Student: Lucila Huilen Auzza

The White Tiger

By Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger is a social commentary on the huge gap between the wealthy and the poor in
India.  This large gap creates instability that often leads to morality being compromised for
individual gain.  The poor are so desperate that they are willing to do almost anything to make
it out of poverty.  At the same time, the rich are so distant from the poor’s reality that they
become desensitized and corrupt.  

The rooster coop reflects the master-servant social system that is at the core of Indian society.
The servant is perpetually oppressed and the master continues to enjoy a position of social and
political privilege.

Roosters in a coop at the market watch one another get slaughtered one by one, but they are
unable or unwilling to rebel and break out of the coop. Similarly, India’s poor people see one
another crushed by the wealthy and powerful, defeated by the inequality of Indian society, but
are unable to escape the same destiny. Whatsmore, Balram argues that the poor actively stop
each other from escaping, either by cutting each other down through a culture that makes
them expect such abuse and servitude. The Rooster Coop Balram describes is one that’s
“guarded from the inside.”

Balram believes that the traditional Indian family keep the Rooster Coop of social inequality
alive. If a servant attempts to escape or disobeys his employer, the superior’s family will punish
the servant by murdering or brutally torturing his family. In a country where the rules are
stacked so overwhelmingly against the poor, Balram comes to believe that to create a better
life and “break out of the Rooster Coop,” one must be willing to sacrifice everything, including
attachment to traditional morals and to one’s family.

Throughout the story it is expose the prevalence of corruption in all of India's institutions.
Schools, hospitals, police, elections, industries and every aspect of government are completely
corrupt. Not only Balram mocks the rich for their extravagance and corruption, but also mocks
his fellow members of the servant class for their own cruelty.

The White Tiger is a dark humorous social commentary on modern India.  It shows how the
difference in wealth can move people to make immoral choices whether they are wealthy or
poor.  However, the novel ends with Balram making it out of poverty and being able to make
more moral choices somehow.