Q.

By what means and what effects does Adiga present relationships between employers
and servants and the experience of being a servant?

Ans. Adiga’s novel ‘The White Tiger’ stands out due to its bold take on several concerns central to India
including the status of servants relative to employers. The following essay discusses how Adiga has
presented the employer-servant relationship as one which is mutually dependent and exploitative. It
highlights how Adiga achieves this by narrating the tale through the eyes of a servant, which not only
serves to explore the more complicated dynamics of this relationship but also provides deeper insight into
the personal and professional realities of being a servant.

Adiga most notably makes use of animal imagery while describing relations with employers especially
regarding Balram’s perspective. Balram is referred to as ‘the Country Mouse’ while the landlords are
cited as the ‘Stork’, ‘Wild Boar’, ‘the Raven’ and ‘the Buffalo’. Incidentally all these animals are elevated
to the status of predators relative as compared to the mouse and are fully capable of preying on him,
which means they will continue to have prevailing authority over him. In this way, the servants were
bound to their masters’ will because they were aware of their own dependence and weakness against
them. However, this also signifies that none of these predators would be able to survive without the
mouse as he is their source of nourishment. Therefore, it symbolizes that without siphoning off the
earnings of the poor and the servants, the landlords wouldn’t be nearly as wealthy. As Adiga states, “The
trustworthiness of servants is the basis of the entire Indian economy.” 

Another method used in relation to symbolism is the recurring juxtaposition between Light and Darkness
throughout the course of the novel. Initially it is stated that the servants are part of the darkness and the
masters are in the light. However, Ashok’s apparent ‘corruption’ of himself and Balram’s increasing
awareness of his own circumstances signifies that both parties were striving to achieve the status of the
other. Each one is glamorizing the other because they are unaware of the more complex aspects of the
other’s life. This is apparent when Ashok has dinner with Balram at a street side restaurant and exoticizes
his seemingly simplistic lifestyle or when Balram mimics Ashok’s dressing and visits the mall. In
Balram’s own words, “See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the
rich. And what do the rich dream of? Losing weight and looking like the poor.”  Through this beautiful
juxtaposition, Adiga has shown the complexity where there is a stark contrast, yet merger between the employees and
employers.

The theory of light and darkness can further be substantiated by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Here, both
employers and servants are presented as the people chained in the cave facing the wall. They are both
content with their own particular versions of reality. It is when this reality is challenged in any way by
anyone that they both unite to defend themselves against whatever threatens their mirages. As N.R
Murphy states in the ‘Simile of Light’, the Sun and hence the Light is the cause of existence and
intelligibility, therefore by confining themselves to the darkness of the cave, both employer and servant
are refusing to admit to their very real dependence on each other.

Adiga also presents dependency through ever fleeting emotions and materialistic needs of both the
employer and servant. When Pinky leaves Ashok, he is so devastated that it results in Balram taking care
of him like a wife which is representative of his will to serve regardless of whether it is asked for or not.
Ashok does not protest at this because he is aware that he is need of companionship. Similarly, Balram is
also aware that if he lets Ashok be, he might harm himself which would in turn result in Balram being out
of a job. This is evident by Balram’s unsaid response to Ashok’s sullen question regarding the purpose of
life. “The point of your living is that if you die, who's going to pay me three and a half thousand rupees a
month?”

Adiga implies that, for employers, having an intimate or meaningful relationship with servants in
considered taboo. Although Ashok and Balram have shared several intimate moments throughout the
course of the novel, Ashok does not consider him as family as he says to his brother “I had nothing but
this driver for five nights. Now at last I have someone real by my side: you.” They have both felt pity for
the other on occasion, and Balram’s feelings have even ranged from utter dedication and respect to hate
leading to his question “Do we loathe our masters behind a facade of love - or do we love them behind a
facade of loathing?” However, in the long run it has been made clear that both opinions matter to the
other although their way of expression or appreciation might be different.

The White Tiger brings forth several new interpretations to the run of the mill relationship between an
employer and his servant. This very topic can be extended further to include the discussion of different
external factors (social, political etc.) which affect this relationship.

In the beginning it seemed that your essay was divivded according to different techniques used by the
author to represent the employer and employee relationshio, however in the last 2 paragraphs that
changed and made the essay incoherent. The points made were fair but they could’ve been made part of
some technique, ‘mirroring’ or even ‘metamorphosis’ is a significant technique used (you could have
developed this idea after the discussed the juxtaposition of light and dark/servant/employee), there are
plenty of great examples for this.