The White Tiger Book Review

The most complicated people in the world are the most interesting. At least it’s that way for Balram Halwai. The reader gets sucked into a story filled with love, murder, grief, and the struggle for power.

Balram Halwai was a simple man from a simple village named Laxmangarh. However, his life took a turn when his father died of Tuberculosis. This then caused the division of a family. Balram is offered a job to be the driver of the wealthiest family in his village then greed starts taking advantage of his family. He is soon split between money and family. A few months into his career as a driver Balram is afraid of the competition brought a driver that stayed with the family for a longer period of time. Balram does whatever it takes to be the better driver. His actions take him to a road he can’t seem to get off of. By accepting the job, Balram was exposed to parts of India he never knew existed. From brothels to temples, Balram gets the full Indian experience behind the wheels of an expensive car.

On the road to a new life, Balram picks up a few friends who also happen to be taxi drivers. They expose him to the ups and downs of being a driver in the most corrupt city (also most “American”) in India, New Delhi. Balram watches his friends drown themselves in alcohol and women. This piques his interest, seeing has he never “dipped his beak” into anyone and begins to explore his sexuality. He even watches his employers perform sexual acts in the back seat of his car! Balram is then shown how politics is actually ran by watching his employers bribing foreign ministers for tax breaks and steal from the poor. He also sees how easily modern marriages can crumble and how easily people can rebound.

As Balram is further developed in the book, he gains more wisdom. He steps back and sees India for what it really is, which lets him find a way outside of the “Rooster Coop” he believes Indian servants are in. This revelation allows him to siphon gas, work with corrupt mechanics, and work on the black market. Balram believes that what he is doing is for the better good. Until he gets a surprise letter from his grandmother, which was attached with a special surprise. His nephew Dharam. This surprised Balram to the core, which is what sped up his decision to make his life better. Balram tried his best to remove himself from the “Rooster Coop” and move into the Light. He continued to speak of how he was better than the Darkness and that he deserved better because of all of the things the rich stole for him. Balram knew the consequences of his actions, yet he did continued to do it.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, is an excellently written epistolary novel. The use of letters and flashbacks allows the reader into the mind of the main character, Balram. I feel that the language he used when writing this novel made it seem more realistic. It felt as if I was reading a personal journal of an Indian man living in India, rather than a book. Aravind Adiga exploited the political corruption in India through the eyes of a commoner, which was refreshing. Throughout the book, Adiga constantly spoke of the Darkness and the Light, which referred to the different types of India within India. There are many themes that are discussed in this novel, however, I believe that the main theme in this book is the struggle of power. We can see this theme everyday in our lives. In our families, our parents struggle with power, each of them wants their children to do something different and that creates conflict. At school, our teachers struggle with power in many different ways. Whether it be within family, work, or in society, Adiga also expresses this through the Caste System in India. In this novel, the author explores the idea of respect and loyalty. Balram’s struggle with being the perfect grandson and driver, serves to be a problem and it eventually blows up in his face. Balram lusted for power and success and he did whatever he needed to do to get it. The system is what divides the people of the country. There are still conflicts that affect the outcome of politics and success within the country. Balram, the main character, constantly divides the country in two, one being Darkness and the other being Light, this distinction between the two is brought up till the end of the novel. To Balram, Darkness is the part of India that is taken advantage of, he refers to this when he speaks of how the votes for politicians were rigged.  Also, the style of which the taxi drivers spoke in the novel allowed the reader to feel as if he/she were there. Overall, I enjoyed reading this novel.