Significance of the title in "The White Tiger"

JUSTIFY THE TITLE “THE WHITE TIGER”

Adiga’s novel ‘The White Tiger ’is multilayered. The book is exotic, beautiful, mysterious, colorful land mystical.

The novel The White Tiger is about a poor villager called Balram. The boy lost his mother in his early age and while studying in school he lost his father. An inspector who visited his school calls him as White Tiger. Unfortunately, at an early age Balram is forced to earn money. Then he becomes a taxi driver in Delhi. Only then he sees the world of glamour and fake personalities. He decides to kill his master. He takes away Ashok’s money by killing him and leaves to Bangalore.

India’s major problem is vast and ditched between rich and poor. A white tiger is the rarest creature in the jungle that comes along only once in every generation. When Balram attends his school in village, he is named by a school inspector as the “The White Tiger’’, of his contemporaries. He is the only child in the class who can read and write. The inspector even promises him to give him scholarship for his further study to fulfill his potential. But his bright future is spoiled. His family is in debt and he is forced to leave the school. He starts working in order to pay his family’s depts.

The lordship ruined the poor not only in India but also everywhere. Adiga uses an effective technique in the novel. Balram’s life story revealed to the readers through a letter.Balram comes to know about the Chinese premier’s visit to India. As soon as Ashok returns from America, Balram becomes his driver. Apart from driving he cooks, cleanse, and does all sorts of work that are demanded by his master. Balram points out the master-servant relationship to be the “Rooster Coop’’ syndrome. In the markets of New Delhi, hens are stuffed into wire cages and they shit and stamp on each other. According to Balram , the condition is same to the poor.

Balram represents the poor, the subaltern, the illiterate, and the lower class of India.Adiga shows the ‘darker’ and the ‘brighter’ sides of India. The title is significant because both balram and the tiger are distinctive and are different beings.Balram earns this nickname when he impresses a visiting school official with his intelligence and reading skills.

The White Tiger is a symbol for rare talent and only one in 10000 Bengali tigers is white. This shows the rarity of the species. Similarly, Balram –the white tiger is also symbolic in many ways. Hisactions, deeds and thinking reflect the rarity within him. The way he encounters problems and situations in life is different from that of others. He is brave enough to break out of his coop, in which a massive people similar to him have been trapped in. This is evident of his uniqueness.

            The novel mirrors the exact life scenario of the downtrodden and the poor. They suffer a lot within their limitations and are unable to come out of it. They do not dare to break their bars because of their trapped nature under the rich landlords and masters. If they attempt to come out of their slavery, they might be forced to face many dangers and threats by the authoritative people. So they are stuck in their situations. But, apart from all these people, Balram is very courageous and different, and has made an attempt to overcome his obstacles to idolize himself as the “White Tiger’’. He has other ways but to kill his master and steal the money. Though these two crimes are deadly sins, Balram makes use of these crimes be weapons, as his situation is even more tragic and pathetic. He has not thought of creating his identity. He has remained as an unidentified and an unworthy man. Everyone in this earth has his own rights to live his life. But in the present contemporary world, it is not so. Only the rich can survive and the poor always suffer. Therefore, the author has kept a suitable title to his novel.

      Thus, the title is significant to the incidents connected to the novel as well as relevant to the topic.

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                                                K.DEMONA