The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

However, not only this viciously sardonic voice does corrode China, but it is also meant to be satirical of India. Balram spells out his pieces of mind, which seem rather random at the beginning and sound like ranting, about his country—poverty, corruption, and marginalization of wealth. Trimmed to the bone "The White Tiger" is the lamentable tale of how he is corrupted from a sweet, innocent, family-loving village fool into an urbanized fellow full of debauchery, depravity and wickedness.

All these changes happen in him partly because they have first taken place in his master, Mr. Ashok, who has returned from America “full of stupid ideas.” A servant is like a son to his master—and servitude is perpetual, just like being born into the lower caste is for life.

Revealed from the layers of social nuances and scenes of New Delhi lives are the deeply disturbing truths of a man-eat-man world: You eat or are eaten up. As befit to the beastly allusion of the title, humans are metaphorical of animals that struggle to survive. To deal a heavier blow on the imbecile post-colonial government, Balram equates the most corrupted and depraved politicians, those who would do whatever it takes, even to kill some along the way to reach the top, as wild animals that attack and rip each other apart.

Small people—the forgotten, the stricken, the unprivileged, the impecunious, and the homeless are caught between power struggles of political struggles. They are trapped in the vicious cycle that usually renders their lives even more miserable. They are like wounded stray dogs.

Through Balram’s eyes, we see India as we have never seen it before the cockroaches, the prostitutes, and the worshipers of multiple gods, which do not create morality. Trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is almost impossible is the white tiger—nickname given to Balram for his merit in school. Soon he realizes money cannot solve all the problems, but at least he could make the leap from darkness into light, which, in paradoxical senses, is darker than darkness.

"The White Tiger" is a well-written book of our time. It is amoral and irreverent themes are authentically contemporary in a world shaped by massive globalization.