The White Tiger Commentary PDF

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Summary

Analyze the style of the authors writing. Why did he choose this style? How did this contribute to the story as a whole? Title: "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga...

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No one wants to be at the bottom of the food chain. Humans have a nature to want to be at the top and stay there by any menas necessary. Adiga demonstrates the social disparity of Indias class system by using the definition of satire to emphasize the philosophy of the caste. Specifically, he uses “Praise to Excess;” a literary device Adiga bends at his will to illuminate corruption at its finest. To begin with, on page 140 Balram explains to Ashok how the little girl they murdered would not be missed, since she was born to the darkness. Ashok, on the other hand was born in the light, which impelled him to ask such a silly question (in Balram's mind) in the first place. “...will anyone miss her...?” Ashok seems so anxious and scared and sad after the accident, that even the readers themselves start to believe Balram’s theory, that Ashok is not like the rest, but instead a docile lamb always being taken advantage of. However, “You know how those people in the Darkness are: they have eight, nine, ten children---sometimes they don’t know the names of their own children. Her parents---if they're even here in Delhi, if they even know where she is tonight---won't go to the police.”(Adiga, 140). Ashok comes to the realization that the little girl Pinky Madam killed was one of an impoverished background. He exhibits being relieved that the now deceased girl was poor, a homeless wanderer whose parents will not even know the name of. “Oh, she was one of those people.”(Adiga, 140). This reveals that regardless of his more evolved morals, he too feels the disregard for the poor displayed by other characters. It illustrates that even for people with decency and virtue, everyone in India has an internalized sense that Balram’s social class -the Servant- is inferior, and therefore dispensable. Subsequently, Makesh Sir shows up, and Ashok’s morality is stumped by his selfish duties as a Master to save his own hide.

In retrospect, I mentioned “Praise to Excess”: a form of Satire used to illustrate irony; take something bad and praise it without boundary. At the end of the excerpt, Balram is delighted to just have aided his Masters in committing a hit and run. “He put a hand on my shoulder...then he put a finger on his lips. ‘Of course, sir...I was tired as hell---but on my lips there was the big, contented smile that comes to one who has done his duty by his master even in the most difficult of times.” (Adiga, 140). This goes to show that, India’s foundations are so corrupt that a Servant believes he is honorable, and able, to perpetuate such horrible crimes. Moreover, in support of caste, Ashok as the Master, expects his Servant to obey all commands, right or wrong. So, near the end, Ashok places a finger to his mouth, signaling Balram to never speak of what happened. Aravind Adiga’s writing style is predominantly satirical. In the White Tiger, he is foraging the unjust social hierarchies and realities through grisly comedy criticizing with humor to change that which seems wrong (definition of satire), and this excerpt is a prime example. “An exhilarating, sidesplitting account of India today, as well as an eloquent howl at her many social and economic injustices.”(Gary Shteyngart)....