The Failure Of Capitalism In George Bulram's 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

Christopher Phelps’ Introduction states, “As a metaphor, ‘jungle’ denoted the ferocity of dog-eat-dog competition, the barbarity of exploitative work, the wilderness of urban life, the savagery of poverty, the crudity of political corruption, and the primitiveness of the doctrine of survival of the fittest, which led people to the slaughter as surely as cattle.”(1), this is the foundation to Sinclair’s arguments that capitalism promotes competition between the working-class for mere survival all the while destroying human rights

Upton SInclair’s novel, The Jungle, is a novel based on the “Gilded Age” in american history. It is the life of a working man named Jurgis Rudkus and as the story progresses, it shows the corruption and dishonesty of the people during this time period, as well as their reasoning behind their actions. Also as the novel continued, it showed the author's inspiration for the title of this novel. Throughout the book, Upton Sinclair had scattered metaphors as to why Capitalism is corrupt and why Socialism is better. With subtle hints to social classes and how Jurgis progresses through them through corruption.

The Jungle is book that takes the reader in a period in time where the “American Dream” was the only thing worth believing in the daily job struggles of immigrants in America during the early twentieth century. What is the American Dream? It is said that any man or woman willing to work hard in this country and work an honest day is capable living and could support his family and have an equal opportunity to success. Although The Jungle was taken account more on how the meat production was disgusting and unhealthy for production and consumption. However many missed the real message of this book in which Sinclair wants to engage the reader in particular scenario of the failure of capitalism. According to Sinclair, socialism is the only way out of the failure of capitalism. It is the way that all problems can be solved and works for the benefit of everyone where capitalism works against the people. The slow destruction of Jurgis’s family at the hands of a cruel and unfair economic and social system demonstrates the effect of capitalism on the working class. As the immigrants, who believe an idealistic faith in the American Dream of hard work leading to material success, are slowly used up, tortured, and destroyed.

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.

Both the movie Slumdog Millionaire and the novel White TIger were set in India, but the two pieces tended to respresent two ideas that clashed together. In Slumdog Millionaire, the main character is honest and rises above corruption, making it out of the slums of the world and even gets a girl! Balram in White Tiger, however, succeeds in life by become less human and more corrupt. The novel itself pretty much laughs in the face of the usual story of the good guy winning.

The government also promises to the poor, better schools and hospitals. Balram’s father died because there was improper medical care in their home town, and the life expectancy in India is only 66.8 years. There are nearly 1,189,172,906 people in India and only 61% of the people living in India are literate. In New Delhi, though, the government does fulfill its promises to the rich. They live unaware and uncaring of the slums surrounding their middle class lives. The government makes promises of better livelihoods to its people that are never fulfilled; causing India’s poor to remain in the slums and the government to have little understanding of the problems poor people face.

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

In the novel “White Tiger”, the narrator Belram makes reference to a rooster coop which he uses to describe the lower-castes in Indian society. Those trapped inside the coop are able to smell the blood of their slain brothers and see their organs strewn around them; however even with these horrendous conditions if you were to hand them the key, they would throw it back in your face with a curse. In Belram's opinion, the majority of Indians stuck inside the rooster coop are completely content to be trapped. However, there are unique individuals like himself the "white tiger" with undying drive, incredible ingenuity and flexible morality who break free of this cycle of servitude and rise up to the top. Those individuals are the true entrepreneur

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

In conclusion 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. The corruption shown in the book is the teacher stealing the student’s money and the school inspector getting a question that he asked wrong. The reality of India vs. the images foreigners have of India is shown in the book there was framing involved and no doctors in government hospitals. last but not least is the oppression of the poor is

The narrator of the novel, “The White Tiger,” by Aravind Adiga writes in first person. This particular narrator is Balram Halwai, who tells about his own journey throughout the book. The writer uses the style of the narrator, Balram, writing letters to the Chinese Premier. This particular narrator is telling the story because it is him that is writing the letters. This style of letter writing helps to tell the story because through these letters Balram tells of how he came to be a success in life. The reason he started to write letters to Mr. Premier was in response to something he heard on the radio. He heard the statement that said, “Mr. Jiabao is on a mission: he wants to know the truth about Bangalore” (2). Balram, the narrator, knows he is a man with little formal education, but considers himself an expert on the hidden truth of the India culture. Mr. Premier also wants to meet with Indian entrepreneurs and hear about their success and Balram wanted to tell about his. He considers himself an expert because of his life story. Balram grew up in a rural area in poverty. In school an inspector calls him “The white Tiger,” because he said “it is the rarest of animals” (30). He called him this because thought Balram was the brightest kid in the village. He was forced to drop out of school and start working to help support his family. He ends up getting a job as a chauffeur to the Stork’s family. The Stork is one of the bosses that have control over Balram’s village where

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.

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.

He has killed, he has lied, and he has stolen. In simple terms he is the corruption he hates about the government. What Adiga was trying to represent with having a character like this, is to show what needs to be changed about india. India has so much potential and if “The White Tiger” shows us anything it's that the caste system is whats holding India back and one of the only things, besides governmental corruption. The caste system is putting a damper on the hugely untapped potential of india economic might. As explained in Deswals critical analysis of The White Tiger “religious or economic differences, but due to the mental slavery that is inflicted upon the Indians in Darkness. The writer employs the “rooster coop” analogy to his vision of enslaved Indian masses. He compares them with roosters in old Delhi, behind Jama Masjid where they are stuffed tightly in wire-mesh cages” (284 Deswal (4)). The cage that the caste system has caused India’s economy to grow slowly, and the only way out of it, is through ‘Governmental’ plans to help the poor, break free of the master-servant