Page 131 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Unit 16: Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger—Detailed Study

intoxicated Pinky Madam buys a little Buddha statue for Balram and then insists to drive the Notes
vehicle herself, leaving Balram alone on the road. This turns out to be another mockery since Mr.
Ashok and Pinky Madam pretend to run over Balram and then pick him up again to continue
driving home.
During the tour they commit a hit-and-run on a poor child and force Balram to cover it up by
cleaning the car several times. In response Mukesh Sir returns on the next day who treats Balram
really nice for the first time while Mr. Ashok is still busy comforting Pinky Madam who suffered
a severe shock. It turns out the behavioural change of Mukesh Sir towards Balram only served the
purpose to ease him in into taking the blame for the whole incident, thus Balram is supposed to go
to jail instead of them.
The Fifth Night: In the beginning of the fifth chapter, Balram describes the principle of the
Rooster Coop. In a Rooster Coop, all chickens are stuffed together tightly. They are so busy trying
to find a breathing space in order to keep alive that they don’t even think about breaking out of the
Coop. In Balram’s opinion, 99.9 % of the Indians, the servants, are imprisoned in such a Rooster
Coop by the rich. Although these men have the same abilities as the rich, they were taught to be
slaves so well that they don’t make any attempt to break out of the Coop. Furthermore, they know
that their families will be as good as dead if they should try to betray their masters.
When Balram is supposed to go to jail for the hit-and-run committed by Pinky Madam, he feels
like being trapped in this Coop and not able to break out of it. He is so terrified that he doesn’t
even think about running away. Fortunately, nobody has reported the accident and Balram doesn’t
have to go to prison. The one who delivers this message to Balram is Pinky Madam – she is the
only one in the family who actually seems to feel guilty about the death of the unknown child.
Balram realises that the atmosphere in the family is not the best. Pinky Madam appears quite
upset, and some days later she commands him to drive her to the airport at two in the morning.
When Mr. Ashok realises that his wife has left him for good, he turns his anger on Balram, until
the latter kicks him in the chest to stop him. Mr. Ashok doesn’t know how to deal with the
situation. He spends much time being drunk and being driven around through Delhi aimlessly. It
melts Balram’s heart to see his master so lost and powerless and he gives his best trying to distract
him and care for him. He thinks that it is his duty to be like a wife to Mr. Ashok now that Pinky
Madam is gone. The master-servant-relationship becomes quite close. Still, Balram can’t tell where
his sincere concern for his master ends and his self-interest begins – without Mr. Ashok he wouldn’t
have any job and money. The beginning intimacy between the two of them comes to a sudden end
when the Mongoose arrives from Dhanbad and Mr. Ashok tells him that he is glad to have
‘someone real’ by his side again. The Mongoose has a letter from Balram’s grandmother and reads
it aloud for him – although Balram can red: she wants him to send more money and to come home
in order to marry. The next morning, Balram finds Mr. Ashok massaging his feet himself.
Immediately, the servant bred into him grabs the feet of his master, which really upsets Mr. Ashok
and makes him shout ‘How stupid can you people get?’.
Reflecting this situation, the thought of murder crosses Balram’s mind for the first time (‘I had a
vision of a pale stiff foot pushing trough a fire. “No,” I said.’). He does some yoga to push the evil
feelings away, until he is interrupted by the other drivers who notice that something is going on.
Balram is observed by them and as long as he is, he can’t break out of the Coop, which is obviously
guarded from the inside.
The Sixth Morning: Balram comes to describing how he changed from an innocent village boy to
a corrupted man. He claims that these changes just happened in him because they first happened
in his master. Having been alone for some time, Mr. Ashok starts going to discos. In the small car,
Balram can feel that his master is horny as if they would share the same body. While waiting in
front of a hotel, the driver with the diseased lips tells Balram that the best-case scenario for a
driver is to have a house in a slum and a child in college. When Mr. Ashok leaves the hotel, he is

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