The White Tiger

Question 1

White tiger

• When Written:
• Where Written:
• When Published:
• Literary Period: x
• Genre:
• Setting:
• Climax:
• Antagonist:
• Point of View:

Answer 1

• When Written: 2005-2008
• Where Written: USA and India
• When Published: 2008
• Literary Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Novel
• Setting: Modern day India
• Climax: The White Tiger does not strictly conform to a linear,
  chronological format, as Balram’s narration jumps constantly
  between different periods of his life. However, the novel is
  loosely structured around Balram’s murder of his master Mr.
  Ashok.
• Antagonist: While Balram’s master Ashok may be his most
  obvious antagonist, Balram perceives many characters in the
  novel to be his enemies. These characters include his own
  family members, particularly his grandmother Kusum, as well
  as Ashok’s family: the Stork, Mukesh Sir, and Pinky Madam.
  Finally, his fellow servants in the Stork’s household, Ram
  Bahadur and Ram Persad, are also briefly his antagonists.
• Point of View: The White Tiger is the first-person narrative of
  Balram Halwai’s life.

Question 2

WT quotes Balram transforming and leaving the rooster coop (6)

Answer 2

“the creature that comes along only once in a generation”

“The white tiger.”

“That’s what you are, in this jungle.”

“I absorbed everything—that’s the amazing thing about
entrepreneurs. We are like sponges—we absorb and grow.

” I was growing a belly at last

“my soul had darkened”

Question 3

Symbols within the white tiger

Answer 3

Rooster coop

White tiger

Black fort

Unifroms

Chandeliers

Question 4

Quotes on The Rooster Coop (10)

Answer 4

“They remain slaves because they can’t see what is
beautiful in this world.”

“The greatest thing to come out of this country… is the
Rooster Coop. “

“The roosters in the coop smell the blood from
above. They see the organs of their brothers…They know
they’re next. Yet they do not rebel.”

“Servants have to keep other servants from becoming innovators, experimenters, or entrepreneurs.”

“The coop is guarded from the inside.”

“to exist in perpetual servitude”

“Serve your masters with absolute fidelity, love, and devotion.”

“I was destined not to stay a slave”

“I spat. Again and again.”

“the Rooster Coop needs people like me”

Question 5

Quotes on light and dark (10)

Answer 5

“I have switched sides”

“it has darkened my soul”

“I am in the light now”

“things are different in the Darkness”

“The story gets much darker from here.”

“the dark egg of the Honda”

“The city has corrupted your soul and made you selfish, vain-glorious, and evil”

“your heart has become even blacker”

“under this big chandelier”

“if all my chandeliers come crashing down I’ll never say I made a mistake.

Question 6

Quotes on corruption (8)

Answer 6

“We’re driving past Ghandi, after just having given a bribe
to a minister. It’s a fucking joke, isn’t it.”

“the schoolteacher had stolen our lunch money” with “a legitimate excuse”. “he hadn’t been paid his salary in six months”

“no-one blamed the schoolteacher” “even proud of him”

“I am India’s most loyal voter yet I still have not seen the inside of a voting booth””

“there’s good money in public service”

“the Great Socialist started off as a good man”

“Public service had been good for him”

“coal for free from the government mines

Question 7

Quotes on social class (12)

Answer 7

“was growing a belly at last”

“half-baked. My caste.

“those in the car don’t have to breathe the outside air”

“we weren’t allowed inside the mall, of course”

‘These days, there are just two
castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies. And
only two destinies: eat—or get eaten up.”

“I was destined not to stay a slave”

“loyal as a dog”

“Country mouse”

“it’s been bred into us, the way Alsatian dogs are bred to attack strangers.”

“like creatures that had to obey it”

they treat us like animals”

“enough to feed a whole family, or one rich man”

Question 8

Black fort (1)

Answer 8

stare at the Black Fort with your mouth open

Question 9

Uniforms (3)

Answer 9

“his bus-company khaki uniform”

“the finest suit I had seen”

“he had changed uniforms again”

Question 10

Chandeliers (2)

Answer 10

“under this big chandelier”

“if all my chandeliers come crashing down I’ll never say I made a mistake.

Question 11

Themes in TWT

Answer 11

-Family
-Self made man
-Morality
-Education
-Corruption

Question 12

Quotes on Vikram (Balram’s father) (3)

Answer 12

“The women would feed him after they fed the buffalo”

“Like a dog’s collar”

“permanently cured of his tuberculosis

Question 13

Quotes on Family (5)

Answer 13

“Sly old kusum”

“Serve your masters with absolute fidelity, love, and devotion” (their ideology)

“If any of them are still living, after what I did.”

“I have been treated like a donkey”

“she (kusum) didn’t even give you a chance”

Question 14

Quotes on Self made man (4)

Answer 14

“a self-taught entrepreneur”

“it’s like taming a wild stallion”

“How many ways are there for a driver to cheat his master?”

“the entrepreneurial driver”

Question 15

Quotes on Post-colonialism (10)

Answer 15

“Only in English”

“The British tried to make you their servants”

“Serve your masters with absolute fidelity, love, and devotion.”

“India is “like a zoo”

“the cages had been let open; and the animals had attacked and ripped each other apart”

“like parrots in a cage”

“one animal fucking another animal”

“the white people are on the way out”

“where humans can live like humans and animals can live like animals”

“skin-whitening creams”

Question 16

Summarise Balram

Answer 16

Born only with the name “Munna” – Boy – and
by the end of the novel known as “Ashok Sharma,” Balram is the
novel’s narrator and protagonist. The White Tiger is the story of
his life as a self-declared “self-made entrepreneur”: a rickshaw
driver’s son who climbs India’s social ladder to become a
chauffer and later a successful businessman. He recounts his
life story in a letter to visiting Chinese official Premier Jiabao,
with the goal of educating the premier about entrepreneurship
in India. He describes his journey, from growing up poor in the
rural village of Laxmangahr to living the life of a successful
businessman in Bangalore, with dry and cynical humor. He
proudly admits to the corrupt and sometimes murderous
schemes and behavior that helped him climb to the top of
Indian Society. In order to survive in modern India, he has
chosen to live on his own terms, founded on his sense of
himself as a “white tiger”: a rare creature with superior
intelligence subject, because of his specialness, to an
alternative moral code that justifies any action that helps him
get ahead.

Question 17

Summarise Mr. Ashok

Answer 17

Stork’s son and Balram’s master. Ashok
recently returned from America and has a gentler, milder
personality compared to his wealthy and entitled family
members. He feels disillusioned by the widespread corruption
in India and his family’s role in it, but goes along with his
relatives, handing out bribes to ministers and currying favor
with politicians. Compared to the other wealthy people around
him, Ashok demonstrates more outward signs of compassion
for Balram, seeming to take an interest in his servant’s welfare
and trusting him entirely. Ashok becomes increasingly
decadent and goes into something of a downward spiral after
his wife, Pinky Madam, leaves him and goes back to America.
Balram feels a strong, mysterious connection to his master, but
after several months in his service concludes that Ashok is no
less cruel and selfish than his father and brother, that the
generosity he offers is not nearly what he could afford to give.

Question 18

Summarise Kusum

Answer 18

Kusum – The matriarch of Balram’s family, his grandmother
Kusum runs the household according to tough, traditional
Indian family values. Primarily concerned with the family’s
short-term financial solvency, Kusum removes her young
relatives from school prematurely to work and marries them
off as children, compromising their long-term ability to support
themselves and their families. Though she agrees to send
Balram to driving school, she does so on the condition that
Balram send home his earnings each month. Even after Balram
moves away, Kusum exerts her influence from afar by sending
him threatening letters and eventually his young cousin
Dharam, who she demands he care for in Delhi. As Balram sees
it, Kusum is completely dominated by the logic of the Rooster
Coop: she has struggled her whole life to survive under theburden of such great oppression, that she does not know any
better and unconsciously brings her family down with her.

Question 19

Summarise Pinky Madam

Answer 19

Ashok’s beautiful, Americanized wife. Pinky is a
demanding, critical and cruel mistress to Balram. She is
unhappy in India and eager to return to the US, which puts a
strain on her marriage to Ashok. After killing a young child in a
hit- and-run accident, Pinky, because she is rich, is able to evade
any legal complications and flies back to America and abruptly
ends her marriage.

Question 20

Summarise Wen Jiabao

Answer 20

The Chinese Premier to whom Balram addresses
his letter and narrates his life story. Jiabao is a visiting Chinese
official who expresses interest in learning the secrets of Indian
entrepreneurship, so he can return to foster entrepreneurship
in China. Balram knows that Jiabao will only learn the official
story of Indian business from the politicians he meets, which is
why he takes it upon himself to tell Jiabao the truth about
entrepreneurialism in his country by using himself as an
example.

Question 21

Summarise Vikram

Answer 21

Vikram Halwai – Balram’s father is a poor, illiterate rickshaw
driver who dies of tuberculosis early in the novel. During his
life, he fights to the best of his ability to fulfill his wife’s wish
that Balram be given an opportunity to finish his education and
move up in the world. Balram traces his struggle for upward
mobility to a wish his father once expressed: that although he
himself spent his life being treated “like a donkey,” he wants one
of his sons to be able to live like a man.

Question 22

Summarise Kishan

Answer 22

Kishan is Balram’s older brother who cares for him
after their father dies. Though Kishan is an influential, fatherly
figure in Balram’s life, Balram laments his brother’s lack of
“entrepreneurial spirit”: in other words, his inability to stand up
to Kusum and make his own decisions, as Balram does. Kishan
allows Kusum to work him hard, take most of his wages, and
arrange his marriage early in life, before he can support a
family.

Question 23

Summarise Balram’s mother

Answer 23

Balram’s mother dies when he is a young
boy in Laxmangahr. Though she is a minor figure in the
background of his life, Balram recounts that she had great
ambitions for him, her favorite son, and insisted he finish his
education. There was lifelong tension between Balram’s
mother and grandmother Kusum, who does not believe in
helping Balram realize his potential. Witnessing his mother’s
funeral on the banks of the Ganges as a child, Balram
understands the hopelessness and futility of her life, and
resolves to make a better future for himself as she would have
wanted.

Question 24

Summarise Dharam

Answer 24

Balram’s young cousin, who Kusum sends to Delhi
for Balram to mentor. Dharam’s arrives at a crucial moment,
complicating things just as Balram is devising his plan to murder
Ashok and escape with his master’s money. Balram eventually
carries out the murder anyway and flees Delhi with Dharam

Question 25

Summarise the stork

Answer 25

One of the four animal landlords of Laxmangahr,
father of Mr. Ashok and Mukesh Sir. He owns the river outside
of Laxmangahr, and taxes any villager who fishes there or boats
across it. The bulk of his family’s fortune, however, comes from
illegally selling coal out of government mines. He distributes
generous bribes to political officials who turn a blind eye to his
fraudulent dealings, and allow him to evade income tax.

Question 26

Summarise the Mongoose

Answer 26

Ashok’s brother, also referred to as Mukesh
Sir. Mukesh Sir suspects that Balram is dishonest from their
very first meeting, and disapproves of Ashok’s lenient attitude
towards his servant. Unlike Ashok who has recently returned
from living abroad in the US, Mukesh Sir accepts India’s
dishonest political scene and participates willingly in his
family’s corrupt dealings. He visits Delhi regularly to help
Ashok distribute bribes on schedule and, after Pinky Madam’s
departure, to comfort him in his loneliness.

Question 27

Summarise Ram Persad

Answer 27

The Stork’s “number one” family servant. Though
he and Balram sleep in the same bedroom, they despise one
another and compete in every aspect of their lives. When
Balram first arrives, Ram Persad drives Ashok and Pinky
Madam around in the luxurious Honda City, while Balram
drives other members of the household in the humble Maruti
Suzuki. Balram ultimately brings about Ram Persad’s dismissal
from the Stork’s household when he discovers that Persad is a
practicing Muslim, who has hidden his faith from his prejudiced
masters with the help of Ram Bahadur.

Question 28

Summarise Vijaj

Answer 28

Balram’s personal hero from his hometown of
Laxmangahr. Balram admires Vijay for his ambition and
entrepreneurial spirit: in particular, for his ability to swiftly and
completely reinvent his identity in order to rise up in the world.
Vijay was born a pig farmer’s son, but through hard work (or, as
Balram suggests is more likely, corrupt dealings with politicians)
becomes a bus driver, then a political activist, and finally a
prominent official in the Great Socialist’s party.

Question 29

Summarise The Great Socialist

Answer 29

Great Socialist –The Great Socialist has dominated the political
scene in the Darkness for as long as Balram can remember.
While the Great Socialist presents himself as a populist leader
serving the poor, he and his corrupt ministers murder, rape,
embezzle funds, and rig elections to stay in power. Balram’s
childhood hero Vijay supports the party, moving up through its
ranks over the years to become one of its leading politicians. At
the end of the novel, the Great Socialist gains a foothold in the
national government, ousting the ruling party. As a result, even
the Stork’s wealthy and powerful family is forced to deliver
bribes and curry favor with its leadership.

Question 30

Summarise “Vitiligo lips”

Answer 30

Vitiligo-Lips –The driver of another wealthy businessman who
lives in Ashok’s apartment complex. He has Vitiligo, a common,
disfiguring skin disease that primarily afflicts India’s poor.
Vitiligo-Lips takes a liking to Balram and attempts to help him adjust to Delhi. At first, his mentorship takes the form of supplying Balram with murder magazines and answering Balram’s questions about city life. Later in the novel, Vitiligo-Lips helps Balram procure a prostitute and begin to cheat Mr.Ashok out of his money.

Question 31

Summarise The Napali

Answer 31

Ram Bahadur (the Nepali) – A cruel Nepali servant in The
Stork’s household who torments Balram, while helping Ram
Persad conceal his Muslim identity from his employers. When
Balram discovers Ram Persad’s secret and Ram Bahadur’s role
in covering up for his coworker, he blackmails Ram Bahadur
into helping him become Ashok’s number one driver in Delhi.

Question 32

What is the significance of the Black fort

Answer 32

The Black Fort was the only thing of beauty in Balram’s
impoverished ancestral village. The fort is a grand old building
on a hill above town, constructed by foreign occupiers years
ago, which both fascinated and frightened Balram throughout
his youth. He claims that his ability to appreciate its beauty
marked him early on as different from his fellow villagers and
showed his destiny not to remain a slave. When he returns to
the village years later with his wealthy master Mr. Ashok and
his mistress Pinky Madam, he finally gets the courage to visit
the fort alone. From the very top, he looks down on
Laxmangahr and spits—he has literally risen above the Rooster
Coop, and from within this fort representing the power of
former occupiers, he rejects his former life and his family that
still lives that life. A short time later, he murders Ashok.

Question 33

Introduction for The White Tiger

Answer 33

The White TIger is a picaresque epistolary bildungsroman novel written by Aravind Adiga and published in 2008. The novel portrays the protagonist Balram climbing through the hierarchy of corrupt India to become an entrepreneur while facing moral dilemmas.