The White Tiger

In the novel, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Balram rises to become an entrepreneur through criminal behaviors that lay the ground work for a critique of capitalism in India. Throughout the novel  Balram recounts the  story of how he grew to be a wealthy entrepreneur. He did this, in part, by abandoning his family and not sending them any money. The solitude Balram lives in can represent the idea that one needs to have to succeed individually in India’s capitalist market. By abandoning his family he can save up more money for himself and buy richer clothing so that he isn't categorized with the lower class that isn't permitted into wealthy establishments. The class issue shows that India is still corrupted by the caste concept. People in lower classes are stuck in their “classes” in this case the light or dark side. Even if you move to the cities and change your jobs you are still considered in a lower caste and it is almost impossible to work your way out of it because of the low pay, corrupt political systems, and lack of money spent for educational purposes. In order for Balram to escape his “dark” class he must commit murder and then assume the name of his master and use his money to make a business for himself. Balram had to break all of the rules in order to escape and become an entrepreneur. Balram states that you have to break laws to get ahead, “To break the law of his land—to turn bad news into good news—is the entrepreneur’s prerogative” (32). The quotation states that you have to make the best out of a bad situation to get ahead. In this case the bad situation is the murder of Balram’s master. He makes the best of the situation by taking his stolen money and starting a taxi business and he even assumes the name Ashok after his master. All of the actions in the novel fall into the critique of capitalism in the novel because where the country has such a far separation between the rich and the poor it is almost impossible for the poor to succeed without partaking in criminal behavior. Committing crimes is the only way it seems that a servant can rise to be a powerful business man in India’s capitalist society. 

My Opinion: 

I really enjoyed this novel; the humor and epistolary style of the novel really made it unique and one of a kind. The White Tiger shows the corrupt political and capitalistic society that plagues many countries. In the country the poor are kept poor through lack of education (money is taken away from the school and the teachers aren't teaching properly) and painfully expensive customs (huge weddings that cost so much the children must drop out of school to work.) In this case it seems that the only way to succeed is to get out. The separation of the classes is pretty dramatic, there doesn't seem to be a middle class in this book... the main character has to beg for a job and then is after getting a job is barely paid anything at all. He had no way to work up and make more money by driving his "masters" around and in tern he had to commit murder and theft to start his own business and to become rich and successful. Even though the novel is about a man who commits murder for financial gain, which normally would be pretty horrific and arise emotions of hate towards the character; The White Tiger is actually a very humorous and light story to read and i couldn't help liking the main character and feeling sorry for him. Even though he probably could have just knocked his master out and tied him up somewhere and stole the money (which probably would have allowed the rest of his family to have lived, (that was the most traumatic part for me, knowing that his entire family was being demolished. I felt sorry for Ashok but i guess a person can only take being ignored for a cellphone so many times before snapping.)) I find myself worrying about what will happen to the White Tiger. The novel ends to keep the reader guessing. You don't know if the Chinese diplomat will turn him in or if he will give up on his business to start another, the novel ends and really makes the reader want to sit back and evaluate every political and financial guru around them. 

I found this interesting video on entrepreneurship development in India! The school/program that created this video is all about inspiring future entrepreneurial ventures. 

The Secret of His Success

I found the following interesting article:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/books/review/Kapur-t.html?_r=0 

"The Secret of His Success", by Akash Kupur is a critique of the novel The White Tiger. The article also gives the author's and the novel's author, Adiga's, opinions on the novel; it also states how people took it in India. Some said that the novel was there to undermine India's new economic progress while Adiga and others say that it there to uncover the truth. This really makes you think, the novel is criticized for having stereotypical characters, which is something I thought of because Ashok and his wife in the novel act out a scene very similar to one found in The Great Gatsby. 

The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things

In the novel, The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy one of the leading characters, Ammu, is troubled by many problems of classification related to gender, class and her family. In the novel Ammu is an outcast in her own family because she is a female and not the favorite male child. She isn’t permitted to go to college and because of this she marries the first man she finds. When Ammu divorces her husband and moves with her children back to her parents’ house, she is now classified as a broken woman and is predetermined to spend the rest of her life sulking in the family home. But Ammu doesn’t do this. She defies all odds and goes and finds love again, but by falling in love with an Untouchable it causes more problems with classification because she is then breaking the class classification and embarrassing her higher class family; she is immediately classified with her family so anything she does includes them as well. Ammu and Velutha’s affair is the moment of shear embarrassment for the family and Baby Kochamma sees it as her punishment and Ammu’s punishment as well. The following quote states the Baby Kochamma's, and the family's opinion of Ammu's predicament   “She saw it as God’s way of punishing Ammu for her sins and simultaneously avenging her (Baby Kochamma’s) humiliation at the hands of Velutha and the men in the march… a ship of goodness plowing through a sea of sin.” Here we can see just the extreme classification issues that take place for Ammu. She is immediately thrown into a sea of sin just for falling in love with a man her family didn’t approve of because of his class and religion. Throughout the entire book there are many issues related to classification for all of the characters, but Ammu seems to be affected by so many more than the other characters. She is classified by gender, class, and kinship she is even classified by ideas of how women should behave. 

My Opinion: 
Jealousy and hate play big rolls in this book. The fact that an older woman can ruin a member of her families life for no reason other than the man is from a different social class and a member of a political party that embarrassed her is beyond me. The main character, Ammu, is classified by her family yet the family isn't what we consider a close knit or accepting family. It seems like the only thing keeping this family bound is blood. The siblings and children of Ammu are also very distraught characters because of the lack of family support. This is exactly the opposite of the portrait that Ashima paints for us in the novel The Namesake. The children are scared by their families and they end up being messed up individuals when they reach adulthood. This had a very To Kill A Mockingbird feeling to it. This may be because it is a traumatic event told through the eyes of a child. 
Remnants of the Caste System: 
Ammu's love interest in this book is Velutha,a ex- Untouchable. Even though the caste system was abolished in the 1960s and this book took place in the 1960's it shows the stereotypes and opinions of people still hadn't really changed. (This could be though of as the segregation laws in the US even though the laws were revoked peoples' attitudes and opinions didn't change.) The caste stysem really plays a role in this book because Ammu is considered a shame and embarrassment to her family for being with a man below her own social status. It is a sad fact that represents a realistic issue. 

The Caste system is a hierarchy based on Purity and the level of purity decides on the social interactions and occupations. The Untouchable level is seen below the pyramid. They were outcasts  shunned and left to do all of the dirty work. Something interesting is that caste systems didn't only occur in India... they occurred in France, Spain, Africa and Japan as well! Even though the caste system was nullified  it doesn't mean that it doesn't affect how people think and view the world, as seen in this novel. 


Fun Note: When I took my Praxis II test for English certification there was a question about The God of Small Things. 

Slumdog Mllionaire

 Slumdog Millionaire

The movie Slumdog Millionaire participates in gendered discourses that use women to represent a class of people and represent men as the actors that liberate that class. The movie represents women as people who sit and wait for other people to change the world and the men are represented are the ones actually out doing the actions, they are the ones working to liberate the class. Throughout the movie the main female character, Latika, does nothing unless instructed to by a man. She stands out in the pouring rain as a small child until she is allowed to come inside the tunnel, and as a young woman she is forced into a relationship with an older powerful gangster, but doesn’t do anything. She doesn’t even try to leave until she is instructed to do so by Jamal, the main male role of the movie. Salim, Jamal’s brother, takes a stand for good a few times in the movie. He took a stand to get his brother out of trouble and he took a stand to kill the man that would keep his brother and Latika from being happy. Jamal is the one who saves the day, he wins all of the money on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and he is the one who triggers all of the actions of the others. Then you have Jamal who rises up from poverty and acts as a liberator to show that you can get out of the slums of India. This love story intertwines many stereotypes Latika could represent the lower class who are trapped by society in grueling conditions, where they can’t afford school and the living conditions are intolerable.

My Opinion: 

The first time I watched this movie I was absolutely shocked about the conditions and horrors that these children were experiencing. Yet it is the truth, even if the life paths that the characters took is one of what seems like on bad thing after another. I was really surprised with the discussion in class about the poverty tourism that is growing in countries like India and I can't help but think that movies like Slumdog Millionaire promote this type of thing. It would be different if the tourism actually put money into the community but what we have been discussing is that the money goes into building apartments that can only house 1/4 of the people that live in these locations. People are loosing homes and are being just pushed aside. Another thing that bothered me with this movie is the gender roles. For a modern movie it is almost expected to have a pretty strong female role but this movie is simply not the case. She is tossed around as a child and then she ends up with an old mob leader. Instead of leaving and escaping, or better yet not getting into that situation in the first place she has to wait for the male characters in her life to let her go. The males make all the decisions and the actions throughout the entire movie and the main female character Latika does nothing but get tossed around and objectized into an object for affection. 

Fairy Tales and Happy Endings: 

This movie ends on a fairly unrealistic note. Not only does Jamal get the girl, but he also wins all of the money. Yes the entire story is about how he actually knew the answers to the questions but when it came to the last question he used his last life line and then guessed. When he called Latika of course she didn't know the answer, but by her answering it renewed the hope that she had seen him on T.V. and that she had finally managed to escape and hey could be together. This is a classical "Happy Ending" that is seen in many Fairy tales. The boy gets the girl and they get to live together rich and happily ever after. It is also a classics rags to riches like Aladdin where the street rat grows in society and  marries the Sultans daughter. This happy ending is almost a cliche for this movie that is so realistic and traumatic  Why wouldn't the movie end on a realistic note? I guess it is meant to be a glimmer of hope for people.                                                                               
                                       


I found an amazing research article that discusses gender, fairy tale endings and globalization in Slumdog Millionaire! This goes perfectly with everything I have been saying :) 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14746689.2011.569072#preview                                                                                                                                                                         

Shame

Shame

In the novel Shame by Salman Rushdie, the character Sufiya embodies the inner struggle brought on by shame in Pakistan and the ruling class that she grew up in. Sufiya is constantly at war with herself, she thinks with the mind of a six year old girl but when things turn truly shameful (such as when her mother was tortured by the turkeys of her husband’s ex-lover) she snaps and her inner demons, the division inside of her, emerge. This is seen again when the blissful almost bride to be almost kills her sister’s groom because of the shame that he has brought her family. Her last inner division comes when her husband chooses to not make her his “wife” in the bedroom and it opened up the curiosity that a six year old has and it also brought out the division in her and her inner demon, which causes her to go out and have sex and murder the young boys.  Sufiya’s war with her inner demons is finally over, but the inner demons had won and she becomes a wild and murderous creature and a thing of fables. Also, throughout the novel there is always the rise and fall of political leaders. We watch as Iskander rises to power after powering through his inner struggle (he tries to separate himself from the partying, sexual man and rise up to be a great man of power, but the division never really happens because he keeps up with his old ways but just more privately.) Izkander is killed and Raza Hyder rises to power only to be over powered by someone else, showing the inner struggle with power in the nation itself. There is an inner struggle with all of the characters, Biliquis struggles with only loving one daughter, and where she didn’t produce a male heir her shame slips her slowly into madness; and “Good News” has her inner struggle of choosing love (or lust) only to be punished for it repeatedly and to be swallowed up in the makings of her love where she chooses the way out and commits suicide. The best visual image of the inner struggle is seen on page 140, “Sufiya Zinobia at the age of twelve had formed the unattractive habit of tearing her hair…she would sit in the enormous cot…and tear each damage hair in two all the way down to the root.” This is a powerful statement of the inner division that is in all of the characters and the country itself. It shows each hair being split in two just as each person is being split in two with all of the shame built up in side of them. 

My Opinion: 

I absolutely loved this book! It is extremely chaotic with twists and turns and an air of fantasy mixed into the reality.The characters in this book are completely multidimensional. You Sufiya a young girl who's shame piles up inside of her and releases an evil monster, all of the political figures who rise to power and then fall due to betrayals, and Omar, the one who the story mostly follows, is a child born from fantasy and grows to become a city doctor only to die not once but twice in a chaotic way. The book tells many different stories but they all end up together at the end. It takes you down path after path and yet you end up seeing everything fall together and the people connect and the stories are wrapped up with deaths or disappearances. It can also be seen as a Post Modernism critique of Pakistan's nationalist narratives, because of the two story lines of Raza d Iskander's rise to power and then fall from power. 

- this cover was interesting :) 

.Shame, Vengeance, and Magical Realism: 

 Magical Realism is when magical elements are blended into a realistic scenario. In this novel it can be seen as a critique of the West's knowledge of the East. It starts out in a mythological back story about three women who conceived at a party and they all were "pregnant" with the child. The child is then born and grows up in isolation until he is old enough to demand to go to school. It is then that the books switches into a realistic setting with the life of the military families. It is with these families that we start to see the flashes of "magic" through Sofia. Her murderous episodes and snaps occur during highly stressful and shameful situations until finally not even the chains that her husband and father have put on her can hold her back and she escapes. At the end of the novel we are back at the three mothers' house after the fall of Raza from power and they are all fleeing the country. The mothers are furious that Raza had their other son killed and they poison him and then have him impaled with mechanical spikes. They disappear and it is their son Omar who takes the blame for the murders. The mother's get their vengeance and then Omar dies by a gun shot because he is seen as being responsible for Raza's death and he dies again when his blushing bride finally finds him and crawls to him in her animalistic state and kills him. The book is constantly back and forth and in between reality and fantasy. I think that is what makes it so unique. 

- Visualizations of Magical Realism -