StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The main character of The White Tiger is a village boy born into a poor family in one of the dusty villages of north India, referred to in the book as the darkness. Balram is a boy with little education and the urge to break away from the life of poverty and misery into which he is born…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95.8% of users find it useful
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga"

Download file to see previous pages

Balram is a boy with little education and the urge to break away from the life of poverty and misery into which he is born. As Balram Halwai is thrust into the glittering life of the rich in India’s capital, the difference between those in his station in life and that of his employers is sharply brought into focus. This is the turning point, and it is the humiliations and injustices that he faces that finally push him into using any means to escape into a better life. As he explains "In the old days there were one thousand castes.in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies."(pg 64) Balram is determined to do whatever it takes to become a big-bellied man, and to this end, he resorts to bribing the police, bending the rules or even worse.

After all he has learnt these lessons from his rich masters themselves! I think the protagonist of Aravind Adiga’s novel is an entrepreneur. He has most of the qualities that are required for entrepreneurship. Balram himself lists these when he says “The Indian entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere at the same time.”(pg 9) Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." (Albert Einstein Quotes) and Balram Halwai echoes this when he swears by his favourite poet Iqbal’s words “They remain slaves because they cannot see what is beautiful.

” (pg 40). His ability to think on his feet is sharply brought into focus when he alone is able to answer the inspector’s questions. His ability to recall things he has seen, read and overheard and his intuition about the way they fit into the scheme of things is what is appreciated by the inspector who sees a bright future for the village lad. Balram calls himself a “half baked fellow’’ because he has only a few years of schooling, and further adds that “entrepreneurs are made from half baked clay.

” (pg 11) Balram Halwai’s ability to take life as it comes and seize opportunity whenever it arises is amply displayed as he eavesdrops on conversations at the teashops where he is forced to work, and uses the scraps of knowledge thus gained to educate himself on the goings on in the world around him. He puts it very succinctly when he says “I am a man of action and change”. Overhearing that drivers were paid well and they were required in large numbers in the coal mining town of Dhanbad where he works in a teashop, the boy cajoled his granny into giving him the money he needed to learn how to drive a car.

Although he knew that the driver who taught him was taking advantage of him and making him spend a lot of his time doing free repair jobs on taxis; he stuck to his resolve to learn driving and mastered it. Having mastered driving skills was only a beginning, he had to get a driver’s job in an environment where merit was no criterion. Caught up as he is, in the morass of corruption, inequality and poverty, he bides his time and waits for the right opening to press home the advantage. Knowing the right people and greasing the right palms was how one got a job, and the poor lad was a nobody and had no help in that department.

His intuition and ability

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/environmental-studies/1416279-white-tiger
(The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
https://studentshare.org/environmental-studies/1416279-white-tiger.
“The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/environmental-studies/1416279-white-tiger.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Aravind Eye Hospital

Same is the case with aravind Eye Hospital where the vision of Dr.... Same is the case with aravind Eye Hospital where the vision of Dr.... Question 1 It is pretty much obvious that aravind Eye Hospital had been successful so far in what was envisioned as its mission and objective.... Informal chit-chat at operation table removes anxiety of the patient which again proves the dexterity of aravind surgeons and staff in attending to even the minutest details which actually comfort nervous patients and count towards quality care....
3 Pages (750 words) Case Study

Definition of Power in Literary Masterpieces

In that context, it will be really thought provoking to arrive at a definition of power using examples from some important literary masterpieces as Medea by Euripides, Othello by Shakespeare, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexei and The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga....
4 Pages (1000 words) Term Paper

The Shadow of Captain Bligh

In the paper “The Shadow of Captain Bligh” the author analyzes Hugh MacLennan's essay, written in 1953.... The essay is in special reference to Joseph Haydn, a famous Austrian composer of the classical period, and Captain William Bligh, well known for being the Commanding Lieutenant of the ship Bounty....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

Humans as Captives of Evolution: An Analysis of Anxiety and Depression

This essay declares that the universality of emotional expressions and responses has been used by evolutionary psychologists as a proof that negative emotions such as depression and anxiety are originally human adaptive mechanisms.... There are a number of theories and assumptions presented in the paper....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

Critical Analysis of The Convert

This essay discusses ‘The Convert' by Elizabeth Robins, that is an account of the suffrage days when women were fighting for equivalent rights to vote.... The Suffragette Movement was a historic movement that marked the arrival of women on the front scene… The story describes a young suffragist and her liveliness, while at the same time her determination to achieve what they seek has been beautifully illustrated by the writer....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Poverty and social status

He is unable to bear the pain The Elephant by aravind adiga Roll No: Teacher: 27th October 2009 The Elephant by aravind adiga The short story, The Elephant written by aravind adiga circulates around the character of Chenayya who is the protagonist of the story.... He… aravind adiga depicts poverty in Indian society through the eyes of Chenayya.... aravind adiga depicts poverty in Indian society through the eyes of Chenayya....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Freedom based of the book the white tiger

A country whose economy and cultural way of life is continuously and constantly exploited by the colonial rulers for centuries cannot achieve prosperity in the real sense of the term by aid from this… It can prosper by the grit and determination of the Indian people.... Therefore, keeping the ideal of service in mind, an average citizen has to work hard in a dedicated manner, not because someone is telling to Let the people of the country not allow any organization to which they belong, to become loose and inefficient and let them remain loyally disposed to the cause of ideal of work....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Spirituality And Substance Abuse Treatment

The paper "Spirituality And Substance Abuse Treatment" aims to find out how spirituality affects the treatment of substance abuse and how applicable it is in preventing such cases.... It seeks to understand how this specific method of treatment impacts the patient's progress and development.... hellip; The point of which shows that substance or any drugs, habitually taken makes the body get used to it eventually leading the individual to feel and believe that they are experiencing positive effects of the drugs....
17 Pages (4250 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us