My Reading of The White Tiger

Double Entry Journal

Paragraph 1:

“Go to Old Delhi, and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundred of pale hens and brightly colored roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they are next, yet they cannot rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop. The very same thing is done with humans in this country.”

I picked this paragraph because I believe it briefly presents the message of the book. The people of India are trapped in a state of everlasting poverty, which the author appropriately compares to the situation of the chickens in the markets of Old Delhi.

Paragraph 2:

“These are the three main diseases of this country, sir: typhoid, cholera, and election fever. This last one is the worst; it makes people talk and talk about things that they have no say in ... Would they do it this time? Would they beat the Great Socialist and win the elections? Had they raised enough money of their own, and bribed enough policemen, and bought enough fingerprints of their own, to win? Like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra, the voters discuss the elections in Laxmangarh.”

The reason i chose this paragraph is that it directly pinpoints a severe problem in not only the Indian society, but in most struggling societies in general. This paragraph shows just how easily corruption can lead countries into terrible states of injustice and even autocratic governments.