1. The First Night

• Engels
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Goals for today 

Writing a postcard 

Introduction The White Tiger 

Concepts and conceptual questions The White Tiger 

BOW - infographics 

Reading - homework for Tuesday 10th Sept 

The White Tiger 

by Aravind Adiga​

Factual: In what ways are people in poverty kept in poverty? In what ways is a middle class created? 

Conceptual: To what extent is The White Tiger a fair representation of Indian people and their struggles? 

Conceptual: What is culture? Is there such a thing as one Indian culture? Is the culture of India, as presented in The White Tiger, problematic? 

Debatable: To what extent does Aravind Adiga have a right to write about poverty in India after having lived such a privileged life? 

Aravind Adiga is an Indo- Australian writer and journalist. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. He was born in Madras (now Chennai) in 1974. He emigrated with his family to Sydney, Australia in 1989 and later he studied English literature at Columbia College of Columbia University in New York City. He began his journalistic career as a financial journalist at The Financial Times.

Epistolary work = a literary work in the form of letters 

For example, Dracula by Bram Stoker 

Central concepts in The White Tiger

Inequality, corruption, education, freedom 

Supporting concepts 

caste/social system

entrepreneurship

bribery & fraud

power & privilege

globalisation

Conceptual relationship questions 

How does corruption influence inequality?

What is the role of education in freedom?

What effect do inequality and corruption have on freedom?

What is the role of inequality in corruption? 

the big reveal 

the last hurrah 

total flip 

plays into her role 

the author plays with memories 

untie himself from (Big Brother) 

this is the tipping point 

to paint Nora as 

almost ten times harder 

push on women 

lays a bad impact on his mental 

banking on it 

pushing the message 

the technique backfires 

withdraws from (Big Brother) 

sudden, unexpected revelation 

the author explores the experience of memory

the final endeavour  

significantly more arduous 

the climax of the narrative 

this is the crux 

restrictions imposed on women 

confirms the expectations of her role 

has a negative impact on his mental 

expectation 

use of persuasive techniques 

the technique fails (flounders) 

characterise Nora as 

the big reveal 

the last hurrah 

total flip 

plays into her role 

the author plays with memories 

untie himself from (Big Brother) 

this is the tipping point 

to paint Nora as 

almost ten times harder 

push on women 

lays a bad impact on his mental 

banking on it 

pushing the message 

the technique backfires 

the climax of the narrative 

the final endeavour 

sudden, unexpected revelation 

confirms the expectations of her role 

the author explores the experience of memory 

withdraws from (Big Brother) 

this is the crux 

characterise Nora as 

significantly more arduous 

restrictions imposed on women 

has a negative impact on his mental 

expectation 

use of persuasive techniques 

the technique fails (flounders) 

1. The author establishes the distinctive narrative voice of Balram right from the beginning of the novel. Describe that narrative voice using at least three of these adjectives or others that you think of. 

2. For each adjective you have 

chosen, find a quote that gives 

evidence for this choice. 

3. Then divide the adjectives 

into positive and negative 

character traits. 

ambitious​

arrogant ​

blunt ​

brave ​

confident ​

courageous​

cynical​

darkly humorous ​

entertaining​

insightful 

immoral 

intelligent ​

ironic ​

irreverent ​

pragmatic​

resilient​

resourceful​

ruthless​

shrewd​

stubborn​

superstitious​

unreliable 

Narrative voice

The author roots the reader immediately in 21st Century Bangalore and introduces us to the additional settings of Balram’s impoverished village and other locations. 

Settings

There are four settings 

- Laxmangarh - New Delhi

- Dhanbad - Bangalore

Settings

(New) Delhi 

Bangalore

Dhanbad

Laxmangarh

1.47 billion people live in India

Goals for today 

The landlords symbolism, bestiaries and moral fables 

Use of animal symbolism and monikers 

Symbols in "The First Night" 

Narrative voice and tone 

Unreliable narrator and evidence for that 

Affixes 

ONYM 

root of the day 

onym  =  come from Greek and means "name"

Eponym -  the name of an object or activity that is also the name of the person who first produced the object or did the activity.

What word do you  think comes 

from this person's name? 

epi = 'on', 'upon' or 'over' from Greek 

The word sideburns comes from the Union Civil War General Amrose Burnside, known for his unusually thick whiskers on his face. 

Reconstruct the wanted poster in your exercise book. Find significant quotes as evidence for your decisions. Label your poster with these quotes

The Bestiary: the Laxmangarh bestiary contains these animals 

Inverted animal moral fables. e.g The tortoise and the hare (Aesop's fables) 

Moniker = name or nickname 

For each of the landlords write down what their domain of  control in the village of Laxmangarh is. Which occupations are impacted? 

Moniker = name or nickname 

For each of the landlords write down what their domain of  control in the village of Laxmangarh is. 

Waterways and waterbodies (fishermen)

Agricultural lands 

(farmers) 

grazing lands and unproductive lands  

(goatherds)

roads and transportation (rickshaws) 

2. What biographical information have you learnt about Balram? 

3. Which important characters are introduced in this chapter? What do you think that their significance will be? 

Biographical details of the narrator 

Symbolism in The First Night 

Adiga employs a lot of symbolism. Some symbols are culturally defined. What abstract idea could the following symbols be evoking? 

The Lizard

The Mother's funeral 

The Black Fort 

Iqbal's poem 

      "I am talking of a place in India, at least a third of the country, a fertile place, full of rice fields and wheat fields and ponds in the middle of those fields choked with lotuses and water lilies, and water buffaloes wading through the ponds and chewing on the lotuses and lilies. Those who live in this place call it the Darkness. Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness. The ocean brings light to my country. Every place on the map of India near the ocean is well-off. But the river brings darkness to India – the black river.​

     Which black river am I talking of – which river of Death, whose banks are full of rich, dark, sticky mud whose grip traps everything that is planted in it, suffocating and choking and stunting it?​

     Why, I am talking of Mother Ganga, daughter of the Vedas, river of illumination, protector of us all, breaker of the chain of birth and rebirth. Everywhere this river flows, that area is the Darkness."

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga pgs 14 - 15

How does the symbol of Ganga add additional depth to the metaphor of light and darkness? 

The First Night 

1. Why is it difficult for Balram Halwai (Munna) to develop his identity?

2. What do we find out about the familial systems in Balram's family? 

3.What do discover about Balram’s school and the education system?

4. What is Balram’s opinion on religion and politicians in general.(find a significant quote) 

5. Discuss Balram’s distinction between the India of Light and the India of Darkness.

Quote to support your ideas

6. Discuss the role of the four animals and the importance of the water buffalo (the animal not the person). 

7. What do we find out about Indian weddings and their consequences?

8. List the examples of poverty, famine and segregation that can be found in the first chapter.

9. How and why does Balram get the nickname "White Tiger"?

10. How does Balram view China?

Quote to support your ideas

Step 1 Divide your exercise book in the way shown. When you take notes, complete the sections highlighted in red but they leave the other sections blank. 

Not doing any more is actually a vital part of the process.

In order to learn you have to 

forget part of it first....

So, wait at least 24 hours

for step 2!

Step 2 Students complete 

the Questions 

/ Key Words section

After a pause of 24 hours, complete the section highlighted in green. You will have to thoroughly review and think hard about the material in the notes section to do this.

“Memory is the 

residue of 

thought.”

Step 3: complete the summary section. You don't need to wait 48 hours, but, if you want to test yourself, you can. 

Question:

Why is the BLUE part 

the HARDEST part?

Regularly review your notes. 

To prepare for application of this information, cover or fold over the red part and use the green column to test yourself. 

1. The author establishes the distinctive narrative voice of Balram right from the beginning of the novel. Describe that narrative voice using at least three of these adjectives or others that you think of. 

2. For each adjective you have 

chosen, find a quote that gives 

evidence for this choice. 

3. Then divide the adjectives 

into positive and negative 

character traits. 

ambitious​

arrogant ​

blunt ​

brave ​

confident ​

courageous​

cynical​

darkly humorous ​

entertaining​

insightful 

immoral 

intelligent ​

ironic ​

irreverent ​

pragmatic​

resilient​

resourceful​

ruthless​

shrewd​

stubborn​

superstitious​

unreliable 

Narrative voice

Tone is the attitude of the speaker 

    " I looked at the ooze, and I looked at my mother's flexed foot, and I understood.

     This mud was holding her back: this big, swelling mound of black ooze. She was trying to fight the black mud: her toes were flexed and resisting: but the mud was sucking her in, sucking her in. It was so thick, and more of it was being created every moment as the river washed into the ghat. Soon she would become part of the black mound and the pale-skinned dog would start licking her. 

     And then I understood: this was the real god of Bengaras - this black mud of the Ganga into which everything died, and decomposed, and was reborn from, and died into again. The same would happen to me when I died and they brought me here. Nothing would get liberated here." 

pgs. 17 - 18 

Describe the tone of the narrator and give specific diction choices that support your claim. 

Unreliable narrator 

• A narrator whose account of events appears to be faulty, misleadingly biased, or otherwise distorted, so that it departs from the ‘true’ understanding of events shared between the reader and the implied author
  
• The reader is offered the pleasure of picking up ‘clues’ in the narrative that betray the true state of affairs
  
• This kind of first-person narrative is particularly favoured in 20th-century fiction (post-modernism) 
  
• Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford Quick Reference) . OUP Oxford. 
  

“Out of respect for the love of liberty shown by the Chinese people, and also in the belief that the future of the world lies with the yellow man and the brown man now that our erstwhile master, the white-skinned man, has wasted himself through buggery, mobile phone usage, and drug abuse, I offer to tell you, free of charge, the truth about Bangalore.” (Adiga, p. 5-6).

1. Which statements are plausible and which are implausible?
   
2. How does the mixture between them create a distinctively unreliable voice?
   

Truth claims