How Does Balram Become The Oppressor?

In the novel The White Tiger wrote by Aravind Adiga, Balram, a young man, is struggling to make a name for himself in a society that is driven by the jungle law, where you eat or you get eaten up. That same law makes Balram do things that are not right to get what he wants. He could chose to move away from this mentality, but he doesn’t, in most situations he becomes the oppressor, also the society that he lives in makes it hard to move away from this mentality.

As the people around him, Balram is more and more driven by this mentality of the jungle law and it shows in his actions when he slowly becomes the oppressor. This law defends that to get what you want, it is important to make sure to get rid of all obstacles, it’s all about competition.
By doing this he becomes the oppressor, and not only his actions, the words he expresses also give him this title. For example on page 92 when he says, ‘’before he could run I caught him by the collar’’, or even, ‘Get me some tea. And biscuits.’’ I pinched his shirt. ‘’And I want your uniform too. Mine is getting old’, he truly shows that he is taking power. He has become the oppressor by not asking for what he wants, but demanding it and making sure he gets it, in these two quotes, we see how he is taking revenge for all the times that he was told what to do, also by asking for the uniform, it is like he is taking his career, his importance and his status from him and keeps it to himself. Another example where Balram became the oppressor is of course when he decides to murder Ashok, his master. In this situation, when the jungle law says to eat or get eaten up, Balram obviously chose to eat, and he took more than just one small bite(244-45). As the story goes on, although Ashok is not the worst master, he is still Balram’s master, and the jungle law pushes Balram to realize that he will never be truly free if he does not free himself from his master. The need of freedom makes him do something atrocious, which is committing this