Summary and Analysis of the White Tiger

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.