White Tiger:

Literary Lenses

Hunter Davis, Maria Cuenca, Sammy Quiroz-Gutierrez

Feminist/Queer (Gender) Criticism

● Marriage
○ Difference between “having the boy” (Page 42) and
receiving the dowry vs. giving it.
● Family
○ Grandmother’s role in the family “Kusum Granny took the
5,ooo rupees and the hero cycle and the thick gold
necklace” (Page 42)
● Dominance
○ “Two weeks to dip his beak” (Page 42)
The Formalist (New Critic) Approach

● Symbolism of the hospital

○ Place where people go to die instead of to get treatment
○ ironic
○ “Because according to this ledger you’ve been there. You’ve
treated my wounded leg. You’ve healed the girl’s jaundice.”
(Page 41)
● “... the government ledger no doubt accurately reported, my
father was permanently cured of his tuberculosis.” (Page 42)
● “I did my job with near total dishonesty, lack of dedication, and
insincerity…”
Post-Colonial Criticism

● Tea shop workers carried out duties diligently

○ no aspiration to advance their social standing; caste system
remains even after colonizers left India
○ “...[they] were still boys. But that is your fate if you do your
job well...” (Page 43)
● Tea shop owner portrayed as slave-owner
○ backed by portrait of Gandhi
● Workers described as being less than a full human
○ “Crushed souls” (Page 43)
○ “Human spiders” (Page 43)