Animal Imagery In The White Tiger By Arvin Adiga

The Animals of India In The White Tiger, by Arvin Adiga, animal imagery is used to show the corruption of India. Adiga describes India as a jungle in order to communicate the severity of the corruption that has been taking place in India through all aspects. The entire country is corrupt, from the governments officials, police officers, to the media. The main character, Balram is portrayed as the “White tiger” to show his individuality and rare case of overcoming corruption. The white tiger is an extremely rare animal, as is Balram Adiga’s use of animal imagery is incorporated to show the similarities between the Indians and animals. The food chain in an ecosystem is very similar to the social class structure in India; with those on …show more content…
Adiga uses the white tiger to show how Balram is different from the rest of people in his social class and in society as a whole. He is first names the white tiger by a man inspecting the school he was attending. The inspector says to him: “”In any jungle, what is the rarest of animals- the creature that comes along only once in a generation?” I thought about it and said: “The white tiger” “That’s what you are, in this jungle”” (30). The importance of the white tiger is because it shows how Balram is one in a million; he is one of the extreme few born into the lower class of India that is able to rise up and better his life even though corruption is consuming all aspects of the …show more content…
He owns the worst and most difficult land for farming of all the landlords; meaning the people renting the land will most likely have the most difficulty making their payments to him. Balram says: “If they didn’t have their money, he liked to dip his beak into their backsides” (21). The raven is represents this man because the raven is a known scavenger, feasting on dead animal carcasses. Since the land is dead the Raven is getting his rent money from people who are barely scraping by from the lifeless land. Therefore, out of all the landlords, the Raven has to be the most ruthless due to the fact that it is not expected for him to get his money from the renters on his land. His land is described as: “dry, rocky hillside around the fort, and took a cut from the goatherds who went up there to graze with their flocks” (21). This land is practically impossible to grow healthy and abundant crops on. The poorest of the poor would be ones who had to resort to farming this inhospitable land. All four of the “animal” landlords take advantage of their renters and resort to brutal methods in order to get their rental money or