The White Tiger

In today’s urban society, values such as an arranged marriage and caste levels do not seem like they could be relevant. However, in many countries around the world, these values are still present. In India, every person is born into a different class rank and once they are in their class it is very hard to change it. In Aravind Adiga’s novel, The White Tiger, he describes the story of Balram’s life and how he overcame the caste system in India; in doing so, a Marxist perspective could be used to analyze Balram’s actions throughout the book. Balram manages to overcome his place in the caste system, kills his master, and breaks his destiny. Aravind Adiga provides a unique perspective for his readers by describing what a person’s life would consist
Balram was never given a name because his parents were too busy to name him, he was called Munna which meant boy. However, his teacher, Mr. Krishna, decided to name him Balram. His family was in one of the lowest castes as tea shop workers. Balram started off going to school, like all of the normal children. His father, Vikram Halwei, kept him in school for as long as he could to keep him away from the corruption in the village. However, he ended up having to quit school to keep up with working in the tea shop for his family. Since Balram’s mother died when he was very young, him and his older brother, Kishan, had to work more to make sure their family survived. However, obtaining a job did not guarantee one to survive in this village, there was a high level of class corruption. Balram describes the “Animals” of the village to be the reason for the corruption in the village (Godina). They were called the Stork, the Wild Boar, the Buffalo, the Raven, and the Mongoose. Each person owned certain parts of land in the village and in each part they controlled the people living there. On page 21 of The White Tiger, Balram describes the Animals as, “Their children were gone, but the Animals stayed and fed on the village, and everything that grew in it, until there was nothing left for anyone else to feed on.” (Adiga, 21). This describes the amount of control they had over the entire village which directly relates to how the people in the lower castes were oppressed. The Animals were seen as the oppressors of the village and there was a large discrepancy between wealth and power in the community. The needs of people in the lower castes, like Balram’s family were not valued. The tyrants of the village, the Animals, had absolute control over all of the people simply due to their high social standing in the community. This corrupted caste