Quest for Identity in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger

Abstract

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is a book about the man’s quest for identity. The author asserts an existential journey of Balram from poor village boy to as an entrepreneur, which is certainly for his psychological self-concept and social identity. Presenting the fact that he was from the darkness and found his way into the light, he tries to prove his existence with his self-identity. In response to his claim of searching for identity, the present research paper tries to explore the text from the perspective of Carl Rogers’s Self-concept Theory, Henri Tajfel and J. C. Turner’s Social Identity Theory, and Charles Darwin’s theory of struggle for existence. Carl Rogers’s Self-concept Theory influences and indeed acts as the framework for one’s personality. Henri Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory is a person’s sense of who he or she is based on his or her group recognition and identity. Charles Darwin’s theory of struggle for existence shares the idea that there must in every case be a struggle for existence, either one individual with another of the same species or with the individuals of distinct species or with the physical condition of life. The research attempts to discover how Balram’s free choice was constrained by the social identity, self- concept and the existential struggle, causing him to murder his master to rob his money and getting success in life. Through the reading of novel from the above perspectives, the research concludes that the protagonist of the novel, Balram’s decision to kill his master was not a criminal act, rather it was the act of building up his social identity along with his survival and existence in the modern Indian society. Keywords: self-concept; social identity, struggle for existence; entrepreneurship; postcolonial values