White Tiger Character Analysis

The White Tiger is the Man Booker Prize winning debut novel by Indian author ArvindAdiga published in 2008. The present novel reflects a reality of Indian life which is kept hidden from society. After globalization there is a huge chasm between rich and poor India. A handful of rich class wants to have control over the large population of India. The writer has dexterously presented the life of servitude, religion, corruption, social caste system, poverty in India before the reader. This novel is a success story of the central character, BalramHalwai narrated by himself in his letter to Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao. BalramHalwai is an ambitious young man. Though he is born and brought up in a socially low category, he does not want to

In his way to success, he removes all the hindrances. He transcends his sweet-maker caste and becomes a successful entrepreneur. He does pay off his family money and even murders his employer Mr. Ashok. He discards all controls over him by family and society. On the contrary without any remorse for his foul acts he rationalizes his desperate ambition and aspirations for power and pelf. So far as his efforts and achievement is concerned he dubbed himself as White Tiger which is seen once in a generation.

Keywords: globalization, poverty, caste system, freedom, corruption, bribery, rooster coop, entrepreneur.

Introduction:

An Indian born and Australian educated ArvindAdiga has written three novels entitled The White Tiger, Between the Assassinations, and Last Man in Tower. His first novel focuses the challenges in the Indian villages with special reference social issues. The second one focuses on the stories of the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the last one focuses on the story of struggling and resist for real estate in Mumbai. He has written four short stories entitled The Sultan’s Battery, Smack, Last Christmas in Bandra and The Elephant.His debut novel The White Tiger published by Harper Collinsin in 2008 won the

He is not satisfied with his lot. He refers to himself as a half-baked Indian as he was prevented from schooling for formal education. But he believes that lack of schooling cannot be an obstacle in his social ambition of being an entrepreneur. He thinks that all Indian entrepreneurs are half-baked. He wants to be a rich person discarding the bindings of servitude and the family responsibility. He expects total freedom from Rooster Coop which is the fate of people like Balram.He decides to become a driver. After learning how to drive, he finds a job driving Ashok, the son of one of the landlords of Laxmangarh. Gradually, he takes over the job of main driver from a small car to a heavy-luxury Honda-city car. In his service as a main driver he presents himself as a loyal to his employer. Day by day he gets divorced from morality and family ethics. Balram stops sending money to his poor family and disrespects grandmother during his stay at village. He is a victim of half-baked moral and