You either eat or get eaten up : the image of the rooster coop in aravind adiga's the white tiger (2008)‎

Abstract EN

This paper is a study of the image of the rooster coop in the age of post-globalization through delineating poverty, servitude and corruption in Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger (2008).

The image of the ‘rooster coop’ symbolizes the India of darkness, and represents a mental and psychological coop in which the poor live.

This study is done in terms of the Theory of Social Identity and Self-Categorization by Henri Tajfel and John Turner.

This theory started in Social Psychology according to which there are three psychological processes in evaluating people as ‘we’ or ‘they’: categorization, identification and comparison.

The central narrative of The White Tiger focuses on Balram Halwai’s journey from being a poor villager to a rich businessman.

Adiga depicts two Indias: India of darkness and India of light.

This classification results in the system of servitude which is depicted in the metaphor of the ‘rooster coop’.

Roosters in a coop at market watch one another slaughtered one by one but they are unable or unwilling to rebel and break out of the coop.

The image of the Rooster Coop is represented mentally and psychologically.

Throughout the image of the rooster coop, Adiga presents the extreme poverty and corruption that plague modern India.

He also condemns the oppression and hopelessness endured by the lower classes.

Through the novel, Aravind Adiga makes comment upon the complete lack of morals within India.

The White Tiger can be read as a critique of India in post-globalization era.

It is supposed that in this post-globalization era the gap between the poor and the rich is narrow and not very wide in new India.

Balram could ride the wave of globalization by establishing his company of White Tiger Technology Drivers.

Although he achieved selfimprovement in social hierarchy by means of immoral acts like lying, killing and stealing, he never received any punishment because both policemen and judges are bribed.

It is the corrupted globalized India.