Balram In The White Tiger

Killer, entrepreneur, and biased all words that describe Aravind Adiga’s main character in The White Tiger. Balram grow up in the darkness as a boy his father was a rickshaw puller, a poor man. His mother died when he was at a young age and then his father dies in a doctorless government hospital. He then made his way to driver’s school and got a job as Mr. Ashoks driver and begins to make his way into the light. Despite Adiga thinking he has an unbiased scope through Balram, he is biased through his transition from dark to light, his limited agency, and his outlandish actions. Balram Halwai is a poor man, having grown up in the small village of Laxmangarh, along the banks of the river Ganga, Balrams. He associates the village with bad memories and poor experiences therefore he has a negative view on the village in general then he returns to his village he climbs to the top of the black fort, something he never had the courage to do before when at the top Adiga describes, “I see a little man …show more content…
Currently being within the upper caste one would think he has more agency this is not true. Balram almost has less agency because he is now a servant to someone else where as in the lower caste he could have been his own boss and listened to no one. After pinky madam kills the young girl driving and the lawyers ask for Balram’s confession he states his lack of agency, “The jails of Delhi are full of drivers who are there behind bars because they are taking the blame for their good, solid middle classed masters” (145). Balram has no choice into whether not he signs this confession he takes it he goes to jail and if he does not sign it his family dies. Balram has no agency in the upper class, he is expendable to his masters and therefore will be used for their greater good. Despite the misconception that the upper caste would yield more agency Balram has no agency and therefore is more biased towards his lower caste because he is freer