The White Tiger Essay

931 Words4 Pages
Being successful in today’s world is difficult. Staying ethical while being successful is even harder. In the novel, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, the main character, Balram Halwai, is sucked into the corruption of India. Balram is born into the lower caste, and lives most of his life there, as a principled individual. Though, Balram becomes corrupt as he moves to the upper caste. In order for Balram to work his way up from the lower to the upper caste, he evolves from an ethical and obedient person into a corrupt person. Adiga displays that in order to become successful in a corrupt world, one must become corrupt themselves. When Balram lives in the lower caste, he is an ethical and obedient human being. To start off, Balram cares about his family, and…show more content…
Balram’s grandmother, Kusum, “[has] decided that [he] could keep ninety rupees a month for [himself]: the rest would go straight to Kishan – who would send it straight to her, in the village” (Adiga 41). Balram is paid 1, 500 rupees, but he only keeps 90 rupees, and sends the rest back to his family. This is because he understands that his family back home needs it more than he does, and he cannot disobey Kusum. Furthermore, while Balram works for Mr. Ashok and his family as a driver, he does any job that is given to him. One of the jobs he despises the most is washing the Stork’s feet. Balram “[heats] water on the stove, [carries] it into the courtyard, and then [lifts] the old man’s feet up one after the other and [immerses] them in the hot water and then [massages] them both gently” (42). Even though Balram is a driver, he carries out these demeaning jobs in order to earn money that he can send back to his family. Balram obeys each and every one of his employer’s orders, no matter how

More about The White Tiger Essay

Open Document