Thinking Activity : The White Tiger

 Thinking Activity : The White Tiger 

About Novel : The White Tiger 

The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year.The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India's class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing Balram's journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India Ultimately, Balram transcends his sweet-maker caste and becomes a successful entrepreneur, establishing his own taxi service. In a nation proudly shedding a history of poverty and underdevelopment, he represents, as he himself says, "tomorrow."

Here are some questions to respond : 

1 ) How far do you agree with the India represented in the novel The White Tiger?

The White Tiger is the famous novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year. Genre of the novel is “Dark Humor ''. India is represented through half-baked Indian ‘Balram Halwai’ in the novel. The India that is presented in the fiction is quite true to the reality. Such as Satire on education, marriage system and suffering of poor children, school corruption, inadequacy of job, Haves v/s Have-nots, master-slave relationship, exploitation of poor people by rich, servants as animals, society as cage, landlords and exploitation of poor people, internalized slavery, satire on Indian police, Dark India v/s Light India. I Indian people are very honest , it is shown in the movie with reference to surat ( diamond business) so these all facts give us a glimpse of India in which we are living.   

2 ) Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

Yes, Balram’s story becomes the archetype of all stories but We can say only 30 to 40 percent of people can follow the same thing as Balram did especially in the era of Post-truth.

We can see that the stories which portray the poor as central characters at the end of the story become rich. We can see many people who are the same as Balram. Like those who belong to poor and wide families, who didn’t complete their studies, who go to work from early childhood, and who bear insults from those who are rich. These types of stories show the struggle of the poor to achieve their dream and for becoming rich. The ways of reaching the destination of wealth might differ from each story but the suffering always remains the same. So this way we can say that Balram’s story is the archetype of all stories of “Rags to Riches”.

3 ) "Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to show that any text inevitably undermines its own claims to have a determinate meaning, and licences the reader to produce his own meanings out of it by an activity of semantic 'freeplay' (Derrida, 1978, in Lodge, 1988, p. 108). Is it possible to do deconstructive reading of The White Tiger? How?

Yes, it is possible to deconstruct “The White Tiger”. We can deconstruct it with the help of Derrida’s concept of free play of meanings.  To break the language we need to find the loose stone of it. The loose stone of “The White Tiger” is that Balram himself says that he is “Half-baked”. This word breaks all the philosophy and all the ideals which Balram is presenting by giving his own example. Because he is not fully educated. He understands things with his limited power of analysis. He appropriate the deep philosophies with his shallow ideas and thinking. For example, he compares his idea of killing his master and getting freedom with the enlightenment of Buddha.

4 ) With ref to screening of the Netflix adaptation: 

i) Write a review of the film adaptation The White Tiger.

The White Tiger is a 2021 India based American drama film directed by Ramin Bahrani. The film stars Adarsh Gourav in his first leading role, along with Priyanka Chopra and 

Rajkummar Rao. The film was produced by Mukul Deora,

Ramin Bahrani’s version of Aravind Adiga’s 2008 Booker prize-winning novel is one of the more successful literary adaptations of recent years.

An adaptation of Aravind Adiga's 2008 novel of the same name, the story is about Balram, who comes from a poor Indian village and uses his wit and cunning to escape from poverty.

In the film narrator is Balram (Adarsh Gourav, excellent in a slippery, hard-to-like role, half baked, poor boy) he’s smart and ambitious, but destined to work on his family’s tea stand. 

Child Abuse :

Balram belong to Laxmangarh, Balram is offered a scholarship to a school in Delhi because of his advanced academics. He is told that he is a "white tiger," someone who gets born only once in a generation. His father is unable to pay off village landlord 'the Stork', Balram is forced by his grandmother to work in the village's tea stall, and he never returns to school. So this thing we can see as child abuse.

Casteism : 

Casteism is also reflects in the movie. Balram release secret of drove who is muslim but he hide his identity and he work as upar class man. Casteism is reflected in the movie.

Queer study is also in the movie between master and servant. Ashok as Master and Balram as servant.

ii) Have you identified any difference in the novel and the film adaptation? Does it make any significant difference in the overall tone and texture of the novel?

The White Tiger, the 2008 Man Booker Prize–winning debut novel by Indian Australian author Aravind Adiga, is a gripping tale of poverty and crime in modern-day India, following a poor Indian worker’s ascent from destitute villager to chauffeur to successful small-time entrepreneur. 

The book examines how lower-class people cope with or try to escape from the poverty, casteism, income inequality, corruption, globalization, and other systems that entrap them—the “chicken coop,” as the protagonist calls it.

Adiga dedicated The White Tiger to his close friend Ramin Bahrani, whom he met while attending Columbia University. Bahrani wrote and directed the film adaptation, which was released in theaters earlier this month and is now available to stream on Netflix. Here some points are differentiate novel and film...

1 ) The frame story :

The novel is formatted as eight lengthy emails written over the course of a week by the protagonist, Balram Halwai, to the–Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The movie uses these emails as narration throughout, although it does not split that narration up into eight parts like the book does.

2 ) The village 

Much of the genesis of Balram’s story remains the same. In both novel and film, young Balram hails from a remote village in the state of Bihar called Laxmangarh and from a big family of a lower caste most often recognized as consisting of “sweet-makers.”

Throughout the book, other characters also refer to him as such; in the film, the person who calls Balram “the white tiger” the most is Balram himself.

In the novel, Balram sets out to become a professional driver after learning how much money personal chauffeurs for India’s plutocrats make, getting Kusum to invest in driving classes. After his lessons, Balram goes around to various houses and begs for a driving job until he just happens to stumble upon the residence of the Stork.

3 ) The Killing

Balram decides to murder Ashok, for the money and begin a new life. This crime forms The White Tiger’s climax, though the timeline differs in the adaptation from the original story. 

In the film, Balram drives through a rainstorm to pick up Ashok, who Pinky calls and asks him to move to New York, though he doesn’t want to.

iii) David Ehrlich in his review wrote this : Ramin Brahman's Netflix Thriller is Brutal corrective to Slumdog Millionaire? Why is it 'corrective'? What was the error in slumDog millionaire that it was corrected?

Indian writer Aravind Adiga has always been rather gracious about the social message of “Slumdog Millionaire. 

“The White Tiger” reads like such a damning critique of Danny Boyle’s slickly subaltern fairy tale that it almost feels like a direct rebuttal.

In Ramin Bahrani’s fast, lucid, and sometimes faithful-to-a-fault adaptation of “The White Tiger,” that’s exactly what he does. His more neo-realistic films about working-class struggles.

Director Ramin Bahrani’s The White Tiger will premiere on Netflix on January 22. Based on Aravind Adiga’s book of the same title, this film stars Adarsh ​​Gourav, Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao in the main characters.

Here’s what the critics have to say about The White Tiger: The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney wrote in his review, “The sting of lower-class payback doesn’t rival, say, Parasite, but it does touch on the same rage of the poor, being kicked out of an system in a world that’s so unequal. as the anti-slumdog millionaire. “

Gleiberman said The White Tiger was “like the Slumdog Millionaire with more reality.” He captured how society was manifested in its smallest interactions.

David Ehrlich of Indiewire called The White Tiger a “brutal corrective for the Slumdog Millionaire.” His review reads, “Bahrani’s jagged aim and street-level perspective allow him to write an idea of Adiga’s book, and to equip it with the sights and sounds necessary to bring it all to life.

Thank you ...