1. The document analyzes the novel "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga, which is described as a "dark comedy". 2. It examines a quote from the book that uses the metaphor of India transforming from an orderly zoo under British rule to a lawless jungle after independence, with the most powerful animals eating each other. 3. Another quote is presented where the narrator Balram cynically compares citizens to roosters in a coop that do not rebel even as they see their peers being slaughtered, knowing they will be next.

1. Maulik Bhadreshkumar Bhatt,
M.A. Part – II, Sem – IV,
Roll No - 03
Paper – 401 – The New Literature,
Unit – 03 – The White Tiger,
Department of English,
Bhavnagar University.

2. 1. What is a ‘Dark Comedy’? –
2. designates a sub-genre of comedy and satire in which laughter arises
from cynicism and skepticism.
3. Not the sort of work from which one gets many ‘good’ laughs
4. Independence vs. Freedom
5. Balram Halwai is the mocking, pathological narrator,
“See, this country, in its days of greatness, when it was the richest nation on earth, was
like a zoo. A clean, well kept, orderly zoo. Everyone in his place, everyone happy. … And
then, thanks to all those politicians in Delhi, on the fifteenth of August, 1947 — the day
the British left — the cages had been left open; and the animals had attacked and ripped
each other apart and jungle law replaced zoo law. Those that were the most
ferocious, the hungriest, had eaten everyone else up, and grown big bellies.” (p. 53-54)

3. 7. The cynical voice of Balram jeers at democracy and uncovers the dark, corrupt world
of the wealthy upper class.
8. An analogy of roosters
“They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they’re next. Yet
they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop.”
9. What is the way out?