The White Tiger: Chapter 8: The Seventh Night Summary & Analysis

Although Balram has just escaped from Delhi, the ineffective police poster with its grainy photograph makes it seem as though the process of remaking himself has already begun. It also emphasizes how all those trapped in the Rooster Coop essentially look the same, while Balram has now made himself something other than a rooster in a coop. Balram no longer resembles the boy he was. Of course, Balram sees this change as a source of pride, as him becoming a true entrepreneur, while one might also argue that what he has become is a corrupt murderer.

Balram’s claim that it took him four weeks to recover from the murder, and his notion that this is a relatively long period of time, reveal his complicated relationship with his crime. He recognizes that he committed a terrible act, but when he compares his murder to the many murders committed by India’s rich and powerful, he feels himself to be almost virtuous. Meanwhile, he applies himself to learning from the streets of Bangalore as he learned from the streets of Delhi before.

Once again, Balram’s ability to swiftly and totally reinvent himself brings him entrepreneurial success. His sense of himself as a White Tiger –an unusually intelligent, capable person subject to different moral codes and standards— allows him to justify pursuing his goals in underhanded ways. Note again, though, that while struggling to escape the Rooster Coop he wholeheartedly believes in the corrupt practices (bribery, etc) of the Light. Balram isn’t trying to change things in his society, he just wants to be one of the winners in that society.

By adopting the name Ashok, Balram’s transformation is complete. However, his choice to take his former master’s name shows that he has no desire to totally erase all traces of his former self. Each stage in his journey from rickshaw driver’s son to business entrepreneur is an important part of his identity. It also shows that he still feels some kind of connection to and perhaps guilt about Ashok, as well as that he has now achieved what he wanted: to have what Ashok had. At the same time he corrects Ashok’s mistakes: he treats his employees like employees.

Balram’s experience has proven his conviction that the most important part of an entrepreneur’s education involves developing an awareness of one’s surroundings. His commitment to remaining in touch with his environment is unchanged, even after he achieves wealth and stability. His thoughts about revolution are interesting, in that once again he seems to believe only in a “revolution” of individual action, in which an individual acts solely to help himself as opposed to help others. Balram’s “revolution” changed nothing except Balram’s own social position.

Now that Balram has the money, he follows the example of his former masters and distributes bribes with the same regularity they once did. The mirroring of this car accident with the accident in which Pinky killed the child highlights how, even though he was once a victim of his wealthy masters’ corrupt maneuvering, he has no reservations about imitating their behavior.

Balram views bribing the police to prevent the pressing of charges against his company as a necessary precaution, yet feels a sense of responsibility towards the victim’s family. While he has adopted the corrupt, self-interested behavior of Ashok’s family, his experience as a poor villager at the mercy of the Indian elite has caused him to feel a certain obligation to act morally. Yet his morality involves paying money for a death that his driver caused—he only gives that money once he’s sure that his business is secure. Now that he is among the privileged in the Light and his own survival is secured, he feels he can afford to act with charity towards others, but one might argue that while he gives, he, like Ashok and Ashok’s family, doesn’t give everything he can. His own self-interest still comes first.

Balram believes that the struggle to escape social and economic subjugation in Indian society, to achieve control over one’s future and to “wake up” from a life of servitude, trumps traditional notions of good vs. evil, God vs. the devil. He believes that the extreme inequality between rich and poor, as well as the complete lack of opportunity the poor have for self-advancement, render his crime and decision to sacrifice his family somewhat understandable. Balram a murderer and thief who has built a business on the backs of that murder and theft, is comparing himself to the Buddha, that exemplar of peace. That he can even make such a comparison is an indictment of the society in which he lives.

Balram’s desire to share his secrets about entrepreneurship with a Chinese official, and to situate his story in the context of a political relationship, indicates that his vision for himself could involve following in Vijay’s footsteps and pursuing a future in politics. It also connects Balram the individual with India the nation. Both Balram, and the novel, see Balram as a kind of metaphor for the country as a whole. Of course, Balram sees himself as a positive example of the nation, while the novel itself reads as an indictment of the society that would mold Balram to become the man he has grown into.

Balram’s surprising admission that he dreams of starting a school reveals that even as he proclaims the virtues of learning from experience, or “on the road,” part of him still believes strongly in the virtues of a formal education. Here there is a hint that he wants to help young Indians from the Rooster Coop to better their fates. Yet at the same time he continues to believe that his murder and theft were just, that his actions that led to the death of his family were simply the price to pay for freedom.