The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, is a novel that focuses on the life of Balram, the son of an Indian rickshaw driver. Balram is writing a letter to Wen Jiabao, an important Chinese official who has embarked on a diplomatic visit to India. He decides to tell Jiabao his life story in an attempt to educate the man about Indian entrepreneurship, because he truly believes that his story is more accurate than the political accounts he is sure the Chinese official will hear. Balram chronologically describes the many complicated events that have shaped him into the successful businessman he is today, with a large office in Bangalore. As his tale unfolds, readers observe many instances of self-preservation and corruption, two major components of the
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Balram discovers that the first servant of the family is a Muslim, and holds this knowledge over his head in order to gain leverage for himself. Instead of working together to ensure a better life for all, he manipulates the man and exploits his secret. This is explained when Balram states “The Rooster Coop was doing its work. Servants have to keep other servants from becoming innovators, experimenters, or entrepreneurs…The coop is guarded from the inside.” (Adiga 166) Another instance of internalized inferiority is when Mr. Ashok’s wife, Pinky Madam, insists on driving home drunk and, in the process, hits and kills a small child. Balram later confirms that the victim was a child, but is quick to reassure both Pinky Madam and Mr. Ashok that the child was nothing important, simply “one of those people”. (Adiga 140) This statement, although short, is devastatingly horrid. With a short sentence, Balram reduces the value of human life to nothing more than a piece of trash in the street. He is adamant that Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam should not be worried about the accident, because the child does not have a family that can sue and win their case. Balram’s perceived duty to the family that employs him overshadows his own reality – the fact that the murdered child comes from the same caste as he does. He possesses a twisted version of internalized inferiority, which leads him to agree to sign a document saying that he was driving the car when it struck the child. Balram stops relaying his life story long enough to inform readers that documents such as this one are extremely common in India, and many families stand behind one of their own taking the fall for a wayward
Balram discovers that the first servant of the family is a Muslim, and holds this knowledge over his head in order to gain leverage for himself. Instead of working together to ensure a better life for all, he manipulates the man and exploits his secret. This is explained when Balram states “The Rooster Coop was doing its work. Servants have to keep other servants from becoming innovators, experimenters, or entrepreneurs…The coop is guarded from the inside.” (Adiga 166) Another instance of internalized inferiority is when Mr. Ashok’s wife, Pinky Madam, insists on driving home drunk and, in the process, hits and kills a small child. Balram later confirms that the victim was a child, but is quick to reassure both Pinky Madam and Mr. Ashok that the child was nothing important, simply “one of those people”. (Adiga 140) This statement, although short, is devastatingly horrid. With a short sentence, Balram reduces the value of human life to nothing more than a piece of trash in the street. He is adamant that Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam should not be worried about the accident, because the child does not have a family that can sue and win their case. Balram’s perceived duty to the family that employs him overshadows his own reality – the fact that the murdered child comes from the same caste as he does. He possesses a twisted version of internalized inferiority, which leads him to agree to sign a document saying that he was driving the car when it struck the child. Balram stops relaying his life story long enough to inform readers that documents such as this one are extremely common in India, and many families stand behind one of their own taking the fall for a wayward