Do the wealthy have an obligation to help out the poor?
In all communities, there is a wide inconsistency of the standard of living of its inhabitants. You have the rich, powerful, men and women who rule the city and the impoverished, low-income worker. The contrast between the two social classes results in crime and suffering. Leading you to believe that the rich would want to help the poor. However, the rich live off the poor, the poor do all of the hardworking, low paying, dangerous jobs that are necessary for the rich. They exploit the poor.
There is a widespread of poverty in India. In 2010, the World Bank reported that 32.7% of the Indian population is below the international poverty line of 1.25 US dollars a day,while 68.7% live on less than 2 US dollars a day. As you can see, poverty affects a plethora of individuals in India, a concept that is explored throughout the text of Aravind Adiga’s novel, The White Tiger. Throughout the text, Balram shows us how the rich exploit the poor and how the poor tricked the poor and become corrupt. We first see Balram’s corruptness when his “foe”, Ram Persad, the 1st driver, pretends to be a Hindu in order to keep his job. Balram ends up using his information against Ram to get Ram fired, leaving him with the position of the number one driver.
The most significant theme presented in this section of the novel, The White Tiger, is how the rich and the poor are both corrupt and cheat each other at will. I believe that not only is this theme vitally important as it shapes the text, it is influential in daily life all around the world. Throughout the novel, the rich exploit the poor and take advantage of them. We see this when Mr. Ashok’s wife, Pinky Madam, was drunk and convinced Balram to let her drive the car. As Pinky Madam was speeding down the road she hit a small dark object that Mr. Ashok and Balram were able to convince Pinky that she had hit and killed a homeless dog, however they both knew that it was a poor homeless child. As a result, the rich family abused his social class level and his lack of opportunity if he left his job. Because Balram has no other option, the family was able to pin him to the hit-and-run incident. They made him sign a document that states how he was responsible for the death of the poor homeless child. Like WTF!?! This was a little child who could have made something of himself because this b*tch Pinky was drunk and doing something illegal and now she killed some innocent child. Next, the family has the nerve and is so corrupt that they were willing to send someone off to prison for many years for something he didn’t do. The family was going to blame the whole incident on him. This shows that the rich take advantage of the poor in two specific ways. First of all, this awful family is willing to ruin a mans life in order to save their own. They want everything in their own life to be as good as possible by ruining another man’s life. Next, the Balram, Mr. Ashok, and Pinky could have possibly have saved the poor homeless child. They could have taken him or her to the hospital and saved his or her life. Like WTF? It may have cost some money or something like that but isn’t life priceless and worth everything? Know we will never know, but this poor child could have made something of himself and become a successful entrepreneur, he could have had a family that cared about him and eventually cared for his own. He could have possibly had so much potential and know its all gone.
This theme (the rich and the poor are both corrupt and will cheat each other when possible) is a message about humanity and Indian culture. If we helped the poor by doing simple things such as donating food, money for education, and teaching them the difference between right and wrong, we would be drastically changing their lives. However, too many people in this world are awful people who only care about themselves. If none of these people existed the world would be a better place. So many impoverished people, who have been cheated by the rich, live their lives thinking that the rich are horrible people. In contrast, many rich men and women are lead to believe that all poor impoverished individuals are terrible, heinous people that commit terrible crimes. I believe that we humans are not doing enough to help each other out, if we were kinder and helped each other be successful and accomplish something we would all live happily together. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford
Thomas Guthrie #Theme
Dear Mr. Premier 