<P> Throughout the book, there are references to how Balram is very different from those back in his home environment . He is referred to as the "white tiger" (which also happens to be the title of the book). A white tiger symbolizes power in East Asian cultures, such as in Vietnam . It is also a symbol for freedom and individuality . Balram is seen as different from those he grew up with . He is the one who got out of the "Darkness" and found his way into the "Light". </P> <P> In an interview with Aravind Adiga, he talked about how "The White Tiger" was a book about a man's quest for freedom . Balram, the protagonist in the novel, worked his way out of his low social caste (often referred to as "the Darkness") and overcame the social obstacles that limited his family in the past . Climbing up the social ladder, Balram sheds the weights and limits of his past and overcomes the social obstacles that keep him from living life to the fullest that he can . In the book, Balram talks about how he was in a rooster coop and how he broke free from his coop . The novel is somewhat of a memoir of his journey to finding his freedom in India's modern day capitalist society . Towards the beginning of the novel, Balram cites a poem from the Muslim poet Iqbal where he talks about slaves and says "They remain slaves because they can't see what is beautiful in this world ." Balram sees himself embodying the poem and being the one who sees the world and takes it as he rises through the ranks of society, and in doing so finding his freedom . </P> <P> The book shows a modern day, capitalist Indian society with free market and free business . It also shows how it can create economic division . In India there are not social classes, there are social castes . The novel portrays India's society as very negative towards the lower social caste . </P> <P> The novel is based on the disparities of two worlds: darkness, inhabited by poor and underprivileged who cannot even meet their bare minimums; and the lighted world, inhabited by zamindars, politicians, businessmen etc. who shamelessly exploits the ones from darkness, making them even more poor and grows their own grandeur . </P>

Themes in the white tiger by aravind adiga