“The metaphoric rooster coop: the economic key to servitude” by Dr Jennifer Minter, English Works website (16/11/2016)
Adiga suggests that it is almost impossible for the servants to break the chains of oppression because of the rooster coop mentality.
The rooster coop reflects the master-servant social system that is at the core of Indian society. The servant is perpetually oppressed (downtrodden) and the master continues to enjoy a position of social and political privilege.
The rooster coop analogy captures the extent of the servant’s oppression. Up to “99.9 percent of us are caught in the Rooster Coop just like those poor guys in the poultry market”. (Fifth Night). According to Adiga, the chickens have been conditioned to perpetual servitude which sustains the system; a “servitude so strong that you can put the key of his emancipation in a man’s hands and he will throw it back at you with a curse” (149).
As Balram notes, he has been completely conditioned (brainwashed) to see himself as a servant. “Because the desire to be a servant has been bred into me; hammered into my skull; nail after nail and poured into my blood the way sewage and industrial poison are poured into Mother Ganga” (165).
In the epistolary format, Adiga explains to the Chinese Premier, that so perfectly are the poor conditioned, and so perfectly does the mentality of servitude operate, that there is no need for the secret police. “Here in India we have no dictatorship. No secret police. That’s because we have the coop” (149). The Rooster Coop was doing its work; servants have to keep other servants from becoming innovators, experimenters, or entrepreneurs.
He notes that there is no need for “secret police” because the rooster coop is “guarded from within”. This means that the servant spontaneously and unquestioningly accepts his servitude.
For example, Balram instinctively returns the “missing” coin and massages his master’s feet because he believes it is a failure of duty “if I let you do it yourself” (163)
Balram understand his role the way “dogs understand their masters”. Likewise, like a dog on his hind legs, Balram searches for the rupee on the floor of the car and knows that his job depends upon its return. Unable to find it, he says, “I took a rupee coin out of my shirt pocket, dropped it on the floor of the car, picked it up and gave it to the Mongoose” ( 117) who squeals with “childish delight”. (“He sucked his teeth .. as if it were the best thing that had happened to him all day” (117)
Alternatively, Mr Ashok at times shows signs of pity, scarring him as a marked man. Pangs of guilt are evident when he sees Balram’s mosquito-blown hovel. He knows that his master’s lifestyle is unjust, but he does not have the courage to change it. The irony is that he trusts Balram because “he’s from home”.
The servant of the rooster coop lives in darkness
As Adiga points out, the master conditions the servant to accept his downtrodden place (117) as a reflection of his perpetual acceptance of the darkness. This leads to ambivalent emotions: “Do we loathe our masters behind a façade of love – or do we love them behind a façade of loathing? (160).
The White Tiger
As Balram so presciently foreshadows, “only a man who is prepared to see his family destroyed – hunted, beaten, and burned alive by the masters – can break out of the coop”. Such a person would be a “freak, a pervert of nature”. He becomes the classic white tiger – only a white tiger can break out of the coop.
In other words, the servant is so firmly conditioned that he can only break the shackles of his servitude through an extreme or desperate act. Killing the master, leads to the deaths of all of Balram’s extended family. He dreams about their deaths prior to the murderous act.
Balram says that the murder helps him fulfil his father’s wish that his son “live like a man”, taking back what Ashok had stolen from him.
Balram begins small acts of subterfuge in an attempt to live and act like the Master. He buys the T-shirt and walks into the mall (“You’re not allowed in), Hey! That man is a paid driver! What’s he doing in here?”). “It was my first taste of the fugitive’s life” (128).
His capacity to cross borders is also evident in his deceptive attitude towards Ram Persad, the senior driver. He steals Ram Persad’s secret in order to better betray him, which foreshadows the murder of Mr Ashok. Persad has to hide his religion as a Muslim to get a job (91) and once this has been revealed Balram usurps his job with impunity. “What a miserable life he’s had, having to hide his religion, his name, just to get a job as a driver – and he is a good driver, no question of it” (93). In an act of subterfuge, the White Tiger gains his job by exposing his Muslim faith.
He kills Mr Ashok by smashing his head with the Johnny Walker Bottle and then by piercing his neck “the way the Muslims kill their chickens” which is a figurative reference to Balram’s ability to break out of the coop. Thereby he fulfils his destiny as The White Tiger who is also a “pervert of nature”, a “freak”. As Balram points out, such an animal would be capable of undermining his master and taking the money, but this would also involve the destruction of his entire family. Therefore, such a person would be a moral pervert and freak.
Balram contemplates two possible reasons for the murder. He kills him because the master could recover and call the police, but he is also taking his revenge in advance because he knows that his own family will suffer a terrible price. When the Stork’s son’s “lifeblood splurted into my eyes” he knew that he was a free man.
Balram becomes part of the Light: “Someone in his family was going to make it out of the Darkness and into New Delhi” .
Balram breaks out of the Darkness (the rooster coop) and enters the Light. However, initially, he becomes like his corrupt Masters. He becomes a “victim” of the “brown paper bag” system.
Adiga criticises the Masters who rule India’s political system. They rule with impunity and lack a conscience. This spells political ruin in India.
The masters
The master enjoys the light. It is a light that is symbolised by the chandelier which is also a sign of the master’s corruption.
Adiga also suggests that the rich people are also a victim of the system to the extent that they compromise their honour. Whilst they profit from the system, they also participate in the corrupt system.
The chandelier becomes a symbol of wealth, status and corruption as well as the freedom to operate above the law. (Mr Ashok knows his father “loves chandeliers”) and Balram writes his letters under the chandelier. “There’s no one else in this 150-square-foot office of mine” which is unique because it is the only office in Bangalore with a chandelier. It has a “personality of its own. It’s a huge thing, full of small diamond-shaped glass pieces, just like the ones they used to show in the films of the 1970s” and functions like the “strobe light in the best discos in Bangalore”.
Alternatively, Mr Ashok at times shows signs of pity, scarring him as a marked man. Pangs of guilt are evident when he sees Balram’s mosquito-blown hovel. He knows that his master’s lifestyle is unjust, but he does not have the courage to change it. The irony is that he trusts Balram because “he’s from home”.
Balram, too, is aware of the terrible sin he has committed against his family and he suffers a great deal of guilt. In many ways, he creates a coop and “darkness” of his own making. He, like the Stork, will always be at the mercy of corrupt government officials who indirectly control his choices and career. “You can give the police all the brown envelopes and red bags you want, and they might still screw you. A man in a uniform may one day point a finger at me and say, Time’s up, Munna”.
So, although Balram transitions to the Light, Adiga suggests that this comes at a price. In many waysm Balram sacrifices his humanity and his compassion. Adiga shows that it is almost impossible to break out of the “rooster coop” without compromising one’s dignity and reputation. Although he now enjoys his own chandeliers that symbolise light, they also symbolise corruption and shameless wealth.
Accordingly, Adiga sets up a comparison between Balram’s former masters and his role as a business entrepreneur. If Mr Ashkok is typical of those owners who have been pilfering the spoils of India and “taking coal for free from the government mines”, then Balram also becomes one of those corrupt masters who bribe the policemen to achieve their business goals.
Balram becomes like his corrupt bosses transferring “brown bags” of money to officials and realises that he is always at their mercy. (metaphor of chandelier) Cynically, Balram comments that “he is growing a belly at last” because he is using the system to enrich himself. Because he is like the Stork, he has “switched sides”. He is “one of those who cannot be caught in India.” However, he knows that because of the system he could also come unstuck at any moment.
(Family) After his crime, Balram realises that he has lost his family, and all he has is the chandelier (97). “It makes me happy to see a chandelier” because they control his phobia of lizards. Likewise, Mr Ashok realises that without family, a man is nothing” (161) and romanticises the image in the slums of a silhouetted “perfect” family huddled by the golden lamp. “The intimacy seemed so complete – so crushingly complete”.
Also, Adiga suggests that Balram becomes like his previous role model, the notorious bus driver. Vijay represents the metaphoric ray of sunlight (or the Light) that often breaks through in Laxmangarh (101). Vijay earns a uniform and a pay check and becomes the envy of others. Balram notes, “I wanted to be like Vijay” (26) who wears a white Nehru cap, and had “rings of solid gold on eight of his fingers”.
Vijay is typical of those like the master who benefit from corrupt business practices. He tells the Stork to give them “a million and a half”. Vijay claims, “you’ve got a good scam going here – taking coal for free from the government mines … You’ve got it going because I let it happen.” He also points to the Stork’s rise to power: “You were just some little village landlord when I found you – I brought you here – I made you what you are today; and by God, you cross me, and you’ll go back there into that village.”
A corrupt and perverted system: Balram is often present when the master hands over the “brown package” of money. In this world of material success, relationships are reduced to commodities and people become indispensable. Pinkey kills the worthless “small, black thing” and the masters seek to cover up the crime with Balram’s assistance.
In Bangalore, Balram has sixteen drivers working for him and all the trappings of wealth such as the big chandelier, the silver Macintosh laptop, the SUVs and the “paid-off policeman. “All of them belong to me – Munna. Once I was a driver to a master, but now I am a master of drivers”. As he states, he is the perfect White Tiger who “keeps no friends”. After the hit-and-run accident, the police are typically bribed and the offer to change the number plates and substitute one of their battered cars. (the symbol of the chandelier)
As a reflection of his authority, Balram complains about the police as the rich do, and knows that it will cost him a considerable amount of money in bribes to keep the accident out of the press. Typically the police will substitute a car, “we keep battered cars for this purpose here”, says the Assistant Commissioner.
The skill of the white tiger, Adiga would suggest, is that he breaks out of the coop as both a servant and as a master.
A master with a difference
To some extent, Adiga suggests that Balram may enjoy a brighter future if he takes responsibility for his actions and regains his humanity. Adiga parallels the two car accidents to show how individuals must accept responsibility for their crimes. He tries to make (some) amends for his wrong doing by taking responsibility and by acting in an honest manner. In this regard, Adiga compares his response to the driver’s car accident with Pinky Madam’s and Mr Ashok’s accident to highlight Balram’s moral difference. If Mr Ashok tried to blame Balram for the death of the “black thing”, Balram confronts the grieving parents and offers them compensation as well as employment for their other son. Even though Balram understands just how easy it is for the police to cover up the crime, he wants to admit his liability. He tells Mr Jiabao that he is ‘ready to have children now”. Perhaps, as Adiga suggests, this is because he is prepared to act more responsibly towards his workers and show greater moral leadership than his corrupt bosses. Only then can he truly find his way out of the “rooster coop”.
Return to White Tiger Notes: Summary
Acknowledgements: “The metaphoric rooster coop: the key to servitude” by Dr Jennifer Minter, English Works website (16/11/2016)