Light and Darkness 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 mental and physical 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 journey to freedom as the India Adiga presents 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 lower castes reside in the Darkness, filled with poverty and an archaic sense of duty to family. Balram, being bogged in the Darkness, had to become his own master to succeed, as this duty to family and rampant corruption shackled him.

The polarized 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… with...