The white Tiger

The novel The white Tiger is written by Aravind Adiga. The novel published in 2008 and also won Ann Booker Price in same year. The story is of Balram Halwai's " rags to riches ". The story can also read as confession of Balram Halwai. We see that he also try to justify what he did. Here perspective is personal so we can say that this India is India from eyesight of Balram. The novel talks about the contract between India's rise rise as a modern global economy and lead character Balram who comes from crushing rural poverty. About this Adiga say,

At a time when India is going through great changes and with China is likely to inherit the world from the West it is important that writer like me try to highlight the brutal injustice of ( Indian ) society. That's what I am trying to do. It is not an attack on country, it's about the grater process of self - examination.

 As this blog is part of my thinking Activity I will answer the question asked by my professor.

1. How far do you agree with the India represented in the novel The White Tiger?

As we know  that every coin has two side. The same thing we can see that in case of nation. And also Balram has said that by him self that ' India is a two country India of darkness and India of light.  When we look at to writer most of writer present good or we cans that light side of India but Adiga don't do that he present dark side of India. As far as my opinion is concerned I also agree with Adiga. There are some problem in India that we need to solve. But if people won't pay attention to it, don't look at it then how we can solve them.

Problem of education : 

There was a incident in novel that teacher of government school sold all the uniform to the other near by village student. When this we look at this is today's India then we found that today of government won't give full payment to Teacher they start tuition classes. And rather than teaching in school they prefer to teach in there personal tuition. Some time Teacher pass only those students who come him to have tuition.

Problem of  hospital in village : 

When we see hospital in village we found that they are in very bad condition. We see that most of the doctor wants to work in city in order to make money. Also we see that there are no basic facility in the village.  There was incident in novel that there is doctor who wants to work in city. Because of this problem our government made rule for every doctor they for 5 year they have to work in village. But still that won't get proper solution to this Problem. Because there are so many people who pay money get escape form this type of rule.


As I mentioned above that there are lake of basic facility in Indian hospital. Here I am sharing a link where you can find that how many people in  India died because of lake of facility.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/01/07/787967175/over-900-infants-died-in-one-hospital-in-india-in-2019-what-went-wrong

By this we see poor condition of hospital in Indian village.

So, when we look at all this week can see that there are so many things in text which are presented in realistic way. So we can not deny that India has not darker part rather we need to find solutions.

2. Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

No, we can not say that Balram's story is of archetype of the all stories of rage to riches. We can not completely deny that this kind of people are not there in India there are some people like him in India but all are not same. There is always exception.  One if exception we can see in the movie Slumdog Millioner. The protagonist of the movie is Jamal Malik who comes from slum area of Mumbai. And reach to show of KBC and also won 20 million from the show. But when we look at his journey we found that he didn't do any work to become rich. There is some small things he did but that all wrong he did in order to survive. Rather his brother Salim Mailk did wrong and he get punishment. So we can not say that Balram's story is archetype of the all rags to riches.

3. Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to show that any text inevitably undermines its own claims to have a determinate meaning, and licences the reader to produce his own meanings out of it by an activity of semantic 'freeplay' (Derrida, 1978, in Lodge, 1988, p. 108). Is it possible to do deconstructive reading of The White Tiger? How?

Yes, it is possible to do deconstructive reading of the Novel. Balram him self say that if some one asked what I call my story then I will answer it as " The autobiography of Half- Baked Indian."  This words allow us to deconstract Novel that the person who tells this story is not a person person who has all the knowledge, who has suffered a lot but won't come out as a perfect human. 

Similarity and difference between Slumdog Millioner and White Tiger : 

1. Narrative Structure : 

When we look at the narrative Structure of the Novel we see that it Balram shows his wanted poster and slowly talks about his life journey from childhood to till now. On the other side story of Jamal Malik has three narrative layer. Start form police station to KBC show to his past. From shows question he recall his memory which shows two things together first from where he gets answer and second his life story. 

2.  Indianness : 

In both the story we see that there are shown Indian problems. The problem which are shown in novel I mentioned them in 1st question about the problem of schools hospital etc. While when we look at the story of the Jamal it represenat problem of slam. In there way if leaving we found indianness. 

3. List of questions asked in movie Slumdog Millioner : 

Here is link in which you find all question and also it is in quiz from so you can recollect  your memory about the answer. 
https://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz30425122d4eb0.html

When I check my memory I got 6 point out of 10.

4.  Deconstructive reading of Movie : 

We can do deconstructive reading of Movie by saying that Britishers always shows the darker side of India. And that is the reason that they show the slum India, poverty in India.  By talking this kind of things we can do deconstructive reading of Movie.

5. Texture and treatment of subject contact : 

When we look at the subject of the Novel and movie we see that subject content of both is same about the story of rags to riches. But the the m difference between both of them is that in movie at last we see that there is poetic Justice and in novel we see that there is no poetic Justice in novel. Balram won't have any regret to kill Ashok while in movie Jamal and latika are unite.

• What does  writer mean by saying something to be said in English language only. 

 When Novel began we see that before starting the letter Balram say that 

 Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.

When we read this thing we can interpret this in three way. One is that he want that by started doing this he want that because it is global language it also become normal language as that in other nation. Second reason can be that many of the fabrics won't understand. If they won't understand then there is no problem because there are so many things which hurts sentiment of Religious people. Or third and last can be that he won't to have sense of superiority. Because when we speak English people have different thinking about us and they thought they we have more knowledge then any other. So this can be the reason that he say that there are things need to say in English.