Year 12 Extension One: Grid The White Tiger
Rubric Terms
Key Questions
Evidence
This module requires
students to explore and
evaluate a selection of
texts relating to a
particular historical
period-the late 20th and
21st Century.
Describe the
context for the
piece-the setting,
storyline.
‘ I have a chandelier here, above my head in my
office and then I have two in my apartment in Raj
Mahal Villas Phase Two,’
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Consider the
evidence revealed
in the text
concerning the
issues and features
of the society.
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Identify any
problems and
issues raised by the
text. Consider the
composer’s context
as well.
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The setting is multi-faceted: Balram discusses
his wealth and possessions as an
entrepreneur – ‘above my head’ and ‘in my
apartment’
The possessive pronoun of ‘my’ is evidence of
the values of possession and ownership that
dominate Balram’s entrepreneurial lifestyle
His living space in his ‘office’ and the spin-off
‘Taj Mahal villa’ indicates his liminal existence
as shares in the ‘nomadic trend’ of a global
lifestyle: unable to settle
The appellation of ‘Raj Mahal Villas Phase
Two’ also suggests a global context of
imitation/homogenization, indicative of 21st
century living
The globalized landscape of India has seen
the emergence of key players such as Balram
who play upon and distort established culture
– make it their own: a commodity (global
ways of thinking)
This liberation of traditional ways of thinking
‘feels to many a great liberation and to others
a grievous loss’ (Anderson – connects to
different responses to the global)
Balram appropriates the symbol of the
‘Chandelier’ – this traditional token of royalty
and brightness, is ironic as Balram’s
conscience is coloured by his transgressions
‘I’ve got no family any more. All I’ve got is
chandeliers,’
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Use of the passive tone and low modality
language conveys the isolation and
‘nothingness’ that underpins Balram’s
existence
Balram represses his sentimentality as the
people in his life are replaced by materials i.e.
chandeliers are synthetic sources of light,
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It develops their
understanding of the
ways in which scientific,
religious, philosophical
or economic paradigms
have shaped and are
reflected in literature
and other texts.
What are the
dominant
paradigms that are
explored in the
text? Consider any
theorists that may
be relevant to your
discussion of the
text eg: Lyotard,
Baudrillard, Kuhn,
Gabardi, Havel,
Murphett etc.
Does the text
support some of
the ideas put
forward by the
theorists or does it
subvert them?
clarity and guidance (?)
This aspect conveys the sacrifices and
distortion of the global existence: there is a
departure from ‘local’ support networks of
family and community
Balram must sacrifice his personal history and
heritage to advance – this connects to the
idea of liminal living: a suspended identity
between his past in the local Darkness and his
future in the global
Philosophical Paradigms:
‘Free people don’t know the value of freedom,
that’s the problem’
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True freedom can only be grasped by Balram
who has experienced the poverty of the local
– he indulges in excess and exercises no
restraint in his new position of opportunity
The ‘value of freedom’ must be expressed in
commodities i.e. chandeliers, cars – it is no
longer an abstract philosophy in the global
world – it must be tangible, visible, captured
in images or it simply fails to exist
This corresponds to the breakdown of the
grand narrative: the myth of democracy and
the freedom associated with it, is effectively
commoditised
The post-modern condition is characterised
by an incredulity towards the grand
narratives (Lyotard)
Balram subverts the philosophical paradigms
of absolutism as his identity is liminal: he
indulges in the benefits of the global but is
intrinsically connected to the local: he lives in
the Light but resides on the margins of
society
This reflects Anderson’s commentary on the
post-modern world: “[We are now] mixing
rituals and traditions like greens in a salad,
inventing new personal identities, revising old
political ideologies,
Political Paradigm:
‘The capital of our glorious nation...the showcase
of the republic. That’s what they call it’
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The italicising of the adverb ‘they’ reiterates
the grand narrative of ‘democracy’
Repetition of short-length sentencing
metaphorically conveys Balram’s
deconstruction of this grand narrative
‘Its when your driver starts to read about Ghandi
and the Buddha that its time to wet your pants,’
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The philosophical/political paradigms of the
global have the potential to empower the
local to break the mould
New ways of thinking, branching out from
‘Murder Weekly’ that maintains the
conventional behaviours of the local
(backwardness, savagery)
The teachings of Ghandi and Buddha –
empowering through peace and education
The superiority of the global only exists as
long as the philosophy of the local is
considered inferior
Balram offers a glimpse into a reshaped local
that possesses the morality and spirituality
absent in the global
Economic Paradigms:
‘I used to drive a man who sold coal. Bad, bad
business. But my current boss is into steel, and he
makes the coal men look like saints’
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Juxtaposition of 'coal’ (black, recognisable,
clearly damaging) and ‘steel’ (silver –
traditional symbol of purity distorted
ironically)
Reflects the changing economic and industrial
practices of the global – more covert and
long-lasting
‘Saints’ attaching religious lexicon to
economic roles: a spirituality exists behind it
– there is a moral divide within industry
Changing nature of industry: coal can be
burnt and discarded but steel is permanent
(?)
students explore and
evaluate texts that
examine and represent
the ideas, impacts and
consequences of
globalisation.
Identify the key
ideas about
globalisation which
are explored in the
texts. How does
the composer show
the way individuals
are impacted by
these forces?
Remember the way
the composer may
privilege a certain
perspective.
Consider what
social
values concerning
behaviour and
beliefs are being
privileged.
Balram fundamentally accepts the key ideas of
globalisation:
He is empowered, delighted perhaps by his new
state of mobility: ‘I paid some fellow with a
bullock cart to bring them (chandeliers)
home…me and this fellow and four chandeliers,
on a limousine powered by bulls!’
 The isolation of ‘a limousine powered by
bulls’ in an independent clause, accentuates
the mobility Balram has drawn from the
global
 Use of the exclamatory highlights his
acceptance and embrace of the global as it
provides opportunities for advancement
‘Lizards don’t like the light, so as soon as they see
a chandelier they stay away’
 The extended metaphor of the lizards act as a
symbol of Balram’s criticism of the local
 In his eyes, the local cannot aspire and
narrow viewpoints prevail – thus, he must
transcend to move ahead
 The animalistic imagery of ‘lizards’ – the local
living in the crevices of society, unable to see
the light, retreating to the darkness
‘Horns…blended into one continuous wail that
sounded like a calf taken from its mother…the
exhaust grew so fat and thick it could not rise or
escape, but spread horizontally, sluggish and
glossy’
 Indicative of Balram’s failure to navigate the
global from the perspective of the local
 The car manifests as a symbol of entrapment:
like the mud, he is inhibited by the pollution
of the road
 He demonstrates the resentment towards
the local – contrasting industrial imagery with
animal imagery of calf and its mother reflects
Balram’s struggle to move past his mother’s
death and her oppression, the decay of the
local
 Balram recognises that the local in many
ways, is inescapable: this underpins his drive
to move to the margins of society – embrace
a lifestyle of nothingness with no
attachments or clear history
‘Glass skeletons being raise for malls or office
blocks...huge craters being dug for new mansions
for the rich…even in the middle of the
night…construction went on’
 Industrial imagery reflects the imperialism of
the global
 The materials of ‘glass skeletons’ present an
ironic depiction of the global: there is
transparency within the buildings, yet does
not tell of its inception through local labour
 Balram admires that ‘even in the middle of
the night…construction went on’ link to
‘Midnight Educator’ – the unstoppable
growth of global living, mobility,
advancement, these are attitudes Balram
aims to emulate
Since the late 20th
century, the movement
towards a global culture
has blurred traditional
concepts and
boundaries of time and
space
How does the text
show that
traditional
boundaries have
been erased or
reshaped? In terms
of boundaries,
consider how the
borders between
nations have
disintegrated or are
no longer relevant.
In terms of time
and space, consider
how technology
has enabled
instantaneous
communications.
Caste Boundaries?
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Traditional Indian boundaries of caste are
replaced by divisions of wealth and access
‘These poor bastards had come from the
Darkness to Delhi to find some light – but they
were still in the darkness. We were like two
separate cities – inside and outside the dark egg’
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Hierarchy exists on a global scale: inside and
outside the dark egg
The symbolism of the ‘dark egg’ suggests the
exclusivity and elusiveness that accompanies
this wealth
Balram is sympathetic to the plight of the
‘poor bastards’ to navigate the darkness – he
has rise in status as he is within the car:
hovering between the exterior and interior
Technology has constructed a hierarchy: the
lower classes are confined to the ‘bus’, their
life ‘unaffected by the jam’ there is a sense of
numbness, dulled, desensitized to inequality
Technology in the symbol of the car creates
mobility, weakens the dogmatic
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understanding of time and space – the
symbol of the global allows Balram to
navigate the local as well
Within the dark egg, boundaries of time and
space are erased as he ventures into his
memory ‘my father, if he were alive, would
be sitting on that pavement…getting ready to
lie down under a street lamp’
Balram comes to recognise his liminal
existence by erasing the boundaries of time
and space - ‘I was in some way outside of the
car too’ – his roots are in the local but he is
present in the global
Hybrid identity, no longer confined to single
space – ‘in a postmodern culture, often many
things are happening at once