Milton 1

Scott A. Milton
English XXX
Professor XXX
18 May 2011
Challenging the System: The White Tiger and Jane Eyre
If the world does not agree with you,
Arise against it!
Muhammad Iqbal (Shariati)
Quest-ce quun homme rvolt? Un homme qui dit non. Mais siil
refuse, il ne renonce pas : cest aussi un homme qui dit oui (Camus 27).
Arivind Adigas The White Tiger, published in 2008, and Charlotte Bronts Jane Eyre, first
published in 1847 (with a 3rd edition in 1848), are perhaps two of the best novels written in the
English language. While the action of these stories is separated by two centuries and several
thousand miles, nonetheless, the two tales have much in common. Both are Bildungsromans that
chart their young protagonists journey into adulthood. These characters struggle to overcome
various financial and social challenges, and both eventually attain success, wealth, and
happiness. The novels deal with class issues and feature prominent themes of revolt and
rebellion. Like Bront, Adiga uses his protagonist as a mouthpiece to criticize the injustices and
problems of his society. Although both novels serve as forums for social criticism, however, The
White Tiger emphasizes social corruption, while Jane Eyre highlights gender issues.
The early experiences of the two protagonists set the tone of rebelliousness and social
criticism. Adigas hero, Balram, explains the circumstances of his childhood schooling. His
schoolteacher, who hadnt been paid his salary in six months[,] stole his pupils lunch money

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and sold their uniforms in the neighboring village. Although it seems clear that Adiga is
satirizing such behavior, Balram points out that nobody blamed the schoolteacher for doing this.
[...] Some were even proud of him (Adiga 28). These early lessons in corruption serve as the
basis for Balrams education and enculturation. Readers see that they are formative in the type of
adult he ultimately becomes. Exposing the truth about such systemic corruption to foreign
readers is a fundamental part of both the narrators and the novels thrust. Bronts heroine, Jane,
reveals a precociously independent and headstrong personality. She has a passionate propensity
for speaking her mind; to wit, she challenges the social order of her family arrangement in
questioning her caregivers about John Reed: Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?
(Bront 9). Readers might infer the authors own feelings through those of her character; after
daring to talk back to Mrs. Reed, the young heroine admits that she felt the strangest sense of
freedom, of triumph (Bront 30). Jane is an unruly little girl, a picture of passion (Bront 9),
an inclination she learns to control, yet one that underlies the rebelliousness and feminist spirit of
the novel.
Such undertones pervade the text and often manifest themselves as explicit social criticism
related to gender issues. For instance, in what is perhaps the most pointed feminist passage in the
novel, Jane criticizes the social roles imposed on women of the era and tells readers that it is
narrow minded to think that women should be restricted to the roles of cooking, knitting, and
embroidering (Bronte 93). Adrienne Rich calls this passage Charlotte Bronts feminist
manifesto (Rich 475). Feeling restless and unfulfilled, Jane ascends to the attic and paces the
corridors while allowing her imagination to roam freely. She allows her minds eye to dwell on
whatever bright vision rose before it[,] and dreams of change. Such thoughts were often
accompanied by echoes of Bertha, the madwoman, laughing and her eccentric murmurs

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(Bront 93). The juxtaposition of Janes thoughts and the behaviors of a madwoman creates an
association between the two in the minds of readers and invites the question as to whether Janes
own thoughts are those of a madwoman. Is an unruly woman somehow considered mad in
Victorian society? One might wonder if the laughs and murmurs actually belong to Jane herself.
The social criticism in The White Tiger is much more varied in scope, but much of it is
related to systemic police and political corruption. Balrams exposes an Indian electoral system
in which votes are bought and sold. When one man has the nerve to actually show up at the
village polling station to cast his vote, he is beaten to death by polling place workers and the
police (Adiga 84-85). Nobody seems concerned about such behavior. Nobody calls the media or
files a complaint with the government. Evidently, such corruption is expected and accepted, at
least in The Darkness. Later in the story, Balram pays off the police commissioner in Delhi to
grease the wheels for his new taxicab start-up company. The police go to work for him,
eliminating his competition, giving him an endorsement to get his first contract, and even
covering up one of his drivers accidents (Adiga 257, 265-266). The injustice of this corruption
surely offends the sensibility of many readers. Adigas novel is thus a powerful call for social
reform.
Additionally, both texts expose the role of religion in maintaining the status quo and keeping
the ambitions of the oppressed in check. When Jane first meets Mr. Brocklehurst, the
schoolmaster, one of the very first things he tries to get into her head is that a naughty child []
especially a naughty little girl will burn and suffer in Hell (Bront 26-27). From an early age,
Jane is instilled with fear of punishment and is told that disobedient females are especially
offensive to God. Brocklehursts implication is that there is a double standard and that females
have to meet a higher burden to avoid divine wraththus Jane had better keep in line by

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submitting to the social role expected of her. Similarly, when Balram visits the train station in
Delhi, thinking of escape from the Rooster Coop, he receives a message from a fortune telling
machine that reminds him: Respect for the law is the first command of the gods (Adiga 212).
He sees this message as an example of how the establishment puts a damper on servants
ambition. Here, on the threshold of a mans freedom[...] these machines are the final alarm bell
of the Rooster Coop (Adiga 212). Balram believes the powers-that-be use religion to convince
the lower social classes to accept their lot, bad as it may be. Making the very same argument,
Karl Marx characterized religion as das Opium des Volkes[,] that is to say, as the opium of the
people (Marx 378). In this line of argument, religion has been used to across the span of human
history to convince people to numb their personal ambitions, accept their unsatisfactory
conditions, and look to the afterlife or next life for a better, happier, and more comfortable
existence. Both novels thus shine a critical light on the religious establishments role in
maintaining the social order.
Marriage and the family as institutions do not escape criticism either. Adigas novel
exposes problems related to the Indian family structure, if one can assume a modicum of reality
in the story. His protagonist points out that only a man who is prepared to see his family
destroyed [...] can break out of the Rooster Coop (Adiga 150). The upper-class landowners are
criminals that use the threat of violence against the families of their servants as leverage to
dissuade revolt. Moreover, the novel satirizes internal power struggles within the family itself.
Balrams grandmother Kusum wants to control him and his money by forcing him to marry. She
goes so far as to blackmail him, threatening to sabotage his employment if he does not submit to
her wishes (Adiga 224). Balram, however, spurns conformity to social and familial expectations,
refusing to live the rest of [his] life in a cage (Adiga 239). His sense of independence and

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personal ambition are too great. Similarly, Jane argues that women should not become slaves to
men nor be dominated by them, whether in marriage or society. When Mr. Rochester ineptly
tries to complement her by stating he wouldnt trade her for the Turks entire royal harem, Jane
smartly condemns the subservience of women and professes that she will preach liberty to
those made slaves to such social roles (Bront 229-230). The allusion to harems is particularly
good at illustrating feminist concerns, since harem women were treated as property and confined
to a life of servitude, even if a comfortable one.
The critical nature of these texts has itself come under fire from real-world literary critics.
Both protagonists demand more than their lot allows them, and in the England of Bronts day,
such ambition was highly controversial. Jane asks Who blames me? Many, no doubt; and I shall
be called discontented (Bront 93). Clearly, Bront was aware that her book would cause a
firestorm. Elizabeth Rigby, in December 1848 edition of The Quarterly Review, characterizes
Jane Eyre as an anti-Christian composition with a pervading tone of ungodly discontent
(Rigby 452). Rigbys sentiments probably reflect those of many of her contemporaries,
especially those who were well-to-do. She adds, It pleased God to make [Jane] an orphan,
friendless, and penniless-yet she thanks nobody, and least of all Him (Rigby 452). To many
contemporary readers such views might seem strange or even ludicrous, yet nineteenth-century
England had not yet emerged from the class-based mentality that had dominated much of Europe
for much of its history. How dare Jane ask for more than her lot affords her? Jane tells readers
that millions are in silent revolt against their lot (Bront 93).
Adigas novel has been attacked on different grounds. In Exciting Tales of Exotic Dark
India: Aravind Adigas The White Tiger[,] Ana Cristina Mendes analyzes . Adigas novel is a
revolt of sorts against the IWE (Indian Writing in English) tradition, in that it presents readers

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with an alternate image of contemporary India that contrasts with that of Salman Rushdie and his
Booker-Prize-winning novel Midnights Children (Mendes 281). Adigas text presents foreigners
with an unflattering view of India that contrasts with the touristy image of the Ganges (Mendes
278). Interestingly, while many of the critics have characterized Adigas text and protagonist as
re-Orientalist and hence inauthentic (Mendes 284), nobody seems to be saying the social
problems he addresses do not exist. Readers can infer by this lack of outright denial that rampant
corruption does, in fact, exist in contemporary India. In any case, Balrams testimony seems to
offer a much harsher indictment of society than does Janes.
The significance of such differences in the focus and extent of the protagonists criticism can
be attributed to several factors. First of all, since Balram and Jane are opposite in gender, their
points of view are largely governed by the circumstances particular to their own gendered
experience. Thus, issues that are important to Jane reflect her gender identity and resultant social
standing. Secondly, the influence of their milieu is substantial. The protagonists respond to the
variables in their immediate social environment. While England in the early part of the Industrial
Revolution has much in common with the economic boom taking place in contemporary India,
nonetheless, social problems seem much to be more pronounced in Balrams homeland. Perhaps
this is in part due to the fact that his experiences bring him into contact with the full gamut of
Indian social classes in both the country and the big city. Janes journey, by contrast, is rather
limited, rural, and sheltered; and hers does not include exposure to the rampant poverty, crime,
and corruption that was undoubtedly part of big city life in her era. Finally, the role of genre in
explaining the scale of criticism should not to be overlooked. Adigas book is a satire, while
Bronts can be classified as a psychological romance (albeit one with Gothic elements). Since
satires purpose is to ridicule human vice and folly, the former novelists text devotes

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considerable effort to attacking vices such as corruption, greed, envy, ignorance, and narcissism.
Social criticism is not a general convention of the romance or Gothic genres, and its inclusion in
Bronts text is one of the characteristics that make her novel exceptional.

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Works Cited
Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. New York: Free Press, 2008. Print.
Bront, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 3rd ed. Ed. Richard Dunn. New York: Norton, 2003. Print.
Camus, Albert. LHomme Rvolt. Saint-Amand (Cher), France: Folio. 2010. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. "Shut Up in Prose: Gender and Genre in Austens
Juvenilia." Northanger Abbey. By Jane Austen. Ed. Susan Fraiman. New York: Norton,
2004. 277-293. Print.
Marx, Karl. Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie: Einleitung. Deutsch-Franzsische
Jahrbcher: Paris: 1844. Karl Marx/ Friedrich Engels - Werke. Vol 1. 378-391. Berlin:
(Karl) Dietz Verlag, 1976. www.mlwerke.de. Web. 17 May 2011.
Mendes, Ana Cristina. Exciting Tales of Exotic Dark India: Aravind Adigas The White
Tiger. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 45 (2010): 275-293. Sagepub. Web.
23 April 2011.
Nudd, Donna Marie. "The Pleasure of Intertextuality." Jane Eyre. By Charlotte Bront. 3rd ed.
Ed. Richard Dunn. New York: Norton, 2003. 522-529. Print.
Rich, Adrienne. "Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman." Jane Eyre. By Charlotte
Bront. 3rd ed. Ed. Richard Dunn. New York: Norton, 2003. 469-483. Print.
Rigby, Elizabeth. Rev. of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront. The Quarterly Review Dec (1848).
Jane Eyre. By Charlotte Bront. 3rd ed. Ed. Richard Dunn. New York: Norton, 2003.
451-453. Print.
Shariati, Ali. Mohammad Iqbal: A Manifestation of Self-reconstruction and Reformation.
Books and Transcription of Lectures: Dr. Ali Shariati. Web. 23 April 2011.

2011, 2013 Scott A. Milton - All Rights Reserved