Finding Identity in The White Tiger Kulin Gunathilake 12th Grade

Aravind Adiga adopts an epistolary form in The White Tiger, depicting the plight of a low caste servant, trying to escape the physical and mental chains that forge his destiny. Adiga initially presents a protagonist in Balram, who is engaging, despite confessing to horrific crimes. His language, thoughts, and deeds convey his originally good nature. However, this honest nature is also an immense weakness in his transformative journey to freedom as the India Adiga presents is sharply divided into two is sharply divided into two, the Darkness, and the Light. The upper castes reside in the Light, filled with malfeasance and nepotism; a hotbed for corruption; whereas the Darkness hosts the lower castes, filled with poverty and an archaic sense of duty to family. This environment forces Balram to transform to construct his “own” identity.

The polarised realities of India are geographically represented. The Light is found in large cities close to the ocean, such as Bangalore which “is the future” with “one in three new office blocks… being built” there. The Light radiates from the fast-paced social energy and massive wealth of new industries, such as Balram’s own business which boasts “sixteen drivers” and “twenty-six vehicles”. In...