1. Presentation on “The White Tiger” by
Arvind Adiga
Prepared by:
Sejal Chauhan
Riddhi Jani
Urvi Bhatt
Kaushal Desai
Jayshri Kunchala
Vinod Rabhadiya
Shabana Khalani
2. “The White Tiger”- Key Fact
• Full title: The White Tiger
• Author: Aravind Adiga.
• Type of work: Novel
• Genre: Fiction novel, Epistolary novel, Dark
Comedy, Satire
• LANGUAGE: Indian English
• Date of first PUBLICATION: April 22, 2008
• Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2008
• NARRATOR: Balram Halwai
• Technique: Flashback
3. • Climax: Balram kills his master Ashok and run away to
Bangalore.
• Protagonist: Balram Halwai
• Antagonist: Society, poverty and situation
• Setting (time): Present-day
• Setting (place): Various location in India including
Laxmangarh, Delhi, Dhanbad, Bangalore.
• Point of view: The novel is from the perspective of Balram
Halwai, who is the mouthpiece of Arvind Adiga himself.
• TENSE: Past,Present
• Themes: The Indian family, Lightness and Darkness, Marriage
in India, Globalization, The cast system, India’s relationship to
china, Freedom, Individualism, corruption, Class Conflict,
Good v/s Evil, Old Morality V/S New Morality, Eurocentrism
• SYMBOLS: Rooster Coop, Chandelier, Cars, Delhi’s Road,
Green Lizard, Black fort, black ogre in car etc.
• Motif: India of light and India of darkness
7. • Beginning
• Letter
• Flashback
Rising Action
•Middle
• Balram
killes
Mr.Ashok
Climax
• Balram
succeeds in
escaping
and
becomes an
entreprene-
ur
Falling
Action
8. Plot Devices
• MacGuffin:
“A plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other
motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or
no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a MacGuffin is
typically unimportant to the overall plot. The most common type of
MacGuffin is an object, place or person; other, more abstract types
include money, victory, glory, survival, power, love, or some
unexplained driving force.”
• Balram’s quest for freedom and individual identity
9. Balram goes to
Delhi, Accident
by Pinky
madam and
Ashok’s murder
by Balram
Balram leaves
the school,
Balram finds
work at
Stork’s home
Plot
Movers
Balram
succeeds in
escaping and
becomes
entrepreneur
in Bangalore
10. Unities
• The Unity of Time:
The novel goes in flashback technique. So, it
swings between past and present.
• The unity of Place:
It is also broken by Adiga. The novel moves in
various places of India.
• The unity of Action:
It can be seen here at many extent. There is not
any considerable subplot here.
11. Motif
• “The India of Light and the India of Darkness.”
• “Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is
two countries in one: an India of Light, and an
India of Darkness.”
• An entrepreneur who emerges from the ‘India of
Darkness” and enters into the ‘India of Light’
• Two ‘Indias’ in one India.
12. Annotated Bibliography
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_%28narrative%
29
• From this site we can see the definition of ‘Plot’ or
narrative and the deep description of it.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin
• It is a site (and hyperlink) for the description about
this plot device named MacGuffin.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring
• It is a site for the detailed description about the
plot device named Red herring
13. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun
• It is the site for the information about the plot device
named ‘Chekhov’s Gun”.
• http://www.gradesaver.com/the-white-tiger/study-
guide/character-list
• It is the site used for the information about all major
and minor characters. We can see the information of
almost every characters of the novel.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Tiger
• This site gives us information about the main aspects
and about the key facts of the novel. Mainly it gives
the plot summary and various themes.
14. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unities
• This is the site, which gives detailed description
about the three unities of time, place and action.
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CgWCZnR2c
9zya6N7gjAdvcuVKaDYKN0_FPXEWhX717M/edit
• This is the link of the Google drive made by some of
our senior students, in which we have added our
things. From it we can get the detailed information
about most of the aspects of the novel.
16. Identity
• The opening chapter establishes the theme of identity
• The novel explores how identity is malleable enough that one can
construct one’s own selfhood
• Balram prides himself on being a “self taught” entrepreneur
• At first he is nameless known simply as Munna
• Later he passively accepts the name Balram
• Inspector dubs him the “White Tiger”
• He accepts this name because it allows him to define himself.
17. Marriage in India
• Play a very vital role in Indian Society as well as the novel.
• Dowry
• Save reputation and marriage
• Balram’s cousin’s wedding is not the only marriage that
disrupts Balram’s life.
• Pinky Madam and Mr.Ashok.
18. The Indian Family
• In an interview with The Guardian ,Adiga emphasizes the
importance of family in Indian Society.
• “ If you’re rude to your mother in India. It’s a crime as bad as
stealing would be here”.
• He explain, for Balram to abandon his family.
• His crime. “ This is a shameful and dislocating thing for an Indian to
do”.
• Adiga remarks his protagonist.
19. China’s Relationship to India
• Beginning of the novel
• Balram mention that China is the only nation he admires besides
Afghanistan and Abyssinia.
• Why?
• Because g he read a book called ‘Exciting Tales of the Exotic East’.
• These are the only three countries never to be ruled by outsiders.
20. • He dubs China the “ freedom loving nation”.
• A place that has never been subject to a master slave
relationship with the west.
• He observes that China does not have entrepreneurs.
• Hence the premier’s visit to Bangalore.
• China , then becomes a foil to India.
• Which he describe as a nation with “ no drinking water,
electricity sewage, public transportation………….” for chock full
of entrepreneurs.
• For this reason Balram tell the premier his story,
21. • believing that China and India are destined to become the
next great superpowers.
• “ In 20 years time it will just be us brown and yellow men at
the top of the pyramid, and we’ll rule the whole world”.
22. Lightness and Darkness
• Duality of light and dark.
• Light then becomes a multifaceted symbol of time, wealth,
location and obligation.
• While Darkness represent the past, poverty, rural India and
most importantly loyality to family and master.
23. Globalization
• The white Tiger takes place in a time in which increased
technology has led to world globalization and India is no
exception.
• In India has played its role in the plot
• Since it provides an outlet for Balram to alter his caste
• To satisfy Pinky’s want for American culture
• Globalization has assisted in the creation of an American
atmosphere in India
24. • Balram’s taxi service is not an international businesss
• He plans to keep up with the pace of globalization and
changed his trade when need be
• “ I’m always a man who sees tomorrow’ when others see
‘today’ “
• Balram’s recognition of the increasing competition resulting
from globalization contributes to his corruption
25. Individualism
• Throughout the book there are references to how Balram is
very different from those back in his home environment
• He is referred to as the ‘white tiger’
• A white tiger symbolizes power in East Asian Cultures, such as
in Vietnam
• It is also a symbol for freedom and individuality
26. Freedom
• ‘ The white Tiger’ was a book about a man’s quest for freedom
• Balram protagonist of the novel
• Worked his way out of his low social caste
• In the book, Balram talks about how he was in a rooster coop and
how he broke free from his coop
• His journey to finding his freedom in India’s modern day capitalist
society
27. • Beginning of the novel
• Balram cites a poem from the Muslim poet Iqbal
• Where he talks about slaves and says
• “ They remain slaves because they can’t see what is beautiful
in this world.”
• Finding his freedom
28. Immoral Corruption
• Balram was born to the low caste in India
• He was exposed into a lot of corruption and immoral behavior
• For example
• The shopkeeper selling his employees votes to the Great
Socialist during election time
29. The Caste System
• The White Tiger is the discussion of the India Caste System
• Higher and lower social classes
• The caste system still remains in rural India
• A person is born into a caste and the caste one belongs in
determines his or her occupation
• Balram gives his own breakdown of the caste system in India,
describing that it was a
• “……… clean, well kept orderly zoo.”
30. • Balram was born into the Halwai caste meaning “ sweet
maker”
• Adiga brings awareness to the corrupt India caste system by
having Balram work
• Balram’s quest to becoming an entrepreneur shows the
oppression of the lower caste system and the superiority of
the upper caste
• He tells the story of how India still has a caste system and
political and economic corruption is still present
31. Good vs Evil
• A struggle between good and evil
• Human beings have this choice
• They can live their life in a good and noble way or in a evil and
ignoble way
• Balram Halwai also hangs between good and evil
• His family overcome by the devil
• Balram Halwai’s “ Macbethian “ ambition to live like a king
32. • Master leads him to be a cold blooded murderer
• His father’s ambition
• These themes battle each other throughout the novel
33. Symbols In The White Tiger
• The White Tiger
• The Darkness
• The Black Fort
• The Chandelier
• Honda Citizen
• The Rooster coop
• Lizard
• Delhi city
34. The White Tiger
• Balram a half-baked and like him
many people in India Half- baked
because they haven’t complete their
schooling.
• Balram earns this nickname when he
impresses a visiting school official
with his intelligence and reading
skills. The white Tiger “the rarest
animal in the jungle. It’s a symbol
for rare talent – only 1 in 10,000
Bengali tigers are white.
35. The Darkness
• India is two countries in one :
An India of Light An India of Darkness
36. The Darkness
• The ocean brings Light to my
country. Every place on the
map of India near the ocean is
well off. But [the Ganges] river
brings darkness to India—the
black river” (Adiga 12)
• The Mother Ganga
• The poverty-stricken, rural area
of India where Balram's village,
Laxmangarh is located. It is fed
by The Ganges, “The River of
Death”, where millions of
India's dead are cremated.
37. The Black Fort
• The Black fort stands on the crest of a hill overlooking
the village. The Black Fort is a symbol of the extreme
poverty that Balram is in his village Laxmangarh.
• The architectural centerpiece of Balram's village. As a
child he is afraid to go alone, but he conquers this fear
as he gets older. It later becomes his sanctuary, where
he goes to contemplate his misfortune. The fort is
located high on a hill, and as he looks down on his
village, he vows to escape from The Rooster Coop and
never to return.
38. The Chandelier
• Hanging in Balram’s Bangalore office
is a vintage chandelier. He frequently
looks to it for “inspiration,”
confessing to “staring” for long
periods of time. The chandelier comes
to symbolize the “Light” of
Bangalore and Balram’s new life.
• It makes me happy to see the
chandelier...Let me buy all the
chandeliers I want” (Adiga 98).
• The chandelier also stand for richness
or showing light in the life of Balram in
Bangalore.
•
39. Honda Citizen
• This is the more luxurious
of the 2 cars owned by
the Stork's family. When
Balram is 1st hired as a
driver, he is never allowed
to drive this car. When he
is promoted and able to
drive the Honda, he feels
like he has “made it” in
life. Later in the story,
Balram secretly takes the
car out at night on his
own, pretending to be
wealthy.
40. The Rooster coop
• Balram considers the Rooster coop a unique
symbol for the situation of India’s underclass. It
is symbolizes master- slave relationship .
• Balram a typical voice of underclass man who is
lived in fictive village Laxmangarh in India.A
metaphor Balram employs to describe the
Indian servant/master system. One day in the
marketplace, Balram sees roosters being
slaughtered next to other live, caged roosters.
The roosters know they are next, but they do
not rebel. Balram observes that servants in India
remain trapped in servitude – but no one breaks
out of the “Rooster Coop” because of family
honor.
• servant/master system.
41. Lizard
• Balram is bothering phobia from a small insect
Lizard. It also symbolizes the darkness.
• The lizard represents the fears, cultural values,
and superstitions that trapped Balram in the
Darkness, many of which he seems to still fear
hold him back.
42. Delhi city
• Delhi is the place where all the
roads look the same, all of them go
around and around grassy circle’
where men are sleeping, or playing
cards, and then four more roads go
off from it. So people ‘just keep
getting lost and lost, and lost in
Delhi. (119)
• Environmental, Social, Cultural,
Political and Moral drawbacks.
Traffic Jam, Corruption and
Pollution are such problems which
are chiefly tackled by Adiga.
45. • The concept of morality
• What is moral and what is immoral
• Time, nation and culture
• Adiga’s concept aspect of life
• Balram the inhabitant of laxmangarh is sweet
innocent villager
• Re education in city new morality
• “caught between his instinct to be a loyal son and
servant, and his desire to better him self, he
learns a new morality at the heart of new India.
• Conflict ‘to be or not to be’
• Not criminal
• New morality learned by the city
• Touchstone the new morality
46. • Traditional morality inherent in Balram’s
character
• Live ‘like a man’
• Balram has a compassion for a animal
• “Lets animal lives like animals; let humans live
like a humans. That my whole philosophy in a
sentence.”(276)
• Forced by the circumstances to be a murderer
• “true there was the matter of murder which is
wrong thing to do no question about it has
darkened my soul. All the cream whitening
creams sold in the markets of India wan’t clean
my hand’s again.”(318)
48. • In the old days there were 1,000 castes….in India. In
these days there were two casts: Men with Big Bellies
and Men with Small Bellies.
• Haves and Have notes
• Cultural pluralism and imperialism
• Diasporas
• Subaltern
• Magnificent mirror to Indian society
• It reflects the good combination of pauses and
postures over all Adigan voices:
• “if you want to wave out the stain of blackness of
slavery you have to wipe out feeling of difference
between "good” and “evil”
• Socio-politics-economic dimensions of Indian scenario
49. • Karl marxs the das capital and communist manifesto.
• Very difficult to translated in reality.
• Democratic socialism seems to be a nightmare now in
India.
• Exploitative and exploited
• Rich and poor
• Ruler and ruled
• Adiga’s concept Indian culture seems to be a The Light
and The Darkness
• In interviews He tells “Just ask my Indians rich or poor
about corruption here. It’s bad.
• Adiga says about class and culture of India categorizing
working class that is neglected in every nook and
corner
50. • Inequality with big bellies
• Adiga conceived story of the novel when he
was travelling in India and working for Time
Magazine. He speaks of his experiences Indian
railway stations, bus stops, pavements and
street corners of the metropolis.
• “I spent a lot of time hanging around station
and taking a rickshaw pullers.
• Those who are eat and those who are eaten.
• The novel compared with dikincian idea
51. “The White Tiger as a shocking commentary on
the Darkness of Shining India” by Shilpi Saxena
• The White Tiger voices funny describing social
injustice of modern India with balanced
humour and fury.
• Presented as an epistolary form.
• The form of a series of letter from Balram
Halwai written within seven nights to when
Jiabao, the Chinese Premier.
52. Condition of servants
• The novel brings the strong note of sarcasm.
Balram says,
• “India is two countries in one: an India of light
and India of Darkness”.
• Balram the protagonist belongs to the darkness
of rural India where the people are deprived of
basic necessities. He works as a driver to Mr.
Ashok, the son of a rich landlord. He exposes the
pitiable condition of servants living in Delhi.
53. Challenges to Indian democracy
• The novelist challenges Indian democracy where
the candidate of the great Socialist Party by
ninety-three criminal cases like murder, rape, gun
smuggling.
• Step by step, through his mouth piece Balram,
Adiga brings out the faults in Indian democracy.
• The rising global power that created a rift
between the rich and the poor is discussed.
• The whole story of his success as an
entrepreneur in Bangalore.
54. His childhood details
• He was not given name.
• Called ‘Munna’.
• Dark side of India
1) Parents do not care for child’s social or
emotional needs.
2) Fake promises of the school inspector.
3) Pathetic condition of corrupt Indian education
system.
4) The teachers and government are exposed.
55. Rising and Shining India
• Describes malls, multistoried buildings, air-
conditioned cars etc.
• A greater part of Indian population habits in
darkness, untouched and unaffected of the
‘shinning’ India’s “Feel Good Factors”.
• Condition of subalterns.
• He presents subaltern using the imagery of
“Rooster Coop”.
56. Adiga comments
• The terrible condition of Indian drivers.
• Taking care of the pets.
• Massage the legs of their masters.
• On the integrity of the marginalized Indians,
he says-
“Indians are the world’s most honest people,
like the prime minister’s booklet will inform
you.”
57. Adiga revealing the fact
• Says that in India millions of people are
involved in various jobs ranging of delivering
furniture and carrying back cash payment in
thousands for the masters, driving cars and
seeing or handling millions, but they never
think of running away. They can enjoy luxuries
by being dishonest.
58. Pathetic condition of Balram
• Ashok’s brother Mukesh lost his coin.
• Got down on his knees.
• Compares himself with a dog.
• In our country servants are expected to be
dedicated like Ram bhakt Hanuman but the
masters lack Ram’s ideal.
• Balram is treated as clown in Pinky Madam’s
birthday.
• Blamed for the elopement of his wife.
• Rudely pushed in the balcony by Mr. Ashok.
59. Cruelty of Indian masters
• Touches its climax when Balram was
emotionally forced to take blame of the car
accident committed by Pinky madam.
• Pinky’s character Symbolizes the modern
woman of dark India who has nothing to do
with social, moral of family values.
60. Amlanjyoti Patra remarks
• “This incident of car accident is introduced in
the novel as a method of shock-therapy for
the readers who easily identify them with
Ashok and get terrified to find the
protagonist’s grudge against the master class
people.”
61. Evils in India
• Adiga depicts India as vast and dark jungle where
hierarchy, sycophancy, corruption and
ruthlessness are the rule of the day.
• Also, Adiga taunts on secularism on India where a
Muslim changes his name as Rampersad in order
to get job.
• Adiga mentions the river Ganga that has become
a black river.
• “Where girls going into buildings at night and
coming out with so much cash in the morning.”
62. Balram’s Social life
• Prostitution, debauchery, deceit and
falsehood are shown in the book as accepted
names of social life.
• Balram a sweet, innocent village boy.
• Transformed into an evil monster.
• He doesn’t hesitate to murder his master.
• He establishes himself as a successful
entrepreneur with the seven lakh rupees that
he has stolen from his master.
63. • He doesn’t repent for what he has done.
• Justifies his killing as an act of class warfare.
• He changes his name to Ashok Sharma.
• He owns sixteen SUVs which he uses as taxis
and has drivers working for him.
Changes of name
64. Balram admits
• He admits, “I was a driver to a master, but
now I am a master of drivers. I don’t treat
them like servants-I don’t slap, or bully, or
mock anyone.”
65. Loss of morality
• He also brings policeman like his master when
his driver hits a boy on a bicycle.
• He also shows the same loss of moral and
humanitarian values that he inherited from his
master.
• Adiga puts a question mark on India’s sixty
two years old independence.
66. For People of Bangalore
• Adiga quotes :
“See, men and women in Bangalore live
like the animals in a forest do…”
67. Conclusion
• Though social, political, legal and religious
systems seem failure in jungle Balram comes
out as a White Tiger starting English school for
poor children in Bangalore where facts of life
are taught.
• Reference: Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger A
Symposium of Critical Response(page no. 132-
142)
68. Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger
Talk about Indias
India Shining and the Darkness
Concept of Rooster Coop
Globalization
Identity
Class v/s Castes
Darkness, Light, Corruption,
Reality, and Authenticity of Class
69. Cultural Studies in Arvind Adiga’s
The White Tiger
there are just two castes:
“Big Bellies and the Small Bellies”
Eurocentric perspective
70. Continue…
Contrast between poor and rich
Village v/s City culture
Arvind Adiga Compare with American Dream
Politics in society,
Politicians, the so-called people's representatives
welcome the rich who bribe them inside their office and
make the poor people, who voted them, stand
outside.(126)
71. Continue…
Balram gives the readers an instance that the rich people
hire their servants only after getting the complete details
not only of the person who works but about his entire
family and their background.
The people of poor class is always condemned with their
lives but out of it no vision found. That type of situation
is considered for backward class people.
No such reasons for livingness for poor people and for
rich it is just pleasure to live with high facilities and
have vision to have to control the poor.
72. Balram’s Quest for Freedom in
Adiga’s The White Tiger
Balram Halwai, who is become the central figure from
the periphery
It is happen to be set in social and political context. But
what really is a man who trying to understand without
any help of his background, without any help of his
family and being putted in entirely new world and
having understanding for himself that this is the trap and
how he going to break out of this trap. (Arvind Adiga’s
speech)
73. Continue…
Novel is described as a compelling, angry and darkly
humorous novel about a man's journey from Indian
village life to entrepreneurial success.
When powerless man getting power
Indian people’s mindset
74. Continue…
Contact with high people
Balram explains that his family was almost certainly
killed by the Stork as retribution for Ashok's murder. At
the end of the novel Balram rationalizes his actions by
saying that his freedom is worth the lives of Ashok and
his family and the monetary success of his new taxi
company.
76. Continue…
Tiger is national animal of India and here Balram
Halwai, the protagonist is cold blooded. Balram is a
good critic of Indian society.
77. Continue…
its ancient theocratic pattern of societal organization, and
continued with modern social evils including caste system,
hectic ritualism and unscientific mythical explanation of the
world. This is where East failed and remained a dark continent.
You see, I am in light now, but I was born and raised in
Darkness…Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two
countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness.
The Ocean brings light to my country... But the river brings
darkness to India – the black river... (pg. 15) Inside, you will find
an image of a saffron-coloured creature, half man half
monkey…(pg.19)
78. Continue…
‘The villages are so religious in the Darkness”
Power struggle and Hegemony
Cultural differences
79. References
1. Adiga, Arvind. "The White Tiger." Adiga, Arvind. The White
Tiger. New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers, 2008. 321.
2. V.S. Naipaul, 1964. An Area of Darkness. London. Andre
Deutsch.
3. 2008. Articles from The Hindu Delhi, Literary Review, Nov 2.
4. GradeSaver. 1999 <http://www.gradesaver.com/the-white-
tiger/study-guide/>.
5. Khan, M.Q. "The White Tiger: A Critique." Journal of
Literature, Culture and Media Studies Vol.-I Number2 q Winter
q July-December 2009 (2009): 8.
