity is malleable enough that one can construct one’s own selfhood

• Balram prides himself on being a “self taught” entrepreneur

• At first he is nameless known simply as Munna

• Later he passively accepts the name Balram

• Inspector dubs him the “White Tiger”

• He accepts this name because it allows him to define himself.

Marriage in India

• Play a very vital role in Indian Society as well as the novel.

• Dowry

• Save reputation and marriage

• Balram’s cousin’s wedding is not the only marriage that disrupts Balram’s life.

• Pinky Madam and Mr.Ashok.

The Indian Family

• In an interview with The Guardian ,Adiga emphasizes the importance of family in Indian Society.

• “ If you’re rude to your mother in India. It’s a crime as bad as stealing would be here”.

• He explain, for Balram to abandon his family.

• His crime. “ This is a shameful and dislocating thing for an Indian to do”.

• Adiga remarks his protagonist.

China’s Relationship to India

• Beginning of the novel

• Balram mention that China is the only nation he admires besides Afghanistan and Abyssinia.

• Why?

• Because g he read a book called ‘Exciting Tales of the Exotic East’.

• These are the only three countries never to be ruled by outsiders.

• He dubs China the “ freedom loving nation”.

• A place that has never been subject to a master slave relationship with the west.

• He observes that China does not have entrepreneurs.

• Hence the premier’s visit to Bangalore.

• China , then becomes a foil to India.

• Which he describe as a nation with “ no drinking water, electricity sewage, public transportation………….” for chock full of entrepreneurs.

• For this reason Balram tell the premier his story,

• believing that China and India are destined to become the next great superpowers.

• “ In 20 years time it will just be us brown and yellow men at the top of the pyramid, and we’ll rule the whole world”.

Lightness and Darkness

• Duality of light and dark.

• Light then becomes a multifaceted symbol of time, wealth, location and obligation.

• While Darkness represent the past, poverty, rural India and most importantly loyality to family and master.

Globalization

• The white Tiger takes place in a time in which increased technology has led to world globalization and India is no exception.

• In India has played its role in the plot

• Since it provides an outlet for Balram to alter his caste

• To satisfy Pinky’s want for American culture

• Globalization has assisted in the creation of an American atmosphere in India

• Balram’s taxi service is not an international businesss

• He plans to keep up with the pace of globalization and changed his trade when need be

• “ I’m always a man who sees tomorrow’ when others see ‘today’ “

• Balram’s recognition of the increasing competition resulting from globalization contributes to his corruption

Individualism

• Throughout the book there are references to how Balram is very different from those back in his home environment

• He is referred to as the ‘white tiger’

• A white tiger symbolizes power in East Asian Cultures, such as in Vietnam

• It is also a symbol for freedom and individuality

Freedom

• ‘ The white Tiger’ was a book about a man’s quest for freedom

• Balram protagonist of the novel

• Worked his way out of his low social caste

• In the book, Balram talks about how he was in a rooster coop and how he broke free from his coop

• His journey to finding his freedom in India’s modern day capitalist society

• Beginning of the novel

• Balram cites a poem from the Muslim poet Iqbal

• Where he talks about slaves and says

• “ They remain slaves because they can’t see what is beautiful in this world.”

• Finding his freedom

Immoral Corruption

• Balram was born to the low caste in India

• He was exposed into a lot of corruption and immoral behavior

• For example

• The shopkeeper selling his employees votes to the Great Socialist during election time

The Caste System

• The White Tiger is the discussion of the India Caste System

• Higher and lower social classes

• The caste system still remains in rural India

• A person is born into a caste and the caste one belongs in determines his or her occupation

• Balram gives his own breakdown of the caste system in India, describing that it was a

• “……… clean, well kept orderly zoo.”

• Balram was born into the Halwai caste meaning “ sweet maker”

• Adiga brings awareness to the corrupt India caste system by having Balram work

• Balram’s quest to becoming an entrepreneur shows the oppression of the lower caste system and the superiority of the upper caste

• He tells the story of how India still has a caste system and political and economic corruption is still present

Good vs Evil

• A struggle between good and evil

• Human beings have this choice

• They can live their life in a good and noble way or in a evil and ignoble way

• Balram Halwai also hangs between good and evil

• His family overcome by the devil

• Balram Halwai’s “ Macbethian “ ambition to live like a king

• Master leads him to be a cold blooded murderer

• His father’s ambition

• These themes battle each other throughout the novel

Symbols In The White Tiger

• The White Tiger

• The Darkness

• The Black Fort

• The Chandelier

• Honda Citizen

• The Rooster coop

• Lizard

• Delhi city

The White Tiger

• Balram a half-baked and like him many people in India Half- baked because they haven’t complete their schooling.

• Balram earns this nickname when he impresses a visiting school official with his intelligence and reading skills. The white Tiger “the rarest animal in the jungle. It’s a symbol for rare talent – only 1 in 10,000 Bengali tigers are white.

The Darkness • India is two countries in one :

An India of Light An India of Darkness

The Darkness

• The ocean brings Light to my country. Every place on the map of India near the ocean is well off. But [the Ganges] river brings darkness to India—the black river” (Adiga 12)

• The Mother Ganga

• The poverty-stricken, rural area of India where Balram's village, Laxmangarh is located. It is fed by The Ganges, “The River of Death”, where millions of India's dead are cremated.

The Black Fort

• The Black fort stands on the crest of a hill overlooking the village. The Black Fort is a symbol of the extreme poverty that Balram is in his village Laxmangarh.

• The architectural centerpiece of Balram's village. As a child he is afraid to go alone, but he conquers this fear as he gets older. It later becomes his sanctuary, where he goes to contemplate his misfortune. The fort is located high on a hill, and as he looks down on his village, he vows to escape from The Rooster Coop and never to return.

The Chandelier

• Hanging in Balram’s Bangalore office is a vintage chandelier. He frequently looks to it for “inspiration,”confessing to “staring” for long periods of time. The chandelier comes to symbolize the “Light” of Bangalore and Balram’s new life.

• It makes me happy to see the chandelier...Let me buy all the chandeliers I want” (Adiga 98).

• The chandelier also stand for richness or showing light in the life of Balram in Bangalore.

•

Honda Citizen

• This is the more luxurious of the 2 cars owned by the Stork's family. When Balram is 1st hired as a driver, he is never allowed to drive this car. When he is promoted and able to drive the Honda, he feels like he has “made it” in life. Later in the story, Balram secretly takes the car out at night on his own, pretending to be wealthy.

The Rooster coop

• Balram considers the Rooster coop a unique symbol for the situation of India’s underclass. It is symbolizes master- slave relationship .

• Balram a typical voice of underclass man who is lived in fictive village Laxmangarh in India.Ametaphor Balram employs to describe the Indian servant/master system. One day in the marketplace, Balram sees roosters being slaughtered next to other live, caged roosters. The roosters know they are next, but they do not rebel. Balram observes that servants in India remain trapped in servitude – but no one breaks out of the “Rooster Coop” because of family honor.

• servant/master system.

Lizard

• Balram is bothering phobia from a small insect Lizard. It also symbolizes the darkness.

• The lizard represents the fears, cultural values, and superstitions that trapped Balram in the Darkness, many of which he seems to still fear hold him back.

Delhi city

• Delhi is the place where all the roads look the same, all of them go around and around grassy circle’ where men are sleeping, or playing cards, and then four more roads go off from it. So people ‘just keep getting lost and lost, and lost in Delhi. (119)

• Environmental, Social, Cultural, Political and Moral drawbacks. Traffic Jam, Corruption and Pollution are such problems which are chiefly tackled by Adiga.

Works sited:

https://www.google.co.in/search?oq=Roads+of+Delhi+in+Arvind+Adiga%27s++white+tiger&aqs=mobile-gws-lite..&q=Roads+of+Delhi+in+Arvind+Adiga%27s++white+tiger&norc=1&zx=1417377818010

https://www.google.co.in/search?oq=Lizard+in+The+white+tiger+&aqs=mobile-gws-lite.0.0l1&q=lizard+white+tiger

https://www.google.co.in/search?site=&oq=The+rooster+coop+in&aqs=mobile-gws-lite.0.0l2&q=the+rooster+coop+in+the+white+tigerhttp://ellengaulding.blogspot.in/2012/05/literary-analysis-of-white-tiger-by.html?m

NEW MORALITY IN “THE WHITE TIGER”

• The concept of morality• What is moral and what is immoral• Time, nation and culture• Adiga’s concept aspect of life• Balram the inhabitant of laxmangarh is sweet

innocent villager• Re education in city new morality• “caught between his instinct to be a loyal son and

servant, and his desire to better him self, he learns a new morality at the heart of new India.

• Conflict ‘to be or not to be’• Not criminal• New morality learned by the city • Touchstone the new morality

• Traditional morality inherent in Balram’s character

• Live ‘like a man’

• Balram has a compassion for a animal

• “Lets animal lives like animals; let humans live like a humans. That my whole philosophy in a sentence.”(276)

• Forced by the circumstances to be a murderer

• “true there was the matter of murder which is wrong thing to do no question about it has darkened my soul. All the cream whitening creams sold in the markets of India wan’t clean my hand’s again.”(318)

CLASS AND CULTURE

• In the old days there were 1,000 castes….in India. In these days there were two casts: Men with Big Bellies and Men with Small Bellies.

• Haves and Have notes

• Cultural pluralism and imperialism

• Diasporas

• Subaltern

• Magnificent mirror to Indian society

• It reflects the good combination of pauses and postures over all Adigan voices:

• “if you want to wave out the stain of blackness of slavery you have to wipe out feeling of difference between "good” and “evil”

• Socio-politics-economic dimensions of Indian scenario

• Karl marxs the das capital and communist manifesto.

• Very difficult to translated in reality.

• Democratic socialism seems to be a nightmare now in India.

• Exploitative and exploited

• Rich and poor

• Ruler and ruled

• Adiga’s concept Indian culture seems to be a The Light and The Darkness

• In interviews He tells “Just ask my Indians rich or poor about corruption here. It’s bad.

• Adiga says about class and culture of India categorizing working class that is neglected in every nook and corner

• Inequality with big bellies

• Adiga conceived story of the novel when he was travelling in India and working for Time Magazine. He speaks of his experiences Indian railway stations, bus stops, pavements and street corners of the metropolis.

• “I spent a lot of time hanging around station and taking a rickshaw pullers.

• Those who are eat and those who are eaten.

• The novel compared with dikincian idea

“The White Tiger as a shocking commentary on the Darkness of Shining India” by Shilpi Saxena

• The White Tiger voices funny describing social injustice of modern India with balanced humour and fury.

• Presented as an epistolary form.

• The form of a series of letter from Balram Halwai written within seven nights to when Jiabao, the Chinese Premier.

Condition of servants

• The novel brings the strong note of sarcasm. Balram says,

• “India is two countries in one: an India of light and India of Darkness”.

• Balram the protagonist belongs to the darkness of rural India where the people are deprived of basic necessities. He works as a driver to Mr. Ashok, the son of a rich landlord. He exposes the pitiable condition of servants living in Delhi.

Challenges to Indian democracy

• The novelist challenges Indian democracy where the candidate of the great Socialist Party by ninety-three criminal cases like murder, rape, gun smuggling.

• Step by step, through his mouth piece Balram, Adiga brings out the faults in Indian democracy.

• The rising global power that created a rift between the rich and the poor is discussed.

• The whole story of his success as an entrepreneur in Bangalore.

His childhood details

• He was not given name.

• Called ‘Munna’.

• Dark side of India

1) Parents do not care for child’s social or emotional needs.

2) Fake promises of the school inspector.

3) Pathetic condition of corrupt Indian education system.

4) The teachers and government are exposed.

Rising and Shining India

• Describes malls, multistoried buildings, air-conditioned cars etc.

• A greater part of Indian population habits in darkness, untouched and unaffected of the ‘shinning’ India’s “Feel Good Factors”.

• Condition of subalterns.

• He presents subaltern using the imagery of “Rooster Coop”.

Adiga comments

• The terrible condition of Indian drivers.

• Taking care of the pets.

• Massage the legs of their masters.

• On the integrity of the marginalized Indians, he says-“Indians are the world’s most honest people, like the prime minister’s booklet will inform you.”

Adiga revealing the fact

• Says that in India millions of people are involved in various jobs ranging of delivering furniture and carrying back cash payment in thousands for the masters, driving cars and seeing or handling millions, but they never think of running away. They can enjoy luxuries by being dishonest.

Pathetic condition of Balram

• Ashok’s brother Mukesh lost his coin.• Got down on his knees.• Compares himself with a dog.• In our country servants are expected to be

dedicated like Ram bhakt Hanuman but the masters lack Ram’s ideal.

• Balram is treated as clown in Pinky Madam’s birthday.

• Blamed for the elopement of his wife.• Rudely pushed in the balcony by Mr. Ashok.

Cruelty of Indian masters

• Touches its climax when Balram was emotionally forced to take blame of the car accident committed by Pinky madam.

• Pinky’s character Symbolizes the modern woman of dark India who has nothing to do with social, moral of family values.

Amlanjyoti Patra remarks

• “This incident of car accident is introduced in the novel as a method of shock-therapy for the readers who easily identify them with Ashok and get terrified to find the protagonist’s grudge against the master class people.”

Evils in India

• Adiga depicts India as vast and dark jungle where hierarchy, sycophancy, corruption and ruthlessness are the rule of the day.

• Also, Adiga taunts on secularism on India where a Muslim changes his name as Rampersad in order to get job.

• Adiga mentions the river Ganga that has become a black river.

• “Where girls going into buildings at night and coming out with so much cash in the morning.”

Balram’s Social life

• Prostitution, debauchery, deceit and falsehood are shown in the book as accepted names of social life.

• Balram a sweet, innocent village boy.

• Transformed into an evil monster.

• He doesn’t hesitate to murder his master.

• He establishes himself as a successful entrepreneur with the seven lakh rupees that he has stolen from his master.

• He doesn’t repent for what he has done.

• Justifies his killing as an act of class warfare.

• He changes his name to Ashok Sharma.

• He owns sixteen SUVs which he uses as taxis and has drivers working for him.

Changes of name

Balram admits

• He admits, “I was a driver to a master, but now I am a master of drivers. I don’t treat them like servants-I don’t slap, or bully, or mock anyone.”

Loss of morality

• He also brings policeman like his master when his driver hits a boy on a bicycle.

• He also shows the same loss of moral and humanitarian values that he inherited from his master.

• Adiga puts a question mark on India’s sixty two years old independence.

For People of Bangalore

• Adiga quotes :

“See, men and women in Bangalore live like the animals in a forest do…”

Conclusion

• Though social, political, legal and religious systems seem failure in jungle Balram comes out as a White Tiger starting English school for poor children in Bangalore where facts of life are taught.

• Reference: Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger A Symposium of Critical Response(page no. 132-142)

Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger

Talk about Indias

India Shining and the Darkness

Concept of Rooster Coop

Globalization

Identity

Class v/s Castes

Darkness, Light, Corruption,

Reality, and Authenticity of Class

Cultural Studies in Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger

there are just two castes:

“Big Bellies and the Small Bellies”

Eurocentric perspective

Continue…

Contrast between poor and rich

Village v/s City culture

Arvind Adiga Compare with American Dream

Politics in society,

Politicians, the so-called people's representatives

welcome the rich who bribe them inside their office and

make the poor people, who voted them, stand

outside.(126)

Continue…

Balram gives the readers an instance that the rich people hire their servants only after getting the complete details not only of the person who works but about his entire family and their background.

The people of poor class is always condemned with their lives but out of it no vision found. That type of situation is considered for backward class people.

No such reasons for livingness for poor people and for rich it is just pleasure to live with high facilities and have vision to have to control the poor.

Balram’s Quest for Freedom in Adiga’s The White Tiger

Balram Halwai, who is become the central figure from

the periphery

It is happen to be set in social and political context. But

what really is a man who trying to understand without

any help of his background, without any help of his

family and being putted in entirely new world and

having understanding for himself that this is the trap and

how he going to break out of this trap. (Arvind Adiga’s

speech)

Continue…

Novel is described as a compelling, angry and darkly

humorous novel about a man's journey from Indian

village life to entrepreneurial success.

When powerless man getting power

Indian people’s mindset

Continue…

Contact with high people

Balram explains that his family was almost certainly

killed by the Stork as retribution for Ashok's murder. At

the end of the novel Balram rationalizes his actions by

saying that his freedom is worth the lives of Ashok and

his family and the monetary success of his new taxi

company.

Symbols of White Tiger in Chinese myth

Continue…

Tiger is national animal of India and here Balram

Halwai, the protagonist is cold blooded. Balram is a

good critic of Indian society.

Continue…

its ancient theocratic pattern of societal organization, and

continued with modern social evils including caste system,

hectic ritualism and unscientific mythical explanation of the

world. This is where East failed and remained a dark continent.

You see, I am in light now, but I was born and raised in

Darkness…Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two

countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness.

The Ocean brings light to my country... But the river brings

darkness to India – the black river... (pg. 15) Inside, you will find

an image of a saffron-coloured creature, half man half

monkey…(pg.19)

Continue…

‘The villages are so religious in the Darkness”

Power struggle and Hegemony

Cultural differences

References

1. Adiga, Arvind. "The White Tiger." Adiga, Arvind. The White Tiger. New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers, 2008. 321.

2. V.S. Naipaul, 1964. An Area of Darkness. London. Andre Deutsch.

3. 2008. Articles from The Hindu Delhi, Literary Review, Nov 2.

4. GradeSaver. 1999 <http://www.gradesaver.com/the-white-tiger/study-guide/>.

5. Khan, M.Q. "The White Tiger: A Critique." Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies Vol.-I Number2 q Winter q July-December 2009 (2009): 8.