The document provides three rules for biographical and historical analysis of literary works: 1. Do not rely solely on the author's biography, go deeper and analyze the text. 2. Do not assume the main character represents the author, as characters are fictional even if based on the author's life. 3. The author's exact intentions can never be known, so analysis should not claim to understand them absolutely. Historical and biographical context is useful for understanding allusions and influences, but real analysis requires close examination of the text itself rather than just reporting facts about the author's life.

1. BIOGRAPHICAL AND
HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

2. RULE 1:
RESIST PURE
BIOGRAPHY
Simply drawing on the author’s own life is
not enough. Making a purely biographical
comparison is not an analysis and if you
don’t go deeper and ask questions it is no
better than pure summary.

3. According to an interview included at the
end of the novel, Adiga wrote The White
Tiger to investigate some of the things
that he saw and experienced after
returning to his home country of India
after having spent may years living and
learning abroad.
This information provides us with a basic understanding
of what Adiga’s motives may be, but it saying this alone
is just summarizing information and doesn’t provide any
analysis of the text. Why did he choose the settings he
did? Why did he choose the characters and their past
and futures? What meaning is there to the story Balram
is telling?

4. RULE 2:
DON’T ASSUME THE MAIN
CHARACTER/ NARRATOR AND THE
AUTHOR ARE THE SAME PERSON.
Despite any apparent similarities, even if a character has the same
name as the author, they need to be treated as a different person.
While a writers work is almost always influenced by their own lives and
the culture in which they live, characters are not wholly representative
of them. An author may use characteristics of themselves in some of
their characters, but that does not mean that the analyst should
mistake one for the other.

5. In The White Tiger by Aravind
Adiga, the main character is one the
author even admits to not liking, but he
is necessary to tell the story that Adiga
seeks to tell. Though they share some
common experiences, the narrator and
the author are very different. The
chacter is used by the author to
demonstrate some of the extremes of
the caste system and the Indian
economy.

6. RULE 3:
THE AUTHOR’S INTENTION IS
IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW
ABSOLUTELY.
By reading biographical information about Adiga
we can suppose what his motivations were for
writing his first novel, but we can never fully
understand what his intentions were for every
element that he included in the work.

7. What is the
importance of
money and
how it changes
hands, to the
story?
What is the
purpose for
using the white
tiger as a alias
for the
narrator?
Does Balram really need to
Why is there a magnet of murder his master to be
the goddess Kali on the truly free and able to
dashboard of Balram’s become an entrepreneur?
car and not some other
deity?
Although readers can guess at the answers to these and other
questions, knowing the author’s intention is impossible.

8. HISTORY OR BIOGRAPHY IS FOR
PERSPECTIVE
Don’t write a report about the biographical or historical information you look up. While
understanding Adiga’s life, Indian political and social structure, and the history of the
country specifically a basic understanding of British colonialism and of the development
of the technology services sector, provides an essential framework for understanding the
novel, it does not explain the novel directly.
Analysts need to take this information and use it to help provide a basis for their analysis
of the characters and symbolism within the work. It is especially important to look at
this kind of background when an author
is from a different place or time.
Understanding context plays an
important role. Although a reader’s
interpretation of a work is really what
matters most, making assertions about
a work and it’s meaning is easier
through this lens.

9. Understanding India and the Indian culture goes a
long way towards understanding Adiga’s book, but it
does not give us the answers to our questions about
why the character makes the choices he does.
Cultural influences play a role of course. But every
individual reacts to things differently. Just explaining
based on context isn’t enough. Understanding the
background of the author and their culture is meant
to provide.
Balram chooses to break out of what he calls the
rooster coop, but killing his master. This is revealed
from the beginning of the novel. But as the story
unfolds a reader needs to take the perspective into
account and ask why this character
Makes the choices he does, and
What role that plays in what the
Author is trying to accomplish.

10. Works Cited
Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. Free
Press, New York. 2008. Print.
Cline, Laura. “Lecture on
Biographical/Historical Criticism”.
Yavapai College, Prescott,
Arizona. Video.