A Murderer's Bildung:An Analysis Of The White Tiger From The Perspective Of Narrative Ethics

Aravind Adiga is India's famous contemporary English novelist,hailed as a dark horse in the world of letters.His debut novel The White Tiger has won the 40th Man Booker Prize,making him the second youngest to win this award.Concerned with the India's subaltern school,he is devoted to exposing and criticizing the corrupt and dark side of Indian society.His work covers almost all aspects of India ranging from politics and economy to culture and religion.When others are singing praise to the rapid economic growth of India,he is excavating shovel by shovel,so to speak,the darkness underneath India's prosperity.The White Tiger,with the first-person narration,displays an anti-hero bildung:Born in an impoverished Indian village with a low caste,"I" strive to get rid of the poverty and unfavorable fate,and through stealing and killing "I" eventually become a successful entrepreneur.Balram Halwai,the protagonist experiences an ethical transformation on his journey towards success.After times of ethical struggle and inspired by the white tiger,he resorts to violence and breaks the cage.He does not regret having paid a heavy price for everything,because "it is all worthwhile to know,just for a day,just for an hour,just for a minute,what it means not to be a servant." On the one hand,he admits and accuses himself of deceit,murder,and abscondence.On the other hand,he tries to justify his sins in narrating the story,along with such redemptive ethical choices as rescuing his last family member and compensating an accident victim with good faith.The thesis probes into the narrative of Balram's ethical transformation and the narrative techniques arranged by Adiga from the perspective of narrative ethics,with an aim to evoke readers' reflections upon such ethical issues as truth,life,responsibility,virtue and vice,and to examine the social ills in India such as the poor-rich divide,caste inequality,government corruption and so forth.In the first part,the thesis elaborates on the ethical theme to trace each of Balram's ethical dilemmas and ethical choices and uncover the reasons underneath.Then with an overall analysis of Balram's confessional narrative,the thesis discloses the narrator's paradox of self-accusation and self-exculpation.Finally,the thesis proceeds with the three most important narrative techniques applied in the novel,in an attempt to reveal how the implied author has presented the ethical theme.It is hoped that in this way we can have a better understanding of Adiga's ethical view.A conclusion can be drawn from the discussion of the ethical theme:In the Darkness of India,Balram's ethical choices are neither moral nor immoral;and the novel itself is both related to ethics and beyond the boundary of conventional ethical values.The paradox of ethics is perhaps the most startling and provocative part in the novel.