“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga is a piece of literature that talks about India left and right. A book that can be half fiction half true. It talks about the fortunate and the unfortunate, the rich and the poor. The irony shown in this book about corruption, oppression of the poor, reality of India vs. the images foreigners have of India help portray our understanding of this novel. The irony in “The White Tiger” shows the corruption in India. Balram Halwai is a student in a school with a teacher that does nothing but sleeps and lay around because he hasn’t gotten his wages for six months.
While Balram is looking at this teacher he thinks “You can’t expect a man in a dung heap to smell sweet. Every man in the village knew that he would have done the same in his position. ” (28). Balram is admiring the teacher for how he gets money, that no one in a bad school would follow good intentions or morals. The irony was that the teacher gets away with it cleanly, taking all the kids uniform and lunch money. A sign of corruption in a children’s school is shown. The act of taking the kids money only for him shows corruption.
When the inspector came for a surprise visit he didn’t really scream at the teacher for doing what he did and just went on to write four sentences on the board for the students to read. After a few boys were picked to read but were unable to, the teacher suggest to the inspector to choose Balram. Balram gets picked and reads. Then the inspector asks who Buddha was Balram responded “An enlightened man. ”(29). the inspector corrects him saying that the Buddha was “An enlightened God” (29).
This mistake about Buddha saying that he is God when he was actually a man makes the school inspector a character that represents various problems with school systems. This is irony because he is a school inspector yet he gets this question wrong and a half-baked student gets it correct. Since there is corruption in India, it would also show the reality of India which is different from what the foreigners imagined India would be. In the beginning of the book, Balram begins to talk about his family, about his mother and father. The mother died before the father did.
Balram’s father had tuberculosis and he was coughing a lot along with blood coming out. Worried, Balram and his brother Kishan brought him to a government hospital. Balram waited in line for the doctor to come. Hours passed and the doctor still did not come Balram and said “… my father was permanently cured of his tuberculosis” (42). This is irony because Balram used the cure when his father had actually died from it. Here this shows the reality of India, that there are really no doctors to help the poor with their injuries, infections, or disease that they have.
This shows government indifference for the life or death of poor citizens. Another example of saying that the government indifference for the life or death of lower classed citizens is when Pinky madam has accidently killed a child on the road while drunk driving, and plans on making Driver Balram take the blame. After pinky madam killed the child, the next day the Mongoose came and told Balram to go up to his apartment. The Mongoose for the first time called Balram “family” saying “Sit, sit, make yourself comfortable, Balram.
You’re part of the family” (141). Balram felt very happy but after that the Mongoose told him to go back down to the servants’ quarters. When Balram gets called back up he has to sign a contract saying that he was the one to blame for the whole entire accident and no one else. This shows irony because after calling him part of the “family” they quickly make him sign a contract that could get him in jail just to protect his master. Therefore because there is corruption in the government system, there would oppression of the poor.
When Balram had to take his master Ashok to the imperial hotel he dropped him off and he went to the train station. In the train station he saw a woman on the floor sleeping peacefully and thought “Why couldn’t things be so simple for me? ”(213). Balram envies the homeless woman asleep on the floor is irony. Balram which a place to live, food to eat, a job to do every day, is much more fortunate than a homeless woman asleep on the ground yet Balram wanted to be like her.
When the elections results were coming up the great socialist said that “The election shows that the poor will not be ignored” (230) but the poor are still living in sewage and on subway platforms. This shows oppression of the poor. The Great Socialist makes promises to the poor but never keep them fully. In conclusion The irony shown in this book about corruption, oppression of the poor, reality of India vs. the images foreigners have of India help portray our understanding of this novel.
The corruption shown in the book is the teacher stealing the student’s money and the school inspector getting a question that he asked wrong. The reality of India vs. the images foreigners have of India is shown in the book there was framing involved and no doctors in government hospitals. last but not least is the oppression of the poor is shown by when there was a women lying on the floor of a train station and when the Great Socialist promises the poor will not be ignored but still see people living in sewage/ slums. This book, talking about India left, right, up, down.
