While flipping through “The White Tiger”, I was trying to get some insight of the book, but suddenly realized that I have reached the end and one of the reviews got my attention there
“Blazingly savage and brilliant… an excoriating piece of work, relentless in its stripping away of the veneer of ‘India Rising’ to expose its rotting heart…Adiga is going to go places. We’d do well to follow him.” – Neel Mukherjee, The Sunday Telegraph
Surely, it was enough to give me a thrust to go through this piece of fiction. While reading, I realized that “The White Tiger” offers a story which is a confession of a very complicated man. He is the first-person narrator of the novel. He wants things he has no monetary right to. Becomes a flatterer to settle in this world. Once he becomes an entrepreneur, uses tactics of rich with them- calling police. At the current day while narrating, he boasts too much, arrogant and thinks too much of himself. He calls himself a ‘Man of Action’, which is true. He lives with self-professed titles. Lately he cherishes solitude, a crazy hypocrite, disrespectful. He is totally against authorities, freedom wanting, hateful, devilish, greedy, self-important, wants to achieve everything, vengeful, jealous, flatterer, liar, unethical, fooling his truthful masters; unsatisfied at every stage of life. Tries to imitate rich, looks to loot fellow servants and also wants to be a hero among them, villainous smile after killing, devoted to Mr. Ashok, selfish.
The whole novel is presented as a collection of letters from a businessman, who is in fact, the narrator himself, to a Chinese premier, who is going to visit India. In these letters, he tells about his entire journey to become a success. This journey that has a taste of thrill involved in the narrator’s life, that how the phases in his life changed from worse to better and how he evolved from them. This novel creates a perception in reader’s mind about the desperate acts made by a man who tried to get rid of poverty, caste system, corruption and social discrepancies around him.
As the novel proceeds, with the turn of the pages, the phases of life of the narrator change. Later, the reader realizes that the narrator has unique capability of self-justification even for his wrong doings. He has a justification for his crime, thinking that it was necessary and quite justified in regards of his life.
“Being called a murderer, fine, but being called a murderer by the police. What the hell!”
He has his own perception for the society
"In the old days there were 1,000 castes...in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies."
And he is determined to become a big-belly man.
The novel has too often use of explicit and thought provoking Metaphors. For example, the narrator describes himself as “half-baked”. Use here may indicate that the narrator rose above the poverty to wealth, power and better life but that came with a cost. He became a criminal as lacked the self-knowledge and the narrator himself realizes this fact.
Frequent use of “Rooster Coop” and comparison of India to it, is captivating and fun for readers. The narrator has presented an analogy between daily life of Indian people and chicken packed inside a rooster coop. He has presented a philosophical view for his escape from the rooster-coop that no-one else could find. This kind of thinking of the narrator adds some complexity to his character.
“The Rooster Coop was doing its work. Servants have to keep other servants from becoming innovators, experimenters and entrepreneurs. The coop is guarded from the inside. That’s the sad fact.”
The novel has element of surprise, showed through the narrator. This also shows his philosophical point of view for the things around him.
“They worship nature. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
This novel presents the narrator’s view of contemporary India. I believe that his point of view is quite narrow. He has presented India as the union of just two entirely different worlds. The book has shown a lot of negative aspects of India. The book has clearly polarized India between two categories “the rich” & “the poor”, but the diversity in the Indian Society is quite obvious. The reader needs to think beyond the scope of this book. Although the book has focused on very serious issues of caste, corruption, crime in Indian society but it is, overall, a short piece of fine literature.
ASHUTOSH KATIYAR
2006MT50432
So true. The book cannot be read with a single perspective. Balram Halwai is one of most complex characters ever encountered.
ReplyDeleteAt times, he evokes pity with his story but the exaggeration and his self-perception of things invites the reader to be cautious, making Balram a highly unreliable narrator. As stated in the review, he assumes a lot about the rest of the world, such as to Wen Jiabao:
"Even you must have murdered someone, Mr. Premier"
"Small bellies and big-bellies"
"Whatever the Indian Government tells, rotate it upside down and you have the truth"
Lots more. There are numerous instances, which reflect the hypocrisy of Balram Halwai and his disgusting nature when he thinks of murdering his nephew Dharam in future.
All in all, I suppose there are two voices in the story- one is Balram's, the other is Adiga's and the latter cautions the reader to maintain suitable distance with the narrator. That's one of the specialities of the novel. Balram would brag about survival, the neccessity of commiting the act et al, but as a reader, after the distance has been created through his previous "preachings". he knows what to accept and what not.
The satirical way of bringing out the dark side of India, and the Indians is a wonderful attempt by Adiga.
I enjoyed the book very much but it was not something that would be with me forever.Even though it was a well crafted story,the emphasis on the negative aspects of the indian society was too prominent.
ReplyDeleteBalram,the protagonist has his own fixation to the economic success of china and sexual attraction towards fair skinned people.His outlook of a successful human being is the same as that of the majority of the indian population.
The book is a narration of the wide gap between the economically weaker and stronger sections of the indian society.It brings out the superstitious beliefs , loopholes in the political system and corruption prevalent in the country.The author has been very skillful in engaging the international readers by portraying the abject picture of the indian society.The jokes on the indian traditions and values do bring a smile on the reader's face. The picture presented by him is true but not complete.