Character of Balram

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar UniversityDepartment of EnglishName: Baldaniya Vanita

Class: M.A.Part-2Semester: 4Paper no: 13The New Literature

Guidance By: Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad.

Index

1. About The White Tiger 2. About Aravind Adiga 3. Character of Balram. 4. Conclusion

About The White Tiger• Author: Aravind Adiga

• Type of Work: Novel

• Year of Publication: 2008

• Literature time: The New Literature.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

About Aravind Adiga • Adiga began his journalistic career as a financial

journalist, interning at the Financial Times. With pieces published in the Financial Times and Money, he covered the stock market and investment, interviewing, among others, Donald Trump. His review of previous Booker Prize winner Peter Carey's book, Oscar and Lucinda, appeared in The Second Circle, an online literary review.[9] He was subsequently hired by TIME, where he remained a South Asia correspondent for three years before going freelance.[10] During his freelance period, he wrote The White Tiger. He currently lives in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Character of Balram

• The narrator of The White Tiger, Balram Halwai is an Indian entrepreneur who prides himself on having risen above his meager beginnings by means of his own ingenuity. Balram presents himself as an honest fellow who never attempts to hide the fact that he is a murderer.

• The narrator Balram Halwai grew up in the fictive village Laxmangarh in India. Like most families in this region his family is very poor. Furthermore he lost his parents very early. His family neither gave him a name nor a date of birth. They just called him „Munna“meaning „boy“

•  His father always wanted him to go to school to learn how to write and to read in reason to give him better possibilities. At the school he got the name „Balram“by his teacher. One of the most important facts is that the school inspector named him „The white Tiger “the rarest animal in the jungle because he is the cleverest child in Laxmangarh. Because of debts at the landowner „Stork “Balrams family takes him out of school to earn money in the tea house.

•  His further education he gets by eavesdropping conversations of the tea house guests. After the death of his parents his grandmother Kusum decides about his future. As he wants to become a driver Kusum pays his introduction in condition that Balram supports his family when he is a driver.

• Against all expectations he gets a job as driver and servant at the „Storks” house. In the eyes of “Mr. Ashok” his young master he is the perfect servant. Balram identifies with his master and he's really fortunate to have a boss like that. He worries about him and his image:

“ On Mr. Ashok's privacy I allowed no one to infringe”

•  Furthermore he stops chewing paan because Pinky Madam points out that his teeth were disgusting. More and more he starts casting off his role as a local jerk. When he is forced to take his responsibility for an accident caused by Pinky Madam he begins to mistrust and to doubt the loyalty of his master.

• There are early signs for the murder of Mr. Ashok. First he can't overcome his thoughts to murder his good-natured master but at the end it's a cold-blooded and well planned deed.

• Therefore he risks his families well-being but he doesn't feel responsible for them anymore. After Balram's flight he founds a driver company with the stolen money of Mr. Ashok. This underlines his spirit, shrewdness and intelligence.

• When one of his drivers caused an accident he behaves loyal and supports his driver. His action shows the difference between him and Mr. Ashok during an accident. While Mr. Ashok wallows in self-pity Balram feels sorry for his driver and the victim.

• There are early signs for the murder of Mr. Ashok. First he can't overcome his thoughts to murder his good-natured master but at the end it's a cold-blooded and well planned deed.

• Therefore he risks his families well-being but he doesn't feel responsible for them anymore. After Balram's flight he founds a driver company with the stolen money of Mr. Ashok. This underlines his spirit, shrewdness and intelligence.

• When one of his drivers caused an accident he behaves loyal and supports his driver. His action shows the difference between him and Mr. Ashok during an accident. While Mr. Ashok wallows in self-pity Balram feels sorry for his driver and the victim.

• The positive features of Balram aren't curious because he is the narrator of the story. Balram presents himself as an above-average and smart boy who grows with his experiences and changed from a naive, poor child to a hardened, rich metropolitan. He looks with a cynical attitude, a moral indignation at the conditions in India and at his own life. But at the end Balram is a lonely people.

•  He is lonely because of his living condition. But he is also lonely because he is dissociated from his comrades. He even keeps his nephews away from himself. Between them stands the deed which changed everything:

“One day, I know, Dharam, this boy who is drinking my milk and eating my ice cream in big bowls, will ask me….And then I’ll have to come up with an answer- or kill him, I suppose.”

• His master’s murder will follow Balram every time. Even if he hopes to find the way back in community.

• The family of Balram is poor but very traditional. Men and woman sleep in different corners of their house and all members of the family adore and carry for the water buffalo, which is fed by the woman still before they make the meal for their husbands. The water buffalo is a fat, glossy skinned creature and gets top priority. Every member of the family works hard for the well-being of their relatives.

• Balrams mother is dead and considered as crazy by Balrams grandmother, that’s why Grandmother Kusum is glad that Balrams mother isn’t alive anymore and can’t influence the family.

Conclusion

• Balram Halwai: The narrator of the story. Balram begins life in a poor village but murders his boss and steals a large sum of money to become a self-made entrepreneur.

• Aidga uses Balram’s transformation over the course of The White Tigerto criticize the new India. For all its economic prosperity that is showcased to Western media, India remains a country of deep-seated class and social divisions.

• As Balram interacts with Mr. Ashok, Adiga reveals how helpless the wealthy are to combat the inequalities and corruptions that plague India. Ultimately, Mr. Ashok dies at Balram’s hands, and Balram finds that he is able to become prosperous. Balram is a complicated, ambiguous hero whose journey reveals the complexity that lies beneath the surface of the new India.