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The White Tiger - Arvind Adiga


The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year.] The novel provides a threateningly humorous perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a reflective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy.

1.)     How far do you agree with the India represented in the novel The White Tiger?

“India is two countries in one. One is India of light and India of darkness.” – Arvind Adiga “The White Tiger”
This novel represents the “India of darkness”, it is a hard core reality which cannot be denied. So yes I agree that novel represents “real” India.

Of course people living a good life in urban space may find it boring and also the extremists may find that India is not presented well, but in India we do have places where darkness of corruption and much more is prevalent now also.

Like Charles Dickens, Adiga presents the literature which is real and true to life. We can get easily connected as we also see many types of incidents take place around us also.
This text is a satire on education system, religion, joint family, government hospitals and much more. When we read this novel, we realise that it is real.

For example:- Satire on Religion-

“ I guess, Your Excellency, that I too should start off by kissing some god's arse.
Which god's arse, though? There are so many choices.
See, the Muslims have one god.
The Christians have three gods.
And we Hindus have 36,000,000 gods.
Making a grand total of 36,000,004 divine arses for me to choose from. Now, there are some, and I don't just mean Communists like you, but thinking men of all political parties, who think that not many of these gods actually exist. Some believe that none of them exist. There's just us and an ocean of darkness around us. I'm no philosopher or poet, how would I know the truth?
It's true that all these gods seem to do awfully little work—much like our politicians—and yet keep winning reelection to their golden thrones in heaven, year after year. That's not to say that I don't respect them, Mr. Premier! Don't you ever let that blasphemous idea into your yellow skull. My country is the kind where it pays to play it both ways: the Indian entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere, at the same time. So: I'm closing my eyes, folding my hands in a reverent namaste, and praying to the gods to shine light on my dark story.”

By reading this we can imagine the things going around us in the name of religion.
Same is the case of education system specially in the rural spaces, where students are not provided proper food and education.
Novel is filled with satire on world of pet animals in India and also on Mother Ganga.

2.)     Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

Yes, Balram’s story is an archetype to the stories of “rags to riches” but only at some extent.
Most of the success story deals with the idea of “think differently”, but Adiga satires this idea itself in this novel. Balram did get success and became a successful entrepreneur but Balram does things differently bad. May be not all of them have done anything bad to get success.
If we see this text from Postmodernism way, then Balram has his own “New Morality” then it is a archetypal story from “rags to riches”.

3.)"Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to show that any text inevitably undermines its own claims to have a determinate meaning, and licences the reader to produce his own meanings out of it by an activity of semantic 'freeplay' (Derrida, 1978, in Lodge, 1988, p. 108). Is it possible to do deconstructive reading of The White Tiger? How?

“The Worst slave owners were those who were kind to their slaves.” – Oscar Wilde

Taking reference from Oscar Wilde’s “The soul of man under Socialism” (1891), this text can be deconstructed on the basis of charity or on the basis of class conflict.

Balram already lived and suffered as a servant. When he becomes the master, he saves his slaves in the police station. At that time we feel Balram is a nice man and he helps his slaves. But if we see deep down then it is problematic. People love their slaves so that they don’t realise their situation. That is why Balram helps his slave from police.

Reference:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Tiger
http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2015/01/quiz-on-aravind-adigas-white-tiger.html

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