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

angrily. Notes
When Mukesh leaves some days later Balram dances around the platform at the train station the
moment the train disappears. As Mr. Ashok is on the phone again Balram has to bring the red bag
full of money downstairs to the car. Mr. Ashok would follow in a minute. As Balram is standing
in front of the elevator he suddenly turns around as if he is on the run and runs fast down the
stairs. The reader is left in one moment of uncertainty. However some time later Balram is waiting
for his master in the car with the red bag and all his untouched money on the backseat. As he is
talking to the city while he is driving Mr. Ashok to the minister again Delhi tells him that the
money truly belongs to Balram and no one else. “In your heart you’ve already taken it.”
Balram is in a really bad conflict with his conscience. On the one hand he is aware of Mr. Ashok
as a good and gracious master. If he fulfills his plan his family will be in danger and he would
disappoint his father who wanted him to be an honest man. On the other hand his father wanted
him to be a man and his family is for a long time far away from him. Moreover Mr. Ashok gave
Balram the blame for the car accident and the child’s death.

Fulfilled with these thoughts he goes to the train station secretly and without any obvious reason.
“So this is what it will be like.” He thinks for himself as if he is practicing his escape. Balram gets
a free day telling his master he would go to the temple although it is a lie. He wants to go to the
famous “red-light-district” in Delhi. Though he changes his mind seeing the women behind the
glasses looked like animals.
So he goes straight on to an older part of the city. Balram gets to a secondhand market where
books are sold. It’s really impressive for him. Therefore he names it “wonder of the world”. There
he meets an old bookseller. This man tells him a lot about poetry and poets. This point is really
important for Balram.
On the way home an image of a buffalo appears in front of his eyes. On a carriage are a lot of
buffalo skulls. The buffalo says to Balram that he has brought a lot of shame to his family and all
of them will die. Moved by this happening the servant awakes again and he wants to tell Mr.
Ashok about his secret, but his master doesn’t listen. In contrast he thinks Balram wants to marry
and gives him money for the festivity.
The next day Balram goes unintentionally to the slums of Delhi. He throws all the rupees he got
from his master away for the non-existing wedding. As he comes home he is in a real rage but
immediately stopped by a boy. This boy is Dharam, his nephew, who is sent to Balram. He should
help and find something to work for him. Partly relieved Balram realizes that the boy has stopped
him from a murder. One night a lizard is on the mosquito net of Balram who is totally shocked.
Dharam has to kill it and gives his uncle the feeling that he won’t have to worry about Dharam
destroying his plan because he won’t recognize he was planning something as he has seen Balram
this frightened.
The new woman in Mr. Ashok’s life doesn’t really like Balram and makes plans for a replacement
driver. Mr. Ashok and her stop talking about it as Mr. Ashok gets to know that his party hasn’t the
majority anymore. Therefore he is in big trouble and all the money seems to be wasted. Trying to
save something he lends his car, including Balram, to two politicians. They let Balram drive
around the whole night and drink all the whisky that was in the car. After Balram has brought
them to their hotel again he grabs the empty bottle to get some money for it. At a moment’s notice
he smashes the whisky bottle right on the floor. He picks the biggest part up again keeping and
hiding it in the car as a weapon and tidies everything, so nobody will notice something.
The next day Balram sees Mr. Ashok making a deal with another servant. Balram wonders if it is

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