Adiga in ‘The White Tiger’, employs a juxtaposition between light and darkness to highlight the nature of Modern India; a society where morality is sacrificed in order to survive the ruthless milieu. Adiga through this binary highlights a contemporary India that has lost its long established hierarchy and also surmounted it’s moral structure. Balram’s description of “an India of Light, and an India of Darkness” subverts usual associations of “Light” with integrity, and “Darkness” with depravity. This is reflective of the disruption of the conventional moral framework within Indian society. As Balram further progresses towards the Light, his morals become distorted. This is highlighted through his dialogue in chapter two, “The Devil, according
guides mortal man to evil". This is a direct statement from the author that he
Both authors describe the devil similarly. When first encountered, they portray him described as a mostly normal person, with only a subtle clue to his
The Bible is another book that allusions are commonly made to. Foster illuminates the fact that, “The devil, as the old
The realism movement of the late nineteenth century produced works in literature that were marked by reduced sentimentality and increased objectivity. The goal was to let details tell the story, and remove noticeable bias of the author through scientific and detailed descriptions. While this form of storytelling undoubtedly is most accurate, it creates difficulties for authors to incorporate their themes into the story. This resulted in an increase in symbolism in realist works. The objects and descriptions within the story are the author’s vehicle for displaying the values and themes of the work. Light and darkness are symbols commonly used in literature, and have held specific symbolic
Satan introspects in the first soliloquy (lines 32-113), searching for the motivation and reasoning behind his fall. He
In fact, by attempting to glamourize suffering by portraying it superficially, writers may lose the connection with us that appreciates literature. Instead, what we are left with is an over extended attempt to glorify suffering, or hide it within a guise of reality that is too savage to be true. Instead of the appreciative feeling that reality imbues within me as a reader, I am left with a sense of disgust, confusion and dissatisfaction. This feeling almost overwhelmed me while reading Adiga’s “The White Tiger” and it tainted my experience with the book. Adiga had written the novel without any firsthand experience in the rural areas of India to which his main character referred to as the darkness. Instead, being of a higher class, his accounts were based on second or third hand experiences which do not adequately depict the lower class’ realities. I found the following depiction of India’s ghettos both farcically unrealistic and eventually
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel about a man named Marlow and his journey into the depths of the African Congo. Marlow is in search of a man named Kurtz, an ivory trader. Though Marlow?s physical journey seems rather simple, it takes him further into his own heart and soul than into the Congo. The setting, symbols and characters each contain light and dark images, these images shape the central theme of the novel.
Some are destined labor and task for the more fortunate while others in a society are fated to a relaxed lifestyle of master. In the setting of India, where the caste system exists and has been practiced for thousands of years, these social groupings are rigid with little hope of escalating to a higher status. Aravind Adiga’s work The White Tiger focuses on Balram Halwai, one of few people who has accomplished the feat as he is introduced as a son of a rickshaw puller that completes his narrative with the email address for his successful taxi service. Along his journey he faces adversity in his formally uneducated or half-baked nature, poor background, and competition with millions within the rooster coup. The concept of the rooster coop draws
It cannot fairly be said that in Aravind Adiga’s novel, The White Tiger, the only way to escape the Darkness and advance in society is through violence, as an alternative route to the Light is presented in the story arc of Vijay, the pig herder’s son turned politician. Balram asserts that the murder of Ashok is not only the direct cause of his new wealth and status, but also the only possible trigger for his newfound social mobility. Yet, this is contradicted earlier in the story when he presents Vijay, the bus driver, as his role model for a successful person. Vijay, in order to achieve his elevated position, resorted to prostitution; despite not being a desirable alternative to violence, it is an alternative all the same and therefore violence is not the only way to escape the Darkness. Following this logic, it is Balram’s story and the immediate increase in wealth that results from the murder of Ashok that best supports violence as the only means of moving into the Light, and Vijay’s story is the best evidence against that point of view.
Written by Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger tells the story of a man who went from living with nothing to someone with everything he could ever want. Balram Halwai grows up in “the Darkness,” an area of India where, among other things, family was the main source of life and contempt for family was of the utmost evil. When he decides to find a job outside of his social circle, Balram’s family implores him to send money home to sustain them. He finally hits his final straw when his grandmother begins to try to force him to be married, something he does not have interest in and knows it will take away his independence. Once he disconnects from his family, he is able to be himself, free from his former life that tied him down. As Balram Halwai embarks on his journey to become successful as the “White Tiger”, the social concept of family breaks down, thus giving way to him finding his independence.
Relationship between servant and master is found in the Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger. With the rise of capitalism, the growth of economy and political corruption in India led to a change in lifestyle of the wealthy, who now live in a hedonistic way. However, the protagonist of the novel, Balram Halwai belongs to a low social class that is prevented from the luxuries of the rich’s world. He is employed by Ashok Sharma, a landlord, to be his chauffeur. Thus, we can assert that Balram represents the working class whereas Mr. Ashok, the bourgeoisie of the country. Adiga focuses on the experiences of Balram under the Mr. Ashok’s domination to exemplify the master-servants relationship in India.
When reading The White Tiger, we see that government corruption plays a prominent and essential theme to the success of the novel. Balram, the protagonist, escapes his small village of Laxmangarh, an example of the “darkness” of India into the "light" where he is then a driver and servant for a rich man. He quickly realizes that once he sees the big city of Delhi, it is nothing but a crooked and unscrupulous regime. Through countless examples in everyday life, medical establishments, and the election system, author Arvind Adiga highlights and exposes the corruption that is that is weakening India at every corner of the country's economic and social presence. From the beginning, we see the landlords stealing money from the tenants and then parents have to send their boys
In order to address the conflict between the rights of local people and the Bengal tiger, a conservation project was issued in 1973, turning a large proportion of the Sundarbans into a refuge. It is in this context that the story takes place, and through this context that Ghosh evaluates the extent to which such a utopian ideal is possible.
In the novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga the main character, is Balram, one of the children in the “darkness” of India. Adiga sheds a new light on the poor of India, by writing from the point of view of a man who was at one time in the “darkness” or the slums of India and came into the “light” or rich point of view in India. Balram’s job as a driver allows him to see both sides of the poverty line in India. He sees that the poor are used and thrown away, while the rich are well off and have no understanding of the problems the poor people must face. The servants are kept in a mental “Rooster Coop” by their masters. The government in India supposedly tries to help the poor, but if there is one thing Adiga proves in The White Tiger,
“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga is a piece of literature that talks about India left and right. A book that can be half fiction half true. It talks about the fortunate and the unfortunate, the rich and the poor. The irony shown in this book about corruption, oppression of the poor, reality of India vs. the images foreigners have of India help portray our understanding of this novel.