Social Inequality In The White Tiger

As a first generation Indian-American, I am no stranger to being a part of a distinct community while observing two unique cultures. Traveling to India exposed me to a dynamic population with rich diversity comprising of numerous languages and differing religions. Though these individuals may have had differing customs from their neighbors, there were similar ambitions to conquer grinding poverty. This poverty can be clearly noticed by seeing citizens sleeping on floors of a railway station, or the lack of air conditioning in searing hot weather. The frailty and mortality of the human condition was starkly visible in India. As a fellow human, I was humbled not only by the lack of privilege and opportunity of many citizens, but also by their

In an article concerning this author Hope Yen said, “Tensions between the rich and poor are increasing and at their most intense level in nearly a quarter-century, a new survey shows. Americans now see more social conflict over wealth inequality than over the hot-button topics of immigration, race relations and abortion.” (Yen).

According to Henslin (2015), “Weber illustrates, a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who own the means of production or workers who sell their labor” This is a dynamic that should be working currently in American society. However, in the past three decades there has been a gap between the poor and the not very rich. This gap has not happened by itself. According to Reich (2015), in the movie Inequality For All, “…the all

Social inequality stems from many facets of life and mindsets reproduced continuously in America. The main backbone of systematic inequality is formed off of race, gender and class, which all contain crucial aspects that further oppress those subjected to inequality in various aspects of life. The resources-schools, occupations, invested parents- around one fuels the opportunity in their lives, a concept highlighted by Malcom Gladwell, in his book, Outliers. Situations one are brought up in or uncontrollable genetic aspects can very easily restrain their opportunities. Racial discrimination, gender roles and inferiority and the lack of fluidity in the low and working class push inequality, which simultaneously influencing the rich and privileged.

Indian serfs have to prove loyalty to their masters and all of them are trapped under what Adiga refers to “The Rooster Coop”. This is the way of how Indian society is structured in which the well-off and the poor cannot amalgamate with each other. And this system ensures complete control for the upper classes, transforming the lives of the employees a prison. The master-servant relationship is established based on this philosophy which permits to maintain the endless servitude of the lower classes and providing wealth for a dominant

Woman, nor to poor people versus people who come from a rich and prestigious family.

Inequality, it is all around us, in our jobs, at our children schools, in our neighborhoods, and no matter how hard we might try to escape it, there if no escape. We used to think that inequality was a thing of the past, but it is still very prevalent in today’s society. Many think “well inequality does not affect me personally, so why should I care?” While it may not affect you personally, it probably affects someone close to you. Throughout his book Toxic Inequality, Thomas Shapiro demonstrates just how surrounded the population is by inequalities with stories about families who are not only financially divided, but racially. These inequalities are rooted so deeply in our society that it can be easy to overlook the problem and ignore it, but as Shapiro demonstrates we can no longer overlook the problem, we need to face it head on it we have any hope of trying to fix it for future generations.

The differences between the rich and poor in India are like the opposite sides of a coin. The poor of India are mistreated and abused. Their homes are surrounded by trash and sewage and are very likely to be flooded, deathly hot and severely polluted. Nearly 25% of the population in India is under the poverty line. The families in the slums of India only care about surviving and marriage. Balram describes their relationship with the rich as “The rich are always one step ahead of us-aren’t they?” (Adiga 230). Balram means that he felt that the rich were always taking advantage of him and his family’s ability to work and he wanted to get ahead of the rich. The rich are blissfully unaware of the

Inequality is ubiquity in our world, most people are looking at the downside or the surface of this phenomenon. In fact, that inequality is the drive of historical and social progress.

Literature means which reflects the life. Likewise Adiga has wrote the novels which reflect the day-to-day life of Mumbai. To conclude, Adiga has presented both the novels “The White Tiger” and “Last Man In Tower” with the common themes of corruption, identity crisis, religious belif during Modernization and globalization in India. The main theme presents, the fact of money changes a person to be a murderer though they are a servant or any close relation to anybody. Both the novel has the theme of identity crisis.

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

Although Balram argues that violence is his only way of overcoming the poverty he is born into, Vijay, a man born into status even lower than Balram’s, achieves power and wealth without resorting to violence. Initially Balram presents Vijay as his role model, condoning the rumors of his prostitution in order to advance socially. He portrays Vijay as “the first entrepreneur [he] knew of ” and a man who “had made it in life” (26), thereby

Can marginalized humans have genuine empathy for their oppressors? And if so, how does their passivity towards their oppressors lead to an accumulation of resentment? When reevaluating the narration of The White Tiger, readers should ask themselves these questions while reading it. In addition, Adiga uses the story to exploit the influence of modernization on India’s political corruption and India’s miniscule focus on the maltreatment of poor Indians. The country achieves the ambivalence of poverty by manipulating the lower class through political means. Politicians uphold socialist and democratic ideals without legitimate citizen participation in elections. Even so, the format of the country’s caste system relies on how the subordinate of

“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.

India, a developing country which has shown great economic growth in the last 50 years. Though it has many struggles to still overcome, it is on a straight path to becoming a world power. In Aravind Adiga’s “The White Tiger” it shows a somewhat of a grim picture for India. As its main character struggles to break free from his ‘Roster coop’ which is the indian caste system. Balram seemed to stop at nothing to get out from these lower levels, that he was born into. He eventually accomplishes his goal through his entrepreneurship spirit, however this leads him to unlawful and very corrupt way of life. Balram knows the only true way to break out of the caste system and rise above everyone else, is to make money. Money is one of the major themes