The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Essay Example

style="text-align: justify">Because the villagers have nearly no money, they are unable to keep their children in school and this leads to another low educated generation. For this reason, the situation in the village does not change a lot over time. This shows us the basic principle of the cast system: someone born in a certain cast will stay in that cast for a lifetime. The cast system is also the founder of the rooster coop, a topic to which Adiga devotes several pages. The rooster coop is the similarity between chickens living under bare circumstances in too small cages and Indian servants: neither one can escape from its “cage”.

So though India is officially an independent country and the inhabitants have civil rights, they are nevertheless captured in the rooster coop. The cast system and the rooster coop are recurrent themes throughout the entire book. When Balram escapes from Laxmangarh, he becomes the driver of Mr. Ashok and his family. Balram discovers that Mr. Ashok frequently brings a red bag filled with money to politicians, so his family business does not have to pay taxes. This corruption is an aspect of Indian society that Adiga riticises a lot: elections being won by a party that bribed the entire village; doctors who refuse to go to hospitals, thus bribing administration staff; and the red bag filled with money. Ironically, this red bag was ultimately a way for Balram to escape from the rooster coop, resulting in death for Mr. Ashok. These examples given, it is clear Adiga’s main focus is the Indian society and more specifically its negative sides. There is however a hidden message

that may or may not have added to Adiga’s motive for writing the book, which we will discuss either way.

An ethical question the reader asks him or herself while reading the last chapters. Is Balram’s choice of murdering Mr. Ashok the right choice? Many people will respond to this with a definite “no, murdering is unethical, no matter what”. There are of course also more substantiated reasons for this point of view: Mr. Ashok was often nice to Balram; by killing Mr. Ashok, he endangered his own family; and what about loyalty? There are however, also reasons to believe murdering Mr. Ashok was ethically right.

For example, after Balram became an entrepreneur, he was able to sent his cousin Dharam to school, to employ boys in  and most importantly, it was the only way in which he could break free from the cast system, a system that has damaged him, his family and the majority of the Indians. The answer on the question is personal. Nevertheless is Adiga capable of creating sympathy in all his readers for Balram, despite the fact he is a cold-blooded murderer. A servant. An entrepreneur. An exception.