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
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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