White Tiger

In current society many books are written based racial or social issues reflecting the past, present or future. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is an example that confronts social and racial issues within India, shown through the eyes of servant to wealthy, named Balram. Born in rural part of India with a deceased mother and rickshaw-pulling father, Balram is dedicated to serving others. Whether it was driving the wealthy around, grinding coal, or running behind cars to get a job, Balram’s life was constant and there was no chance of him becoming a man who had servants. He was judged on where he was from and the family he was born into just like Jim was judged in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the color of his skin. They both had nothing to do with what they were born with but they both try to make the best of their lives by making relationships with those of a higher class or skin tone. In comparison to The White Tiger Balram shows how he deals with struggles within given class in order to better himself in the modern Indian society. The common apartment buildings in Delhi thrive on the past like caste systems based on the structure of the floors within the apartment. Balram describes his job, as a servant is to drive his masters around and then when they return to the buildings clean the apartment or do anything for his masters waiting for the master to tell him to leave until the morning. When Balram is done with work he goes downstairs to the servants’ quarters in the basement, which is traditional to have in apartment buildings because all residential buildings or homes are built with quarters to house their servants. These living arrangements are a place of “rest, sleep, and wait. When our masters wanted us an electric bell began to ring throughout the quarters…I swept the floor, tied the mosquito net to four nails on the wall, and went to sleep. The wall was covered with cockroaches,”(108-110). While their masters lived in beautiful, cleanly