Blog Task On ‘The White Tiger’ Novel by Aravind Adiga

Blog Task On ‘The White Tiger’ Novel by Aravind Adiga

Respected Sir,

As we already completed this novel 'The White Tiger' Aravind Adiga. I found this many things in this novel.

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

We cannot say that this novel represents real India throughout the narration of nation. Because Arvind Adiga himself uses this words “Half Baked” Indians, means what he takes about is story of half people not about all.

“Me, and thousands of others in this country like me, are half-baked, because we were never allowed to complete our schooling. Open our skulls, look in with a penlight, and you'll find an odd museum of ideas: sentences of history or mathematics remembered from school textbooks (no boy remembers his schooling like the one who was taken out of school, let me assure you), sentences about politics read in a newspaper while waiting for someone to come to an office, triangles and pyramids seen on the torn pages of the old geometry textbooks which every tea shop in this country uses to wrap its snacks in, bits of All India Radio news bulletins, things that drop into your mind, like lizards from the ceiling, in the half hour before falling asleep--all these ideas, half formed and half digested and half correct, mix up with other half-cooked ideas in your head, and I guess these half-formed ideas bugger one another, and make more half-formed ideas, and this is what you act on and live with.”

― Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger

He has only half information and half point of views. So we can’t say that what he represents about India in his novel is true hundred present. Its story of half India.

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

Archetypes means a very typical example of a certain person or thing.  So, based on this yes we can say that this is an archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'. We can take example of Slumdog Millionaire.

In this movie we can also find this kind of similar story of rag to riches. Because in India it’s a dream of every one to get success by hook or crook. If we look at the text from that point of view then yes defiantly this story is an 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?

If we follow this statement then every book has that kind of some loose points from where we can find some meaning and we can deconstruct that idea given by writer himself into the text.

If we talk about 'The White Tiger' then it’s true that we can deconstruct this book with the help of some words like, in this book author himself uses this word like, “This book is Auto-Biography of half-baked Indians”.

“Me, and thousands of others in this country like me, are half-baked, because we were never allowed to complete our schooling. Open our skulls, look in with a penlight, and you'll find an odd museum of ideas: sentences of history or mathematics remembered from school textbooks (no boy remembers his schooling like the one who was taken out of school, let me assure you), sentences about politics read in a newspaper while waiting for someone to come to an office, triangles and pyramids seen on the torn pages of the old geometry textbooks which every tea shop in this country uses to wrap its snacks in, bits of All India Radio news bulletins, things that drop into your mind, like lizards from the ceiling, in the half hour before falling asleep--all these ideas, half formed and half digested and half correct, mix up with other half-cooked ideas in your head, and I guess these half-formed ideas bugger one another, and make more half-formed ideas, and this is what you act on and live with.”

― Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger

It means not having full sense of everything. What information is provided is half-truth only. We can’t rely on that fully. So, yes it is possible to do deconstructive reading of The White Tiger with the help of some words like, i.e. Half-baked Indians or some theories like, i.e. Aporia, Lacuna etc.

Yes Sir, I agreed with this point that now a days in India most probably "The young generation is growing with utter dishonesty" as Balram says in this novel. That’s why Arvind Adiga also represents this idea of morality and immorality with new word like ‘A’morality. Instead of immorality he uses this word amorality. Now a days in India people don’t consider immorality as immorality. Because now a days this term immorality changing its meaning. With little dishonesty people thinks that they are moral and they don’t want to accept that this is immoral.

That’s why our cinema and movies are also start borrowing this idea in movies. Because it’s really happening in our society.

Example, i.e. in exams mostly students are caught when they are copying answer from any other student but if you ask that student he or she want accept that this is immoral, they like this dishonesty. And because of that other students also suffers. 

                                                    Thank You ….