The White Tiger Excerpt - Analysis

The Empire - The White Tiger Analysis

The White Tiger is a novel written by Indo-Australian writer Aravind Adiga. The novel is a social commentary on the enormous gap that exists between rich and poor in India. It is structured through a series of letters written to the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, by our Main Character Balram Halwai. Balram Halwai is one of few who has managed to escape what he calls the roosters coop. Which is referring to an invisible cage that he argues every poor man in India is trapped in. Through these letters Adiga depicts the story of this man all the way from his early days, when he was forced to leave school to work in a tea shop, to the present where he is so far removed from the plight of the poor that he himself has become unpleasant, desensitized and corrupt. I will know do a short analysis of the novel focusing on narrator and language.

“The White Tiger” is told in first person from Balram's own point of view, which is interesting, as Balram is the “anti-hero” of this story and, although he is the narrator, coming across as an unpleasant kind of guy with an extremely poor moral. Nevertheless he is the character from the story that we feel most connected with. This is due to the fact that Balram is talking directly to us, which instantly, as i also mentioned before, makes the reader feel connected to the character. Also Balram’s perspective is the only shown. Which also makes us more likely to forget the fact that he himself is more or less the bad guy, for example by exploiting the desperation of the poor to his own good, and not to mention it, he killed a man. Besides that, Balram’s conversational first person narrator is what makes the story so intriguing. Because we get the feeling that Balram is talking directly to us. Which has the effect that, the immoral and vicious decisions actions he commits seems more understandable.

“The White Tiger” uses a very clear semantic scheme, in the form of animals. This can be seen all the way from the beginning of the excerpt, when Balram explains