The White Tiger

by Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger: Foil 3 key examples

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Explanation and Analysis—The Mongoose vs. Ashok:

Balram’s account of the Stork’s two sons—Mukesh Sir and Ashok—presents a pair of character foils that contrasts their upper-class attitudes towards the poor and reflects his deep ambivalence towards the two masters.

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Explanation and Analysis—Vijay vs. Balram:

Amid a flux of changing fortunes, Balram isn’t the only character in his Laxmangarh village to enjoy social advancement. By pairing his rise with that of Vijay, the novel develops a character foil that dissects the experience of upward mobility. Balram and Vijay both reach positions of privilege by the novel’s end, but they wield their power as differently as they chart their paths to it.

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Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Ashok vs. Balram:

The White Tiger dramatically pits its master and servant—eventually, victim and murderer—against each other. The Ashok-Balram foil sits at the forefront of the novel, and its tensions propel the story towards its grisly ending. By drawing upon the differences and surprising similarities between Ashok and Balram, the novel intensifies the tensions within this master-servant dynamic.

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