Summary and Analysis of the White Tiger
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SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ‘THE WHITE TIGER’ The First Night - Summary Balram writes an email to the Chinese Prime-minster Mr. Jiabao who wants to visit Bangalore to get to know the truth about living in it. He tells about his life and describes his village Laxmangarh, which is in the district of the rural Gaya. It is famous for the national history because some people say Buddha walked through it and close by it he got his enlightenment.
Balram calls himself half-baked because he never completed school and is half-educated. Therefore his ideas are half- formed, half- digested and half-correct and he even gets his name by his teacher due to the fact that his parents just named him ‘munna’, which means boy. The teacher backs him up and calls him ‘The white tiger’, considering that the white tiger is the rarest animal in the jungle and appears only once in a generation.
His home has no electricity or a water tap, but a buffalo which is better fed by the women than the men. Balram talks about his dad who is a hard working rickshaw-puller and his mum who died and was set on fire by a priest on Mother Ganges. Later on his brother Kishan fetches him to go to the teashop and since this day, schooling is finished for him and he has to work in the shop.
Through the chapter there are parts of a poster that describe Balram as a suspect because he has killed his master Mr. Ashok. The First Night – Analysis
The first chapter, "The First Morning", functions as an introduction because Balram the protagonist introduces himself as an e-mail writer. His addressee is the Prime-minister Mr. Jiabao from China. The mail Balram writes is the story of Balram and this is the novel itself.
Balram describes his rural village Laxmangarh and affords an insight how the poor side of India lives. It is an effective way to start with his lifestyle. The tension does not rise during the time Balram gets his name and should never be called 'munna' again and evidences that Balram is not loved familiarly at home. There is a little climax when his teacher at school named him 'the white tiger' which shows completely a new side and his new position at school and outside too. The poster puzzles which are loaded in the chapter, step by step give a lot of information of what Balram looks like and at the same time it induces confusion and curiosity because it is not clear why Balram is the described person and what he might have done so far. Nevertheless, the tension rises until the chapter finishes. Balram narrates that he killed his master Mr. Ashok for whom he was his driver. Because of the abrupt ending, the reader is influenced to read the next chapter and this is for the moment the first and highest climax in the novel. The Second Night - Summary During the second night Balram thinks about his working for Mr. Ashok.
After his father died of tuberculosis his brother Kishan takes care of him and marries one month later. Nevertheless Balram and Kishan pack off to Dhanbad with their cousin Dilip.
They all get work in a teashop but Balram is fired because of spying on every customer in the shop. Therefore he is interested in becoming a car-driver. Moreover he would earn much money, but he isn’t able to pay for the driving lessons.
Kishan and Dilip hand down good news to him because his grandmother, who asks for remembering her if he gets rich, agrees to invest in the lessons. Besides Balram has to send every rupee he earns back.
His teacher is very strict and slaps him each time Balram makes a mistake, nevertheless he is satisfied with him in the end and he takes him to a firework as reward.
After Balram has finished his lessons he searches for a household that needs a driver. Although he was not as successful as he had expected, he keeps trying and is accepted finally after he tells his new masters Mr. Ashok, the Stork and Mukesh Sir that he is from Laxmangarh.
He takes a driving test in a Maruti Suzuki with them.
Balram doesn’t want any money from his masters but they want him to accept it. In the household of Mr. Ashok, Muskesh Sir and the Stork he is treated very well. There is always enough food, he gets a uniform and he shares a room with another servant, called Ram Persad. In contrast to Ram who has a bed to sleep in, Balram has to lay on the floor, but for him it is much better than sleeping on the road. Ram is the number one driver, but if he is busy Balram is allowed to drive his masters instead of making tea or sweeping the floor.
Because the masters like to drink whiskey, Ram and Balram have to buy the most expensive one in the English liquor shop, ‘Jackpot’.
One morning Mr. Ashok’s wife Pinky Madam, who actually plays badminton with her husband, knocks on Balram’s door to play badminton as she likes to play with him, but in contrast to Ram, he’s very bad at it.
Mr. Ashok wants his servants to move into another room, a better one with two separate beds and more privacy. He even tells Balram he was also born in Laxmangarh and orders to drive him and his wife to his birthplace.
Pinky Madam thinks about a return date in New York because she wants to go back to America.
After they have eaten at the Stork’s mansion, Balram’s family arrives and takes a look at “his” car, the Honda City, with pride.
Later at home his grandmother wants him to marry even though he isn’t ready yet. He imagines they are eating his brother, therefore he desperately runs out to ‘Black Fort’ on a hill. When he comes down the hill Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam wait for him at the car at the Stork’s mansion because they had wondered where he has been.
Pinky Madam asks about New York again, but regarding India’s development and the servants who are part of the family already, Mr. Ashok would rather stay in India. The Second Night - Analysis Balram decides becoming a car-driver because he would earn much money in this job. Nevertheless he insists on working for free for his masters. Finally he gets money which he sends back to his grandmother who has temporarily paid the driving lessons. Mr. Ashok employs Balram as driver after Balram told him he’s originally from Lanxmangarh because Mr. Ashok was born there.
When Ram and Balram have to buy whiskey, they are forced to go together so that neither of them is able to pinch the most expensive one.
During the dinner at his former home, Balram imagines his brother Kishan is eaten by his family, which means the family takes advantage of them. Moreover they exploit Balram by wanting him to marry due to the dowry they would get. Although Balram isn’t ready for a marriage it does not bother his family.
Chapter two is more exciting because there is more action and development in Balram’s life. Nevertheless the tension doesn’t rise in this chapter. It only does during the transition from chapter one to two when the reader learns of the murder of Mr. Ashok. The Fourth Morning - Summary The chapter starts with Balram's explanation of how he got his date of birth. A uniformed man came to school for the up- coming election to write down the pupils’ ages. Due to the fact that Balram does not know his age the man says he is eighteen and able to vote from now on and this day is his birthday. Another day Balram watches a deal between the opponents of the great socialist party and the communists which has to do with the politics in Laxmangarh. During his work in the teashop he eavesdrops a dialogue saying a man was killed who was disturbing the official celebration of the socilialist election-win. After it Balram talks about the visit of the great socialist and Vijay Laxmangarh's new deputy who is the former bus conductor. At his master's, Mr. Ashok’s home, Balram finds out that the other driver Ram, who is servant number one, is a Muslim. The Storks disapprove of this religion and thinks that Ram is a Hindu. Balram threatens Ram. Finally Ram is afraid to be discovered and leaves Mr. Ashok's home. Balram becomes the servant number one. The Fourth Morning - Analysis The third chapter, 'The Fourth Morning', has another introductive effect due to the history of Balram’s date of birth which he never has until it is given by someone from outside at school. After this low tension the suspense rises. By hearing a conversation of a murder and a manipulated election, the story of Balram becomes more interesting and from now on the content is touched by something criminal and secret. Balram himself improves his position by the Ashoks because he cheated on Ram the first driver. At this time Balram shows his grown self-confidence, which is a sign of a new tension in the novel, not for the action but for him. It is the turning point in this chapter because Balram is promoted at work and from this day is the beginning of his more privileged life. The Fourth Night - Summary The fourth chapter opens with Balram continuing his story by mentioning how weird and confusing Delhi is. He explains that the names and numbers of the several streets do not follow any system of logic, which serves as a transition to his duties as a driver. Whilst driving Mr. Ashok, Mukesh Sir and Pinky Madam around the city to drop them off at a mall, Balram gets constantly mocked by Mukesh Sir for getting lost all the time and immediately protected by Mr. Ashok who feels pity for him. Since Balram can’t enter the mall like all servants, he waits among the other drivers in front of the mall. He notices a magazine called “Murder Weekly” that features violent stories about fictional murders in detail that seem to fascinate most of the servants. After driving his masters home, further mockery from Mukesh Sir and cleaning the car, Balram returns to the servants’ quarter in the basement of the building his masters are living in. There he gets mocked and abused by the other servants until he decides to move in a little room where he can be alone even though it is in a horrible shape and full of roaches. The next day Balram gets to drive Mr. Ashok and Mukesh Sir to the headquarters of the Congress Party where he has to wait for two hours after dropping them off. While he suspects his masters to be bribing some politician, he is impressed by his surroundings, such as the President’s house, and feels a strong need to belong to the upper part of the city. Whilst continuing his duties, Balram suspects a crisis in the relationship of Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam and has to face further abuse from Mukesh Sir until he has to drop him off at the railway one day leaving Ashok as his only master. Throughout the time he gets yelled at by Pinky Madam for his low hygiene Balram feels a strange attraction towards her that he suppresses since the tension between her and Mr. Ashok seems to be growing. They bond once again over mocking Balram together on another trip to the mall where Balram rejoins the other drivers waiting in front of it. While the other drivers are busy reading the newest edition of “Murder Weekly” Balram notices that servants are being kept out of the mall and that the bouncers are identifying them by their clothing. Therefore he figures that he has to buy proper clothing in order to get into the mall himself, which he does later on after having bought new shoes, clothes and toothpaste. Apart from this exciting new experience, Balram has to face further humiliation by Pinky Madam and Mr. Ashok who make him dress up as a maharaja for their own amusement and have him drive them to a party where he has to wait with the other drivers once again. On the way back, an intoxicated Pinky Madam buys a little Buddha statue for Balram and then insists to drive the vehicle herself, leaving Balram alone on the road. This turns out to be another mockery since Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam pretend to run over Balram and then pick him up again to continue driving home. During the tour they commit a hit-and-run on a poor child and force Balram to cover it up by cleaning the car several times. In response Mukesh Sir returns the next day and treats Balram nicely for the first time while Mr. Ashok is still busy comforting Pinky Madam who suffered a severe shock. It turns out the behavioural change of Mukesh Sir towards Balram only served the purpose to ease him in into taking the blame for the whole incident, thus Balram is supposed to go to jail instead of them. The Fourth Night - Analysis Throughout the fourth chapter Balram often struggles to fulfil his duties as a servant and faces lots of scenarios containing verbal abuse. No matter whether Mukesh Sir or the other servants lay mockery upon him – Balram does not defend himself against their words and actions. Although he does not appear to be sad or enraged he decides to move into another room where he can be alone, even though it is completely ruined and full of roaches. This shows that Balram can’t take all the mockery he is facing but it’s not clear whether he is sad or angry. The only one who does not attempt to bring him down is Mr. Ashok who often tells Mukesh Sir to stop and soothes Balram with kind words, which as an act, could be seen as a further step in their master-servant-relationship. Nevertheless Balram is almost in a current state of work and abuse and he even tried drinking his problems away, but when he drives Mukesh Sir and Mr. Ashok to the headquarters of the Congress Party, he sees a spark of hope: He’s fairly impressed by the upper city and feels the urge to run around, proclaiming that he is here as well, which has an uplifting effect on him. After Balram gets to drop off Mukesh Sir at the railway, his psychological stress seems to be taken away, but when Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam suffer their relationship-crisis they tend to mock Balram to cheer them up. One certain hateful comment by Pinky Madam regarding Balram’s hygiene really gets to him, disregarding the fact that he feels attracted to Pinky Madam from time to time. It becomes obvious that he’s taken Pinky Madam’s “advice” to his heart when he decides to buy new clothes and toothpaste after figuring out that people who want to enter the mall have to appear clean and wealthy. Through that act it becomes clear that Balram still has not lost his hope since he eagerly wants to experience what it feels like to belong to the upper society. Nonetheless he is still devious to his masters which becomes especially clear when they make him dress up as a maharaja to serve them dinner and drive them to a party. During the tour the attraction and confusion towards Pinky Madam is brought back up when she buys a little Buddha statue for Balram which he tries to refuse. After Pinky Madam’s hit-and-run Balram is actually equally worried about his masters and himself which once again proves his loyalty. The loyalty first begins to crackle when he is forced by Mukesh Sir to take the blame. The Fifth Night - Summary In the beginning of the fifth chapter, Balram describes the principle of the Rooster Coop. In a Rooster Coop, all chickens are stuffed together tightly. They are so busy trying to find a breathing space in order to keep alive that they don’t even think about breaking out of the Coop. In Balram’s opinion, 99.9 % of Indians, the servants, are imprisoned in such a Rooster Coop by the rich. Although these men have the same abilities as the rich, they were taught to be slaves so well that they don’t make any attempt to break out of the Coop. Furthermore, they know that their families will be as good as dead if they should try to betray their masters. When Balram is supposed to go to jail for the hit-and-run committed by Pinky Madam, he feels like being trapped in this Coop and not able to break out of it. He is so terrified that he doesn’t even think about running away. Fortunately, nobody has reported the accident and Balram doesn’t have to go to prison. The one who delivers this message to Balram is Pinky Madam – she is the only one in the family who actually seems to feel guilty about the death of the unknown child. Balram realises that the atmosphere in the family is not the best. Pinky Madam appears quite upset, and some days later she commands him to drive her to the airport at two in the morning. When Mr. Ashok realises that his wife has left him for good, he turns his anger on Balram, until the latter kicks him in the chest to stop him. Mr. Ashok doesn’t know how to deal with the situation. He spends much time being drunk and being driven around through Delhi aimlessly. It melts Balram’s heart to see his master so lost and powerless and he gives his best trying to distract him and care for him. He thinks that it is his duty to be like a wife to Mr. Ashok now that Pinky Madam is gone. The master-servant relationship becomes quite close. Still, Balram can’t tell where his sincere concern for his master ends and his self-interest begins, as without Mr. Ashok he wouldn’t have any job and money. The beginning intimacy between the two of them comes to a sudden end when the Mongoose arrives from Dhanbad and Mr. Ashok tells him that he is glad to have ‘someone real’ by his side again. The Mongoose has a letter from Balram’s grandmother and reads it aloud for him – although Balram can read: she wants him to send more money and to come home in order to marry. The next morning, Balram finds Mr. Ashok massaging his feet himself. Immediately, the servant bred into him, grabs the feet of his master, which really upsets Mr. Ashok and makes him shout ‘How stupid can you people get?’ Reflecting this situation, the thought of murder crosses Balram’s mind for the first time (‘I had a vision of a pale stiff foot pushing trough a fire. “No,” I said.’). He does some yoga to push the evil feelings away, until the other drivers who notice that something is going on interrupt him. They observe Balram and as long as he is a servant, he can’t break out of the Coop, which is obviously guarded from the inside. The Fifth Night - Analysis The fact that Balram is willing to go to jail for his mistress shows that he is a prisoner in the Rooster Coop, too. Although his masters make him suffer for the mistakes they have made, Balram doesn’t even think about defending himself. He would do anything he is told to because the desire to be a servant has been bred into him. Only when Mr. Ashok yells at him for claiming to massage his master’s feet, he realises how much a servant he has become. He understands that he is caught in his position and will stay in it forever. Even worse, he will have to do what his granny Kusum wants – he will have to send her his money and will have to marry, although he doesn’t want to. Balram doesn’t approve of the situation he is in, and for the first time, he thinks about murdering Mr. Ashok. Even though he blocks the evil thoughts, he has begun thinking of another strategy than observing: fighting back. This change in Balram’s attitude serves as a climax. The atmosphere of a beginning new era is created and fortified by the departure of Pinky Madam. Her behaviour also shows that there are problems in the family she rather wants to leave behind than deal with. While Balram and Mr. Ashok are alone, they develop a close relationship. Mr. Ashok is glad to have someone to distract him, and Balram feels kind of responsible for the welfare of his master. This short passage demonstrates that Mr. Ashok has a human side and in the depths of his heart doesn’t care if Balram is a servant or ‘equal’. Furthermore, this scene tells us that the two of them actually like each other and that they could be friends if it wasn’t for the totally different roles they play in society. Mr. Ashok is no better than Balram but still he can rule over the life of his servant just because he has money. The Sixth Morning - Summary Balram describes how he changed from an innocent village boy to a corrupted man. He claims that these changes just happened in him because they first happened in his master. Having been alone for some time, Mr. Ashok starts going to discos. In the small car, Balram can feel that his master is horny as if they would share the same body. While waiting in front of a hotel, the driver with the diseased lips tells Balram that the best-case scenario for a driver is to have a house in a slum and a child in college. When Mr. Ashok leaves the hotel, he is accompanied by a Nepalese looking girl. The fact that his still married master betrays his wife drives Balram furious. As he waits for the two of them to come out of a cinema, he talks to a bookseller, who is sure that the Naxals are planning some kind of revolutionary civil war. After driving Mr. Ashok and the girl home, he takes the car for a ride on his own, listening to loud music, and spits on the seats afterwards. As he eavesdrops on his master the next morning, he realises that the girl, Uma, is Mr. Ashok’s old lover. He feels guilty for having condemned his master and punishes himself by pinching his palm. Mr. Ashok tells Uma that she can trust Balram because he is ‘stupid as hell, but honest’. Balram’s master spends the evening with a political assistant whose minister he bribes. After the meeting, the assistant persuades Mr. Ashok to spend the evening with him and to have some fun. The assistant, too, talks about a possible civil war, because he has seen lawyers beating down a judge whose order they didn’t like. The two passengers drink whisky in the car and then go to pick up a blond whore from Ukraine who looks like the famous actress Kim Bassinger. Mr. Ashok says that he sees someone and doesn’t need a whore, but he can’t get out of the situation. Balram wants to give him advice, but he is just the driver. When Mr. Ashok follows the assistant and the whore inside a hotel, he looks like a guilty little boy. Balram swears to defend his master’s honour because the latter couldn’t defend him against being corrupted by others. Having driven Mr. Ashok home, Balram drives back to the hotel, wishing to see the blond girl again. He is sent away by the guards, but finds a strand of golden hair on the seat which he keeps around his wrist. As he drives through Delhi, he feels as if the city would understand him. The Sixth Morning - Analysis The change from the innocent servant to the evil murderer, which started in Balram in the 5th chapter, is now given complete expression. Balram claims that he has become corrupted only because Mr. Ashok was corrupted first. Balram is willing to be a good servant to an honest man; but he doesn’t want to serve a man who sleeps with whores while he has a lover and while he is still married. Mr. Ashok is persuaded to visit the blond whore, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have been able to refuse the offer. The moment he accepts it, Balram’s absolute loyalty comes to an end. Furthermore, Balram starts wanting to lead a better life. Having talked to Vitiligo-Lips, he realises that his life – even if it ends up with the best-case scenario - has no reasonable chance. Additionally, he fancies a blond whore, too, but he knows that these girls are reserved for the rich. The motif of change is also present in the allegedly upcoming civil war the bookseller and the political assistant talk about. Chapter 6 has the function of a turning point: The upright servant Balram begins planning to break out of the Rooster Coop. This will make him mutate into his own master. The Sixth Night - Summary While Mr. Ashok is jogging around the block Balram suddenly asks Vitiligo-Lips for a golden-haired prostitute. Vitiligo-Lips wants to arrange something for him. Balram says there are four ways for a servant to betray his master to get extra cash: 1st he can sell petrol from the car. 2nd he can go to a corrupt mechanic and inflate the price that is to pay and keep the rest for himself. 3rd he can sell the empty whisky bottles. 4th he can use the car as a freelance taxi. He never had cheated his master before, but he starts to do that for a couple of weeks and even feels rage instead of guilt while doing it. Later he will be ashamed of his behaviour. “The more I stole from him, the more I realize how much he had stolen from me.” The moment he has enough money he goes to Vitiligo-Lips again and asks for the prostitute, not for his master Mr. Ashok, but for himself. Although she is golden-haired she isn’t as pretty as the women Mr. Ashok has met. Nevertheless things start to happen and suddenly Balram jumps out of the bed because he has discovered something he is not able to stand. The hair has been dyed. He leaves and in consequence he had spent all his money for nothing. Balram arrives at his room and discovers a surprise there. Mr. Ashok is sitting on his bed and says he would know where Balram has been. The shocking moment passes fast because Mr. Ashok was told that he has been at the temple. Without any indication Mr. Ashok names his dissatisfaction with his life. He thinks everything seems to be wrong. In his opinion actually Balram’s life is more livable. Therefore Mr. Ashok wants Balram to show him his life. He has dinner with him. Balram can’t understand this because he wants to be like Mr. Ashok. Mukesh comes to town again. He persuades Mr. Ashok to marry again. But as Mr. Ashok is able to convince him to leave some time for himself to find a woman. Mukesh gives him a red bag with lots of money inside. He has to bring it to the minister again. As they are waiting in a traffic jam some beggars come along the road. Without thinking about it Balram gives them one rupee. The Mongoose gets really angry and shouts at him. Watching Balram he keeps his eyes on the rear view mirror the whole drive. Later in their apartment the Mongoose checks the breath of Balram because he thinks he was drinking and sends him away angrily. When Mukesh leaves some days later Balram dances around the platform at the train station the moment the train disappears. As Mr. Ashok is on the phone again Balram has to bring the red bag full of money downstairs to the car. Mr. Ashok would follow in a minute. As Balram is standing in front of the elevator he suddenly turns around as if he is on the run and runs fast down the stairs. The reader is left in one moment of uncertainty. However some time later Balram is waiting for his master in the car with the red bag and all his untouched money on the backseat. As he is talking while he is driving Mr. Ashok to the city to see the minister again in Delhi, he tells him that the money truly belongs to Balram and no one else. “In your heart you’ve already taken it.” (p.245) Balram is in conflict with his conscience. On the one hand he is aware of Mr. Ashok as a good and gracious master. If he fulfils his plan his family will be in danger and he would disappoint his father who wanted him to be an honest man. On the other hand his father wanted him to be a man and his family is for a long time far away from him. Moreover Mr. Ashok gave Balram the blame for the car accident and the child’s death. Fulfilled with these thoughts he goes to the train station secretly and without any obvious reason. “So this is what it will be like.” He thinks as if he is practicing his escape. Balram gets a free day telling his master he would go to the temple although it is a lie. He wants to go to the famous “red-light- district” in Delhi. Though he changes his mind seeing the women behind the glasses looked like animals. So he goes straight on to an older part of the city. Balram gets to a second-hand market where books are sold. It’s really impressive for him. Therefore he names it “wonder of the world”. There he meets an old bookseller. This man tells him a lot about poetry and poets. This point is really important for Balram. On the way home an image of a buffalo appears in front of his eyes. On a carriage are a lot of buffalo skulls. The buffalo says to Balram that he has brought a lot of shame to his family and all of them will die. Moved by this happening the servant awakes again and he wants to tell Mr. Ashok about his secret, but his master doesn’t listen. In contrast he thinks Balram wants to marry and gives him money for the festivity. The next day Balram goes unintentionally to the slums of Delhi. He throws all the rupees he got from his master away for the non- existing wedding. As he comes home he is in a real rage, but immediately is stopped by a boy. This boy is Dharam, his nephew, who is sent to Balram. He should help and find something to work for him. Partly relieved Balram realizes that the boy has stopped him from a murder. One night a lizard is on the mosquito net of Balram who is totally shocked. Dharam has to kill it and gives his uncle the feeling that he won’t have to worry about Dharam destroying his plan because he won’t recognize he was planning something as he has seen Balram this frightened. The new woman in Mr. Ashok’s life doesn’t really like Balram and makes plans for a replacement driver. Mr. Ashok and her stop talking about it as Mr. Ashok gets to know that his party hasn’t the majority anymore. Therefore he is in big trouble and all the money seems to be wasted. Trying to save something he lends his car, including Balram, to two politicians. They let Balram drive around the whole night and drink all the whisky that was in the car. After Balram has brought them to their hotel again he grabs the empty bottle to get some money for it. At a moment’s notice he smashes the whisky bottle right on the floor. He picks the biggest part up again keeping and hiding it in the car as a weapon and tidies everything, so nobody will notice something. The next day Balram sees Mr. Ashok making a deal with another servant. Balram wonders if it is a new replacement driver. He asks for a moment off and goes together with his nephew to the zoo. Seeing the white tiger Balram is so overwhelmed that he faints. “The moment you recognize the beautiful in the world, you stop being a slave.” (p. 275) Afterwards he wants Dharam to write to his Grandma about the day. He also explains what a person in the zoo has been saying: Fainting is a sign for saying goodbye to the grandmother, as the fainting person is aware of the fact that he would die. Just one day after that Mr. Ashok wants to be brought to all the banks again. When the red bag was well filled, Balram drives to a part of the city, which is out of civilization. No one is there but the two of them. Balram stops and tells his master a wheel has to be broken. The road is empty, so everything is perfect for Balram. Balram asks his master for help and gets him out of the car in this way, Mr. Ashok kneels down. Balram gives him a last hint saying, “It’s been giving problems ever since that night we went to the hotel in Jangpura.” Without any hesitation Balram hits his master Mr. Ashok with the broken bottle and kills him by breaking his neck like it’s done with chickens. Balram breaks out of the Rooster Coop. Leaving the dead body behind he drives to the railway station, but before he leaves he thinks of his nephew he has left alone. Nevertheless it’s a big risk for him so he decides to go back and catches up with Dharam.
The Sixth Night - Analysis Balram takes a big step forward into his independence while he betrays his master. In further times he would never have even thought about it, but now compunctions (a strong uneasiness caused by a sense of guilt: a sting of conscience) seem to leave him. Actually Balram doesn’t suffer from any kind of bad conscience. He feels rage instead because he slowly realises how much he had already suffered and that treating him this way Mr. Ashok betrayed Balram, as well. Even though he is a servant Balram goes to a prostitute like his master did some weeks before. Somehow he wants to imitate him and tries to approach his master’s lifestyle. However there is some trouble as Balram sees that the hair of the woman isn’t naturally blonde but only dyed. Again he is confronted with the Rooster Coop. The poor people only get worse things, no matter if it is according to food, accommodations or prostitutes. The woman he meets is only a fake. Good and real properties are kept for the rich. His reaction shows his anger about this classification, his life and his master. When Balram returns he gets to know that no one will give away his secret because Vitiligo-Lips lied to Mr. Ashok by telling him Balram went to the temple. Moreover Balram still appears devotional and loyal to Mr. Ashok. He won’t sense the betrayal Balram is about to plan. On the same evening Mr. Ashok presents himself as a vulnerable person. He seems to be weak and dissatisfied with his life. Balram realizes that Mr. Ashok isn’t his indefeasible (not to be undone) master anymore. It’s another step into his independence. All in all Mr. Ashok doesn’t strictly treat Balram. He nearly sees him as a human being and not only as servant. Balram receives and enjoys this “freedom” but is about to play on it. He doesn’t want to give it up again once he has the taste of it. This is also the reason for his happiness and dancing on the train station when the Mongoose leaves. The Mongoose has showed him that he is still a servant and should behave like that. But for Balram there is no way back. When he gets the red bag full of money to carry it downstairs all alone, Balram is in a really important situation. He feels in all the money, the power he could get and that his plan could become reality. Balram really is able to flee. But he does not do it. Nothing is planned and so many things aren’t thought out. Besides, his subconscious knows that he only can become a master, his own master, when he stops being a servant by killing his current master. Otherwise he won’t reach his freedom. He rather talks to himself than to Delhi. He calms himself down by calling his subconscious “Delhi”. This way Balram seems to have support by “someone” other than himself. The whole conversation is based on his efforts to convince himself. There is a big similarity to the puddles he is talking to. Balram is still in a conflict with his bad conscience. But he is equally aware of the changes that have been taken place in his life. It is said that in his heart Balram has already taken the money. He can’t fight or forget his thoughts. There is no way back. Balram drives to the train station and looks at all the destinations. Balram wants to know how it would feel like to fulfil his plan. He wants to do it right. As he constantly continued practicing his English to improve himself he practices his escape. He goes to the book market and is taught about poetry. It’s another important situation for Balram. Poetry makes him think independently. This is how it starts. Independence and freedom start in a person’s mind. But soon he is brought back down to earth. He has a vision of a buffalo that is carrying a coach full of buffalo skulls. Balram is aware of the shame he has brought to his family. Of course his family is important to Balram and his behaviour is against his upbringing. The vision really horrified Balram and he seems overwhelmed by his bad conscience. Consequently he goes to Mr. Ashok willing to give away his secret, but Mr. Ashok isn’t listening to Balram not knowing that he is tempting his fate. But then Balram is stopped again. His nephew is sent to him so his family and his duty towards them is present again. He can’t do the murder because he is watched by his family and it would be an endless shame for them. Some nights later things change. He realizes that he is able to betray not only Mr. Ashok but his family as well. In the night Dharam has to kill a lizard because Balram is too afraid to do it. Therefore Dharam won’t notice anything and Balram stops to worry. Another day the new girlfriend of Mr. Ashok indicates that she would like to have a replacement driver. Mr. Ashok doesn’t respond to it but Balram already feels the danger. After Balram had to drive two politicians around the city he takes one of the last steps towards the murder. Balram lets a bottle fall down in the car park and constructs a weapon this way. The reader doesn’t know whether it is really an incident or not. Balram hides the weapon in the car. He is on the verge of killing his master. Something snapped when Balram sees Mr. Ashok and another man in the hall of the hotel they’re living in because this man appears to Balram like a replacement driver. This means to him that Mr. Ashok betrays him although he was a loyal driver for him. He feels rage and wants to betray his master in return. The moment he sees the white tiger in the zoo he is released because for him the moment someone recognizes the beautiful in the world, you stop being a slave. His freedom is close to being reached. The murder isn’t committed unplanned or at random. Balram creates ideal conditions. Thus he doesn’t kill him without warning but wants Mr. Ashok to realize what will happen and why. Balram hits him with the bottle as a sign of his anger and then kills him by breaking his neck in the last resort. Breaking the neck is also the way a chicken is killed so it symbolises that Mr. Ashok was in a Rooster Coop too. Balram kill his master as a master. The fact that Balram takes the risk going back to catch Dharam shows the bond he still feels towards his family. He is able to save at least one member of it. He seems to need this to calm his nerves. The Seventh Night - Summary After committing the murder Balram plans how he can get to Bangalore. He decides to travel by train, zigzagging the country together with his nephew Dharam who considers the journey as holidays. In one train he recognizes a police poster with a photo of himself. While talking to an illiterate man he gets the proof that the photo looks like a stereotypical Indian. He makes up the false story that the man on the poster has caught two terrorists. The other man remarks that the searched man looks like him. The first four weeks in Bangalore Balram needs to calm his nerves and to forget about the murder. Dharam and he stay together at a hotel that offers good food. Balram also remarks that Bangalore is full of strangers and outsiders. Balram notices that everyone drinks coffee and of course he wants to try one, but he doesn’t know how to drink it at first. After watching other people he gets to know everyone drinks it differently. As well Balram has doubts whether Bangalore is the right city to live in. Still he rents a flat and he wonders how to fit into the city. Like he has heard the voice of Delhi, he tries to notice the voice of Bangalore. According to this he discovers the most important business aspect, which is outsourcing. He realizes the people are working at night because their masters live in America, so he asks himself how – especially the girls – come home again. There isn’t a train system like in other cities, therefore he develops the idea of a taxi service. First he hasn’t got a chance to start with his business because every company already had an organisation like that. But then he tries to think about what Mr Ashok would do. Finally he goes to the police and bribes the inspector with more than ten thousand rupees. Even the wanted poster of Balram is in the station, but he has success. That is why two days later a company calls because they want to have a taxi service. Little by little this “start- up” grows into a big business. Balram owns twenty-six vehicles and sixteen drivers. From now on Balram is the master instead of the servant. He even calls himself Ashok Sharma and offers an own website in English. Instead of treating his drivers badly like every other master in the town, he looks after them fairly. He is of the opinion that he has learned his real education from the road and the pavement. By listening to some men on the streets he obtains courage that one day there will be a revolution in India that will destroy the “Rooster Coop”. He observes that only four men in history have led a successful revolution: Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln, Mao and maybe Hitler. Balram also changes his previous mind of golden coloured hair girls like they always are in the shampoo advertisement. He doesn’t trust the TV and the posters anymore and thinks it is not healthy. Also he believes that the Nepali and Indian girls are the best prostitutes. After hearing mobile phones cause cancer in the brain and testicles, he throws it away because his brain is too important for him. The novel ends with the statement of Balram in which he declares that the yellow and brown men will reign the world in about twenty years. The Seventh Night - Analysis Shown by the “wanted- poster” scene in which Balram tells an illiterate man a false story, Balram is characterized more self- confidently than before. Also he gets the feeling that he is better and more intelligent than someone else. Little by little Balram adapts all the habits and behavioural pattern of the people in Bangalore which is shown e.g. with drinking coffee. Poor people in the north of India drink tea, and poor people in the south drink coffee. Also he possesses the thinking of masters now and that is why Balram can manage to grow his business. Naturally he tries to be like Mr. Ashok because he notices he has been a good master. Therefore he even adopts the name “Ashok”. In writing a letter to the premier minister of China, Balram expresses a competition between China and India because they both will be the next superpowers in the world. Also both countries have had the idea of outsourcing. Balram benefits from outsourcing entrepreneurs. Balram notices that the people in India get more educated and more self-dependent and that is why he is of the opinion that some time the “Rooster Coop” will be destroyed. Consequently the hierarchy between master and servant will change.
CHARACTERS – THE WHITE TIGER Balram Halwai The narrator Balram Halwai grew up in the village Laxmangarh in India. Like most families in this region his family is very poor. Furthermore he lost his parents very early. His family neither gave him a name nor a date of birth. They just called him ‘Munna’ meaning boy (p. 13). His father always wanted him to go to school to learn how to write, read and reason, to give him better possibilities (p. 28). At the school he got the name ‘Balram’ by his teacher. One of the most important facts is that the school inspector named him ‘The white Tiger’ the rarest animal in the jungle (p. 30) because he is the cleverest child in Laxmangarh. Because of debts with the landowner ‘Stork’, Balram’s family takes him out of school to earn money in the teahouse. His further education is developed by eavesdropping conversations of the teahouse guests. After the death of his parents his grandmother Kusum decides about his future. As he wants to become a driver Kusum pays his introduction on condition that Balram supports his family when he is a driver. Against all expectations, he gets a job as driver and servant at the ‘Stork’s’ house. In the eyes of Mr. Ashok his young master is the perfect servant. Balram identifies with his master and is really fortunate to have a boss like that. He worries about him and his image: “On Mr. Ashok's privacy I allowed no one to infringe.” Furthermore he stops chewing paan because Pinky Madam points out that his teeth were disgusting. More and more he starts casting off his role as a local jerk. When he is forced to take his responsibility for an accident caused by Pinky Madam, he begins to mistrust and to doubt the loyalty of his master. There are early signs for the murder of Mr. Ashok. First he can't overcome his thoughts to murder his good-natured master but at the end it is a cold-blooded and well-planned deed. Therefore he risks his family’s wellbeing but he doesn't feel responsible for them anymore. After Balram's flight he founds a driver company with the stolen money of Mr. Ashok. This underlines his spirit, shrewdness and intelligence. When one of his drivers caused an accident he behaves loyal and supports his driver. His action shows the difference between him and Mr. Ashok during an accident. While Mr. Ashok wallows in self-pity, Balram feels sorry for his driver and the victim. The positive features of Balram are not curious because he is the narrator of the story. Balram presents himself as an above-average and smart boy who grows with his experiences and is changed from a naive, poor child to a hardened, rich metropolitan. He looks with a cynical attitude, a moral indignation at the conditions in India and at his own life. But at the end, Balram is a lonely person. He is lonely because of his living conditions. But he is also lonely because he is dissociated from his comrades. He even keeps his nephews away from himself. Between them stands the deed which changed everything: “One day, I know, Dharam, this boy who is drinking my milk and eating my ice cream in big bowls, will ask me….And then I’ll have to come up with an answer - or kill him, I suppose.” His master’s murder will follow Balram every time. Even if he hopes to find the way back into community. Balram's family The family of Balram is poor but very traditional. Men and woman sleep in different corners of their house (p. 17) and all members of the family adore and care for the water buffalo, which is fed by the women before they make the meal for their husbands. The water buffalo is a fat, glossy skinned creature (p. 17) and gets top priority (p.22). Every member of the family works hard for the wellbeing of their relatives. Vikram Halwai Vikram Halwai is the father of Kishan and his younger brother Balram who is the first person narrator. Vikram is a poor man nevertheless he is a man of honour and courage (p.23). He earns money for his family as a rickshaw-puller in Laxmangarh. Laxmangarh is a little village in northern India. He is a patient and quiet person. He never crouched while waiting for passengers. He only stands there alone, drinking tea and thinking (p.24). Vikram Halwai is a man who has a plan. His son Balram is his plan. For him it is very important that his son Balram goes to school. That is why he doesn’t accept that Balram works in the teashop. His son should be able to read and to write for having a better future (p.27-28). Certainly he doesn’t feel happy about the fact that his son is afraid of a lizard but he is a thoughtful father and so he goes with his son to school and kills the lizard. “My whole life, I have been treated like a donkey. All I want is that one son of mine – at least one – should live like a man.” (p.30). His whole life he worked very hard to nourish his family and now the only thing he wants is that his son has a better life as his life was. Finally he contracts tuberculosis. Balram and Kishan bring him to the Lohia Universal Free Hospital on the other side of the river but there wasn’t a doctor (p. 48-50). After a life with hard work he died of his illness. Balram's mother Balram’s mother is dead and considered as crazy by Balram’s grandmother. Grandmother Kusum is glad that Balram’s mother is not alive anymore and can’t influence the family (p.25). Kusum Balram’s grandmother and the oldest member of the family. She has her own opinion of the future of her grandsons and barges in on the parenting of her son, the father of Balram and his brother, “That night she told my father: ‘He just stood there gaping at the fort – just the way his mother used to. He is going to come to nothing good in life, I’ll tell you that right now.’” (p.35). Another example is that she persuades his son to let Balram and his brother work in the teashop (p.25). After the death of Balram’s parents she decides about his future. All in all, she only wants the best for her grandsons, although she calls Balram a “coward” (p.34) because of his fright against lizards. Kishan Kishan is Balram’s older brother (p.37) and works in the teashop for the stork as well (p. 32). He began to work there after the wedding of his cousin Meera to earn money for the family because the dowry tears a hole in their budget and that is why he hasn’t finished school (p.38). After the wedding of the second cousin Reena, he retrieves his brother out of school to work in the teashop, (p.38). Kishan is in pursuance of the owner of the teashop, an assiduous and dependable worker (p.51). After the death of their father Kishan marries his wife and two weeks after the wedding he leaves his home and travels to Dhanbad to work there. Balram and their cousin Dilip attend him. He’s a typical older brother and cares for his younger brother Balram. Dharam Dharam is Balram’s nephew. Balram takes this little boy along to Bangalore and Dharam considers this journey as his first holidays. He had never left his home for holidays before (p.253). It seems like Balram is a kind of archetype for his nephew, because Dharam trusts him blindly. Furthermore Dharam is very observing and notices instantly that his uncle is thoughtful and not really happy (p. 254) “One morning Dharam said: “Uncle, you look so depressed”. With his barefaced and childish character he whips up a smile at Balram’s face (p.254). In the end Dharam is the residue of Balram’s family (“Dharam, last of my family, and me.” p.272). Cousins - Dilip attends Balram and Kishan to Dhanbad (p.51) - Meera is married and the dowry therefore is the reason why Kishan had to leave school and begin to work (p.38). - Reena is married with a boy from the next village (p.30) and they celebrate a traditional wedding (p.31). Because of the dowry for the family of the husband, Balram has to leave school and work in the teashop. Uncles Balram’s uncles do backbreaking work to provide for the family (p.23). Aunts Balram’s aunts work with his cousins and his grandmother every day “in the courtyard” (p.17). Every woman has her own exercise to do and to care for the family’s wellbeing. THE STORK’S FAMILY Mr Ashok Mr. Ashok is one of the landlords and the son of the Stork. He was born in Laxmargh and moved into a new house in Dehli, a gigantic apartment building with the name Buckingham Towers together with his wife Pinkie Madam. Mr. Ashok is a classic first- gear man with a handsome face. He is six foot tall, has broad shoulders with powerful, pushing forearms. He uses a fruitlike delicious smelling aftershave. For Balram Mr. Ashok was like a father. He defended him and he was kind to all those around him, also to the servants. He even taught Balram some English he learned in America. He likes drinking late at night, but only the best whisky he can get, nothing else. In food he is different: he´s a vegetarian. The family means everything to him. Mr. Ashok is a family man and likes to play games with his family and spend time with them. With his wife he married in America, he often goes out playing badminton. One of his bad character traits is starting things, but never finishing them because nothing held his attention for long.
Pinky Madame Pinky Madame is Mr Ashok's wife and she is as good-looking as her husband. Both live in the house of the Stork with ten-foot high walls and a cage of iron grilles around each window. She likes to play badminton and wearing dark glasses. Moreover she doesn't leave her room so often. Mr Ashok and Pinky Madame had married in America and she calls him lovely Ashoky. Pinky Madame doesn't like India and she often asks Mr Ashok when they will move to America. Besides she is very unfriendly to Balram. Every time she sits in the car Balram drives she jokes about him. In one situation she is drunken, but she drives the car and hits a child. After this she is very shocked and feels terrible after hitting the child and she wants to find the family of the child to give them compensation. A little bit later Pinky Madame drives to the airport and flees. At the end she splits up with Mr Asho because they've been fighting a lot. OTHER CHARACTERS The Stork The Stork is a landlord and the father of Mr Ashok and Mukesh Sir with whom he likes to drink a very expensive whisky every evening while talking about politics and about China. The Stork has a huge house in Dhanbad where also Mr Ashok and Pinky Madame live in the beginning. There is no real description of the appearance of the Stork. It's only said he is huge and has dirty uncut toenails. Moreover he has bad legs and therefore he has to sit in the courtyard every evening with his feet in warm water. The Stork is from Laxmargh and he is called the father of Laxmargh which he enjoys hearing and that the people there miss him. Vitiligo - Lips Vitiligo-Lips is Balram's attachment figure in the group of chauffeurs in Delhi (the “monkey-circle”, p.192). He is blemished by a pigmentary abnormality that is the reason for his nickname “Vitiligio-Lips”. Towards Balram he takes the role of an advisor in the confusing city of Delhi. Furthermore he sometimes diverts the Qualis-Minivan of his boss from its intended use to take it as a taxi (p.197). He also sells old Whiskey-bottles to earn further money (p.234). All these sideline jobs of Vitiligo-Lips get important for Balram to leave his existence as a servant behind him on his way to becoming a businessman. Vijay Vijay is the hero of Balram’s childhood. He originates from a family of swineherds but he works his way to the top. At the beginning of the story he is a bus conductor. He has a fashionable uniform and a regular salary. So he get’s out of rural poverty and the village. Balram wants to be like him (pp.30-31). Vijay also stops at nothing. He becomes a politician and follows the ‘Great Socialist’. Later Vijay accompanies the ‘Great Socialist’ to the house of the Stork and in this situation, the Vijay humbles the Stork because his position grew (pp.100-106). At the end, Balram meets Vijay one last time when Mr. Ashok has to pay bribe money to Vijay. The golden teeth of Vijay are a symbol for his new social position. Instead of fighting for his success like Balram, Vijay rises up as a follower and works in the political section. Ms Uma After Pinky Madam's flight, Mr. Ashok begins dating another woman: Ms. Uma. At first Balram considers her as a Nepalese (p.172), but she seems to be an Indian (p.179). She turns out to be Mr. Ashok's earlier girlfriend that he wasn't allowed to marry by his family. Ms. Uma is still interested in him and after a little while she and Mr. Ashok are coupled again (p.177). Expeditiously she has power over him, but she isn't able to make his family admit her (p.229). Driving instructor He is one of the most important people in Balram’s life because his life would be different if he didn’t get the driver license. The driving instructor is like a mentor and cares about Balram (p. 56).
THEMES – MOTIFS – SYMBOLS
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in literally work.
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literally devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. The motive of light and darkness appears often in the story of Balram Halwai. For Balram the river Ganga is a symbol for darkness that results in calling it “Ganga of black” (p.57). Warning Wen Jiabao not to wash himself in the Ganga naming all the different diseases, acids and garbage that flows in it, he describes the death bringing power of the stream. Originally it is a holy river that cleanses body and soul. Therefore it is a famous tourist attraction. But Balram tells of the “real” Ganga with all the dangers that only the Indians know. The more away you live from the source the dirtier it is because of the burnt cadavers, acid and dirt that were thrown into it. That means all the people who don’t live near the source live in the darkness, which means poverty and lack of prospects. The representatives for light and darkness are the cities and villages. In the countryside, the name, family and religion, means everything to the citizens. But all these changes need to be done to become part of the higher part of society. Working another job than the caste allows, is frowned upon and not tolerated by the population. People in uniforms have a high influence and represent force and strength to decide about minor castes. Directly opposed, all those things don't count in the urban life. The family is unimportant for the people and so it becomes for Balram as well. He doesn't send money to his family, is against the decision to marry him with a girl from his village, and starts doing things like yoga and poetry, which is originally reserved for privileged people. In contrast to the villages, the cities have a very different attitude to their general public. In the cities a uniform is something normal and doesn’t say anything about your influence. Names or castes are nearly unimportant in the cities; it doesn’t really matter where you come from unless you are able to work hard. The comportment in the city is aligned to standard western country society. Old moral standards don’t count anymore and money seems to reign in the city. This is evident while Balram speaks of corruption in city life. Of course not everyone can afford the corruption and the biggest part of population in the city of Delhi is poor. The contrast between rich and poor people is clear regarding properties. Whereas the richer part of the population owns dogs or other pets, poor people can only afford a water buffalo, which they need to survive. They milk it and because of that necessary nutrition, they pray to it like a little god. The status of the godlike animal is observed with the dogs of the rich. Balram needs to wash, massage and dry the two dogs of his master like human beings, which seems exaggerated to him. Another difference in properties is the sort of alcohol people afford. Rich people only want the most expensive alcohol, which is known as ‘English liquor’ and is called the better one. However, the servants can only afford cheap alcohol which is called “Indian made foreign liquor” which is not on the pricelist and only available when asking the shop owner. The aspect of light and darkness is the education as well. People living in the light get well educated, and well-educated people can easily keep living in light whereas poor persons have no chance of good education. Because this lack of schooling most of the poor people stay poor and have no big chance for well paid jobs. Handling the democracy in India Balram describes the situation in India with the laws of the animals. First there was the zoo law in which every animal lived in his own cage. This is a symbol for the different castes in the Indian society whose participants are prisoned in their sort of jobs. Balram calls this prison the rooster coop. He doesn't criticize this theory he says it is necessary for life in India. Servants need to stay servants and must actually live their jobs. They must do everything for their masters, always knowing what they want or do. They are the basis of the entire Indian economy and society. The only way to break from this rooster coop is being a white tiger as is Balram. He needs to know that his family will suffer when revolting the normal way of living and desiring more than being a slave for richer people. But after democracy kicked in, a jungle law, in which every animal could decide on its own, where to go and what to do, replaced the zoo law. But democracy as it is known in our part of the world is not the same in India. The elections are corrupted on a very perfidious way. The supporters of each party go through the jobs where all the teenagers live and ask them how old they are. If they say they don't know they get an age of those people. Of course they make them at least 18 years old, which allows them to vote. The shop owner sells all the votes of his workers to the supporter and the single person doesn't have a chance to get his free vote. Another information Balram gives is the difference between south and north India. In the southern part of India the situation is better, because every citizen has the choice of what he wants to do as a job. This possibility doesn't exist in the northern part of India, for example in the ancestral village of Balram. ‘Hundreds of pale hens and brightly coloured roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other and shitting in each other, jostling just for breathing space; the whole cage giving off a horrible stench – the stench of terrified, feathered flesh.’ (p.167; The Fifth Night) The rooster coop symbolizes the cage that Balram lives in. He’s dependant on his master who decides what to do, where to go. Besides the conditions in which the servants are accommodated, resemble a rooster coop. ‘…It’s because 99.9 per cent of us are caught in the Rooster Coop just like those poor guys in the poultry market.’ (p.168) The 99.9 per cent of ‘us’ means the majority of the society, which consists of servants. Balram is one of them and he is caught in it. The small rest is the good earning society. ‘What if one day, for instance, a driver took his employer’s money and ran? What would his life be like?’ (p.169) ‘I will answer both for you... It would, in fact, take a White Tiger.’ (p.170) Balram thinks for the first time in a disloyal way about his master. He begins to imagine which possibilities he seems to have if he hazards a crime. Up to this point he considers the thought again and again. His thinking changes from total loyalty towards his master to thinking in an egoistic way. The ‘White Tiger’ is in this novel a symbol for someone who can manage to escape from the system. White Tigers are a rarity like people from the Darkness who get into the Light. Balram calls himself this as he reached this aim. ‘…(The) tale of how I was corrupted from a sweet, innocent village fool into a citified fellow full of debauchery, depravity, and wickedness.’ (p.189) This is the conclusion of Balram’s process of change from village boy to a social entrepreneur connected with his self-disdain for what he’s become. ‘If you save from today, you’ll make enough money to buy a small home in some slum.’(p.193) A servant tells what the aim in life is. Here the great difference between the poor and the rich. Rich people deal with lots of money, the more money you have the more people you can corrupt and on the other hand the poor for who can own a home in the slum is something of worth. ‘A whore? That’s for people like me, sir.’ (p.206) Balram can’t imagine his master who is a kind of god to him, does something decisive for the scum like him. ‘A rooster was escaping from the coop! A hand was thrust out – I was picked up by the neck and shoved back into the coop.’(p.234) A metaphor for how difficult it is for Balram to escape. Even though no one really catches him, he feels trapped as he has responsibility towards his master. ‘But your heart has become even blacker than that, Munna.’ (p.249) This is how Balram himself thinks about his change of personality and character. He is conscious of that. Still he calls himself ‘Munna’ as he sticks to his old self. ‘He (the white tiger in the zoo) was hypnotizing himself by walking like this - that was the way he could tolerate this cage.’ (p.259) Between the White Tiger and Balram there is shown the parallel again and again during the book. As himself, the White Tiger is caught in a cage. Balram is kind of caught, too. Like the tiger Balram accepted his destiny for a long time. He did his job every day and did yoga to calm down. ‘A White Tiger keeps no friends. It’s too dangerous.’ (p.280) Balram is a ‘White Tiger’ now. He has reached his aim to break out of the Darkness and has a good life in the Light. The price he had to pay for that was a murder. His life now is worth too much as if he could risk having any person of conscience. He doesn’t trust anyone. ‘I’ve made it! I’ve broken out of the coop! … I’ve given myself away.’ (p.295) Besides the murder ,Balram had to take the loss of his family for becoming what he has become. He has accepted the death of his family for his own good. His family who made possible that he could leave off into the Light. “I am tomorrow”, (p.6 The First Night) Balram writes to the premier minister, Mr. Jiabao. He tells him not to waste time and money on senseless books that could not explain how to become an entrepreneur. Instead of buying those books Mr. Jiabao should ask him how to become an entrepreneur. “Now, what kind of place is it where people forget to name their children?” In the first years of his life Balram is called ‘Munna’ which means boy because no one in his family had the time to name him. So his teacher gives him the name Balram. It is not usual to not have time to name a child. This shows how people set value on something in the Darkness. (p.14 First Night) “Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness.” ( p.14, First Night.) “You see, I am in the Light now, but I was born and raised in Darkness” ( p.14 First night) India is divided into two parts: the ‘Darkness’ and the ‘Light’. People in the “Darkness” are poor and live under bad conditions while the “Light” is for people who have brought it to something. “These poor bastards had come from the Darkness to Delhi to find some light – but they were still in the darkness.” (p.138) Sometimes it is not enough to change the city and hope for a better life. Although Delhi is described as the city of light it still can be the darkness to people who have no money and no political status. “One fact about India is that you can take almost anything you hear about the country from the prime minister and turn it upside down and then you will have the truth about that thing.” (p.13 First night) Balram writes this sentence to Mr. Jiabao and exaggerates in order to demonstrate in a more detailed way the true situation of India. For example it is said India possessed the biggest parliamentary democracy. But according to Balram it’s the exact contrary. “The story of a poor man’s life is written on his body, in a sharp pen.” (p.27) This sentence indicates Indian workingmen have to do very hard work which is physical, exhausting and leaves scarves and cuts on their body. Balram applies this especially to the work of his father as a rickshaw-puller. He describes his thin, powerless and with scarred filled body. - “You, young man, are an intelligent, honest, vivacious fellow in this crowd of thugs and idiots. In any jungle, what is the rarest of animals – the creature that comes along only once in a generation?” - “The white tiger” - “That’s what you are, in this jungle.” (p.35) This is the first time when Balram is compared to a white tiger, which shapes his entire life. In his childhood an inspector comes surprisingly to his school, asks questions to the kids and recognizes Balram is the smartest. He calls him the white tiger that “comes along only once in a generation”. This means Balram indeed was born and raised in the darkness where no one believes a child with a future can be born but is an exception. “To break the law of his land – to turn bad news into good news – is the entrepreneur’s prerogative.”(p.38) “Even as a boy I could see what was beautiful in the world: I was destined not to stay a slave.” ( p.41) Different as the others Balram saw as a child the amenities of life and know from the beginning what he wanted to be in the future: in the light. “I confess, Mr Premier: I am not an original thinker – but I am an original listener.” (p.47) Balram confesses he is not an “original thinker” and concedes that the ideas or things he said to Mr. Jiabao are not his original thoughts. As a driver of Mr. Ashok, he learned from him and other guests in the car. He absorbed all the information. “These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies. And only two destinies: eat – or get eaten up.” (p.64) This sentence shows the slogan in India. There are only two extremes: the slaves and the lords. There is nothing in between. “For the first time I can remember, I got more attention than the water buffalo.” (p.83) Balram never got this much attention - not even from his own family. There was always the water buffalo that had to be fed and that stole the affection, which originally belonged to him. Therefore it is a formative event in his life. “I had to be eighteen. All of us in the tea shop had to be eighteen, the legal age to vote.” (p. 97) The masters always sold their workers to political parties so they had lots of votes. Although the workers, like Balram, were not eighteen, they were shown as eighteen. This shows how easy it was to give birthdates in an illegal way. “We have left the villages, but the masters still own us, body, soul and arse.” (p. 169)
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING – WRITE ANALYTICAL RESPONSES
1. Balram is just not free in India. Regardless how often he changes the location he just cannot be free when being under the control of his master. There is just one chance to be completely free: to be your own master. 2. Give reasons as to why you think Balram wrote a letter to the Premier Minister. Wherein lies his motivation to tell his life story? Are there any tangible similarities between Balram and the Premier?
3. Due to his lack of education, Balram refers to himself as 'half-baked'. Explain the meaning of this term. In what ways does Balram proceed in terms of his education? Does he succeed in uplifting it?
4. Incipiently, Balram bears moral constraints having to do with his family that keep him from murdering Ashok. Wherein lies the impetus of change? For what reasons does he return, intending to retrieve Dharam at the end of the novel? Evaluate whether this decision is capable of exonerating him from his previous deeds.
5. According to Balram, the main cause for the heavy contrasts between the rich and the poor in India is the servitude as well as obsolete thinking. Discuss his model of the 'rooster coop' upon taking into consideration the role of religion, the political system, family life and the Indian culture.
6. Throughout the entire novel, Balram describes himself as 'a man of action and change', 'a thinking man', 'an entrepreneur', 'a man who sees tomorrow' and a 'murderer'. Although the general meaning of each respective label may differ, do you still think that they are adequate to Balram? Give your own description of him based on your reading experiences.
7. Upon reading the novel, the reader gains an insight into the rapidly changing economic situation in India. Encapsulate what you learned about entrepreneurship and their workforce throughout the novel and elaborate on Balram's definiton of it.
8. The novel portrays the shapes of a modern India. On the one hand, it exerts a certain seduction; on the other hand it is unconditionally unforgiving. Having read the novel, do you assess it as realistic, cautionary or helpful? State whether, from your point of view, it is a rather optimistic or pessimistic outlook into India's future. Justify your opinion.