Friday, 18 March 2016

Poor- Rich Divide In Adiga’s The White Tiger


Name: Radha B. Ghevariya

STD: M.A (Sem-4)

Subject : The New Literature

Roll No. : 22

Submitted to : Department of English Maharaja krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Topic : Poor- Rich Divide In Adiga’s The White Tiger

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Introduction:

             Arvind Adiga is an Indian- Australian Writer and journalist. his debut novel “The White Tiger” , won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. The White Tiger is singular in its fictionalized portrayal of the relationship between Balram Halwai and his master Mr. Ashok. the story exposes the poor-rich divide that surrounds India in the backdrop of economic prosperity, in the work of the IT evolution. speaking on the servant-master relationship , Adiga says: (A.J. and Sebastian)

“The servant – master system implies two things : one is that the servants are far poorer than the rich – a servant has no possibility of ever catching up to the master. and secondly , he has access to the master – the master’s money , the master’s physical person. yet crime rates in India are very low. even though the middle class – who often have three or four servants – are paranoid about crime , the reality is master getting killed by his servant is rare…… you need two things a divide and a conscious ideology of resentment . we don’t have resentment in India. the poor just assume that the rich are a fact of life …. but I think we’re seeing what I believe is a class based resentment for the first time”(sawhney , 2008)

Title Of The Novel


                     “ The White Tiger” written by Arvind Adiga. Balaram Halwai as a  protagonist of the novel. at last he became the successful entrepreneur. also Balram Halwai  is presented as a modern hero, in the midst of the economic prosperity of India in the recent past. also we can say that Balram is representative of the poor in India yearning for their “tomorrow”. also  Adiga’s tries to define that his story is a parable of the new India with a distinctly macabre twist. he is not only an Entrepreneur but also a roguish criminal remarkably capable of self-justification. but here, we can define that the background against which he operates is one of Corruption , Inequality and Poverty. 


                However, at last Balram Become the one of the successful Entrepreneur and later on when Balram becomes an entrepreneur , he names his taxi company “The White Tiger Drivers”.

Poor – Rich Divide In ‘The White Tiger’



                 The novel ‘The White Tiger’ Adiga’s define that the poor and rich divide in the novel. we can see the Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is the story exposes the poor-rich divide that surrounds India in the backdrop of economic prosperity, in the wake of the IT revolution.

               Adiga is so pictorial in his description of the protagonist, who plans his crime well in advance. his disgusting act of spitting repeatedly in the direction of his village could be a sign of final rejection of everything he holds dear, to escape from the Rooster coop of misery.

            His schooling in crime begins with the reading of Murder Weekly as all drivers do, to while away their time.

“of course , a billion servants are secretly fantasizing about strangling their bosses – and that’s why the government of India publishes the magazines and sells it on the streets for just four and a half rupees so that even the poor can buy it”
    
             He feels degraded as a human being, deprived of basic human rights to enter a shopping mall. a poor driver couldn’t enter a mall as he belonged to the poor class. if he walked into the mall someone would say,

“Hey, that man is a paid driver ! what’s he doing in here ! “

          There were guards in grey uniforms on every floor – all of them seemed to be watching me. it was my first taste of the fugitive’s life. Balram reminisces one of the newspaper reports on the malls , in the malls of new India ? the security guards at these shopping malls identified the poor wearing sandals let in only those wearing shoes, while a poor man id sandals was driven out. this made a man in sandals explode “am I not a human being too?”

              He is educated in the mean ways of the rich which he imbibes himself in course of time. Balram , a victim of rich-poor divide , reverses the role and becomes “Master like Servant?” . when he is alone he takes pleasure in masochisms.

             He plays the games people play who cannot reach out to be like the master.  he had seen Mr.Ashok enjoying life with girls , frequenting malls and hotels. out of sheer spite for the rich he serves , he expresses his frustration in mean acts like those mentioned. his going to the red light area in search of a prostitute is to satisfy his suppressed revenge as well.

           He searches for strands of golden hair of women who frequently traveled with Ashok in the car and had sex. he takes pleasure in collecting every strand of female hair :

“A standoff golden hair !
I’ve got it in my desk to this day” (p.222)

              The protagonist confirms that the trustworthiness of servants is the entire Indian economy. this is a paradox and a mystery of India.

“Because Indians are the world’s most honest people…….”

                  Balram wants to escape from the Rooster coop. having been a witness to all of Ashoke’s corrupt practices an gambling with money to buy politicians, to kill and to loot, he decides to steal and kill. Adiga delves deep into his subconscious as he plans to loot Rs.700,000 stuffed into the red bag.


               The money is sufficient for him to begin a new life with a house of his own, a motorbike and a small shop. he hatched the murder plan in quick succession :

“The dream of the rich, and the dreams of the poor – they never overlap , do they ? see, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. and what do the rich dream of ? losing weight and looking like the poor”(Ibidem, p.22 )

              Balram’s comment on the two puddles of red spat out by a paan chewing driver, discloses his mental frame:


The left-hand puddle of spit seemed to say:
But the right-hand puddle of split seemed to say:
Your father wanted you to be an honest man
Your father wanted to be a man
Mr. Ashok does not hit you or spit on you, you people did to your father.
Mr. Ashok made you take the blame when his wife killed that child on the road.
Mr. Ashok plays you well, 4,000 rupees a month. He has been raising your salary without your even asking.
This is a pittance. You live in a city. What do you save? Nothing.
Remember what the Buffalo did to his servant’s family. Mr. Ashok will ask his father to do the same to your family once you run away.
The very fact that Mr. Ashok threatens your family makes your blood boil!

             To wind up :

           The novel is an excellent social commentary on the poor-rich divide in India. Balram represents the downtrodden section of our society juxtaposed against the rich . Deirdre Donahue labels the white tiger an angry novel about injustice and power which creates merciless thugs among whom only the ruthless can survive. however, the white tiger should make every righ thinking citizen to read the signs of the time and be socially conscious of the rights and duties to each one , irrespective of caste , creed or economic status, to prevent create the type of Ashok and Balram in our society.

 

Works Cited

A.J. and Sebastian. "Poor-RichDivide in Arvind Adiga's "The White Tiger"." Journal Of Alternative Perspectives in the social science Vo.1 , Vo.2 (2009): 229-245.

 








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