LANGUAGE IN INDIA

The Voice of Servility and Dominance Expressed through
Animal Imagery in Adiga's The White Tiger

M. Poonkodi, Ph.D.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate how Aravind Adiga has used animal imagery in his award winning novel The White Tiger and determine how this narrative device is effectively linked to its title and the theme.

The symbols of animals are normally related to three main ideas: "a mode of transportation, as an object of sacrifice, and as an inferior form of life." Aravind Adiga's use of animal imagery depicts the dominant but negative qualities of Indian Masters and servile instincts of the servant class.

Close reading has been given to the novel to trace the course of the Protagonist, Balram's journey from jungle like village to city and record the resentful voice of his aspirations and frustrations with special focus on animal imagery and its relevance.

Balram represents the servant class that has been trained to exist in perpetual servitude and unwilling to rise against the masters, powerful and strong in terms of class, community and status. Much of the discussion in the analysis has been my own interpretation combined with those made by others about this novel or any other novel bearing semblance in its tone and tenor.

Introduction

Aravind Adiga's maiden novel that won him the Bookers Prize bears a symbolic title The White Tiger. The novel is a satire on the contemporary Indian milieu, proud of its long-lasting democratic status and ongoing political strategies that seem to confer judicious grades of equality to Indian populace.

It is amusing to note that Indian English novels, written by both men and women, irrespective of their gender differences, bear a common theme of conflict or war between two groups - one having a superior identity as a master coercing the other to fall in line with his/her self-conceited ideological preferences, vile and gaiety.

Aravind Adiga is no exception. He lavishly uses a distinctive narrative technique that complements his theme delivered through scattered imagery, especially selected from animal kingdom. The use of animal imagery with an "Orwellian insight"1 partially minimizes his imagination. Yet he finds it a convenient tool to discover the peculiarities in human behaviour and "attack poverty and disparity without being sentimental or condescending"2

Inherent Nature of Indians to Employ Imagery

All over the world, writers with concern towards humanity get agitated when they witness horrors and horrendous conditions, thwarting men's dreams and enterprises. They express their empathy in their theme, using rich animal imageries. Indians, in particular are accustomed to the art of employing imagery in their conversational deliverance or philosophical deliberations: "talking metaphorically or obliquely by implication is generally natural with Indian.

In everyday language they often use imagery as a means of expressing, reinforcement, illustration, evocation and also as objective correlative."3 Aravind, due to his "inherent Indianness,"4 uses excessive animal imagery with literal, metaphorical and allegorical meanings. His novel is populated with buffaloes, pigs, roosters and other species of fowl and fauna.

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