The representation of the main character`s hybrid identity as a response to globalization in Aravind Adiga`s The White Tiger.
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THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MAIN CHARACTER’S HYBRID
IDENTITY AS A RESPONSE TO GLOBALIZATION IN ARAVIND ADIGA’S
THE WHITE TIGER
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters
By
DIONISIUS SONY WIDYA MUNARSA SUPRIHANTO
Student Number: 074214047
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
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“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free
our minds” - Bob Marley -
“Imagination is more important than knowledge”
- Albert Einstein vi
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For The Sky and The Earth
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank God and the universe for I could finish this
undergraduate thesis. I would also like to show my greatest gratitude to my family:
my father, Ignatius Joko, and also my beloved mother, Yosefin Hantoro for their
material and immaterial support. I also thank my little brother Filipus Neri, who has
supported me in finishing this thesis.
I also would like to thank my advisor, Dr. FX Siswadi, M.A., who has
guided, helped, and given enlightenment to me during the process of writing this
undergraduate thesis. The help and guidance he has given to me along the writing of
this undergraduate thesis have been very contributing. I also thank my co advisor
Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum. for inputs regarding my writing content.
All classmates and English Literature mates: Ani, Herman, Kenan, Samson,
Hindra, Sepi, Natal, Cici, Edy Kedibro, Nisa, Elissa, Aryo, Dita, Aya, Hellene,
Iyuth, Umi, Satriya, Alwi, Wahmuji, Vallone. I would also like to thank Froyd
team, all lecturers of English Letters Department, and others that I could not
mention one by one. Then, I would like to thank Widi and Irene who have helped me
in discussing my writing. I also give thanks to Thesa Paskarina who always supports
and reminds me to finish this writing. And for the last and the main, I would say
special gratitude to Maria Hartiningsih. Without her support and her patience, I
would not get a chance to study in the university.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………..i
APPROVAL PAGE…………………………………………………………………ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE……………………………………………………………. iii
Lembar Pernyataan Persetujuan Publikasi Karya Ilmiah…..….……………………..iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY…………………………………….v
MOTTO PAGE ……………………………………………………………………..vi
DEDICATION PAGE…..………………………………………………………….vii
ACKONWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………….viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………...ix
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………....xi
ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………………..xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................1
A. Background of the Study ............................................................................1
B. Problem Formulation...................................................................................5
C. Objectives of the Study...............................................................................6
D. Definition of Terms.....................................................................................6
1. Globalization..........................................................................................6
2. Hybrid Identity.......................................................................................6
CHAPTER II: THEORITICAL REVIEW..............................................................7
A. Review of Related Studies..........................................................................7
B. Review of Related Theories.......................................................................10
1. Theory of Character and Characterization...........................................10
a. Theories on Characters....................................................................10
b. Theories on Characterization...........................................................11
2. Theory of Globalization.......................................................................13
a. Imperialism....................................................................................14
b. Colonialism....................................................................................15
c. Globalization in India....................................................................18
i. Caste..........................................................................................21
ii. Dowry........................................................................................22
3. Theory of Hybrid Identity...................................................................22
C. Theoretical Framework..............................................................................23
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY.........................................................................25
A. Object of the Study....................................................................................25
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B. Approach of the Study...............................................................................26
C. Method of the Study..................................................................................27
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS......................................................................................28
A. The Characterization of the Main Character (Balram Halwei)........................28
1. The Physical Characterization of Balram Halwei.....................................31
2. The Non-physical Characterization of Balram Halwei.............................34
a. Conscious…………………………………………………………….35
b. Intelligent…………………………………………………………….38
c. Open Minded………………………………………………………...41
d. Passionate……………………………………………………………44
e. Integrated…………………………………………………………….47
B. The Globalization in India That Presented in The Novel................................49
C. The Main Character’s Representation of Hybrid Identity as a Response to
Globalization…………………………………………………………………57
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION................................................................................71
BIBLIOGRAPHY…..................................................................................................75
APPENDIX……………………………………………………….…………………77
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ABSTRACT
DIONISIUS SONY WIDYA MUNARSA SUPRIHANTO. The Representation of
the Main Character’s Hybrid Identity as a Response to Globalization in Aravind
Adiga’s The White Tiger.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
The White Tiger is a novel written by Aravind Adiga that portrays the struggle
of a native Indian named Balram Halwei to get out off poverty and also against the
oppression from the local authority. In this novel, Balram is described as a native who
has the consciousness that he is a victim of a bad system. In this case, the poverty and
the oppression are the effects of globalization in his country: India.
The objective of this study is to address the relationship between Balram
Halwei and the globalization process in his country. There are three research
problems raised in this undergraduate thesis: the first problem is to find out how
Balram Halwei is described in the novel. The second is to find out how the
globalization is described in the novel, and the last is to find out how Balram Balwei
represented a hybrid character as a response to globalization.
The writer uses library research as the methodology. The main reference of
this study is the novel The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Meanwhile, the other
references are obtained from several theories in printed books and some articles from
the internet. The writer uses postcolonial as the study approach. The writer feels that
this approach is suitable to analyze the problems because the novel is a representation
of a native’s struggle against colonialism in globalization era.
In the analysis, it is found that Balram Halwei has a hybrid characteristic. He
is conscious, intelligent, open-minded, passionate, and integrated. Generally, those
characteristics are found through the Balram’s speech description. Specifically, those
are found through his past lives, reaction, thought and habit. Then, it is found that
globalization in this novel is described through social condition and description of
places in India. Moreover, it is also found that globalization as an imperialism and
colonialism practice are described through the way Balram’s grandmother, Kusum
and Stork, the land lord, treated Balram. Lastly, it is found that Balram’s hybrid
characteristics are a response to the condition in his country. His characteristics
represent a critique to the government and Indian people itself about how they
respond to globalization. What Balram had done is only to make his country a better
country within the era of globalization.
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ABSTRAK
DIONISIUS SONY WIDYA MUNARSA SUPRIHANTO. The Representation of
the Main Character’s Hybrid Identity as a Response to Globalization in Aravind
Adiga’s The White Tiger.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
The White Tiger adalah novel karya Aravind Adiga yang menggambarkan
perjuangan seorang pribumi India bernama Balram Halwei untuk lepas dari jerat
kemiskinan dan penindasan oleh para penguasa di sekitarnya. Dalam novel ini,
Balram digambarkan sebagai seorang pribumi yang mempunyai kesadaran bahwa ia
adalah korban dari sistem yang buruk. Dalam hal ini pula, kemiskinan dan
penindasan yang dirasakan Balram tersebut merupakan sebuah akibat dari globalisasi
yang terjadi di negaranya, India.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui lebih jauh mengenai
hubungan karakter utama dengan proses globalisasi yang terjadi di negaranya.
Terdapat tiga tujuan utama dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama adalah untuk
mengetahui bagaimana Balram Halwei digambarkan dalam novel ini. Yang kedua
adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana globalisasi digambarkan dalam novel ini. Dan
yang terakhir adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana gambaran Balram Halwei
merupakansebuah representasi identitas hibrid sebagai respon terhadap globalisasi.
Metode yang digunakan penulis dalam melakukan studi ini adalah studi
pustaka. Sumber utama adalah novel The White Tiger karya Aravind Adiga.
Sedangkan sumber referensi didapatkan dari buku-buku teori dan beberapa artikel
dari internet. Dalam menganalisa masalah-masalah di atas, penulis menggunakan
pendekatan poskolonial. Sudut pandang ini dirasa tepat oleh penulis, sebab novel ini
merupakan sebuah representasi pribumi dalam usaha melawan penjajahan di era
globalisasi.
Dalam analisis studi ini, ditemukan bahwa Balram Halwei mempunyai
karakteristik hibrid. Ia adalah manusia yang mempunyai kesadaran, cerdas, terbuka,
bergairah, dan terintegrasi. Secara umum, karakteristik tersebut digambarkan melalui
paparan Balram. Kemudian, globalisasi dalam novel ini dipaparkan melalui deskripsi
kondisi sosial di beberapa tempat di India. Lebih dari itu, globalisasi sebagai bentuk
praktek imperalisme dan kolonialisme ditemukan dalam diri Kusum, nenek Balram
dan Stork, si tuan tanah, melalui cara mereka memperlakukan Balram. Pada akhirnya,
ditemukan bahwa hibriditas karakteristik Balram merupakan cara Balram untuk
merespon kondisi situasi di negaranya dalam menghadapi globalisasi. Karakter
Balram yang hibrid ini merupakan bentuk kritik terhadap negaranya: pemerintah dan
masyarakat India sendiri dalam merespon globalisasi yang terjadi di negaranya.
Semua itu Balram lakukan karena dia ingin membuat India menjadi lebih baik.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Aristotle, in his book Poetic, defines poetry as an imitation (from Greek word:
mimesis) of human actions (Abrams, 1993: 89). By ‘imitation’, he means it as a
‘representation’ of human action and re-presenting it in a new “medium”. The
definition above can be applied toa general literary works and becomes a mimetic
criticism. Mimetic criticism views literary work as an imitation, or reflection, or
representation of the world and human life, and the primary criterion applied to a
work as that of the “truth” of its representation to the subject matter that it represents,
or should represent (Abrams, 1993: 40).
If work of literature is seen as a mirror of reality then we can relate it to the
real world. For instance, there is a phenomenon that rose in the early of the 21th
century called globalization. Nowadays, this phenomenon extends to all corners of
the world. Generally, globalization can be defined as “the process by which
businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating
on an international scale” (https://oxforddictionaries.com/). The definition above
seems too general. It is seen from economic perspective only, which refers to a
process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated
through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. Moreover the
concept of globalization does not stop at the definition above but it also has a deeper
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meaning. The following quotation is what Amartya Sen a Nobel Laureate and
Economist states about globalization:
Global interaction, rather than insulated isolation, has been the basis of
economic progress in the world. Trade, along with migration, communication,
and dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge, has helped to break
the dominance of rampant poverty and the pervasiveness of ‘nasty, brutish
and short’ lives that characterized the world. And yet, despite all the progress,
life is still severely nasty, brutish and short for a large part of the world
population. The great rewards of globalized trade have come to some, but not
to others (Amartya Sen, Foreword, Make Trade Fair, Oxfam, 2002).
From Amartya’s statement, it is apparent that globalization is a complex
concept. Globalization has several dimensions: political, technological, humanity,
environmental, and cultural. These dimensions may reflect or contribute to the
exclusion of the economically and educationally poor people especially in developing
countries, and environmental degradation, as well as the growth of prosperity and
peace in some areas (Pais, 2006: 1).
On one side, globalization has positive effects. The large volumes of money
movement, increased volume of trades, changes in information technology and
communication are all integral to a global world (Pais, 2006: 1).
Some analysts embrace it enthusiastically as a positive feature of a changing
world in which access to technology, information, services and markets will
be of benefit to local communities, where dominant forms of social
organization will lead to universal prosperity, peace and freedom, and in
which a perception of a global environment will lead to global ecological
concern (Ashcroft, 1998: 110-111).
But in the other side, although globalization is believed by many people as a
way toward prosperous society, it can actually lead to the opposite condition.
Ashcroft said that in some respects, globalization, in the period of rapid
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decolonization after World War II, becomes a demonstrate of the transmutation of
imperialism into the supra-national operations of economics, communications and
culture “The chief argument against globalization is that global culture and global
economy did not just spontaneously erupt but originated in and continue to be
perpetuated from the centers of capitalist power”(Ashcroft, 1998: 111).
At one level it may appear that globalization has no significant impact on
people’s lives, it seems that their lives are ‘normal’ in most circumstances. Many
people are not aware of how they become a crucial part of this phenomenon. The
reality is that every individual is affected in one way or another. Then, these changes
affect people’s identities and cultural values, which sometimes become altered
significantly. “
Whether it is between generations, or intra-personally, new values can cause
dissonance and conflict with existing deeper-rooted values. Sometimes such
transitions and changes can further cause difficulty with internal growth and
development (Pais, 2006: 2).
Hybrid identity is the consequence of the culture acculturation caused by
globalization. Barry said that it can be described as ‘the process of cultural adaption’.
In the process of cultural adaptation, individuals can be classified into four possible
categories based on their acculturation attitudes, as depicted by Barry and colleagues’
seminal work (e.g., Barry, 1990): assimilation (identification mostly with the
receiving culture), integration (high identification with both cultures), separation
(identification mostly with the culture of origin), or marginalization (low
identification with both cultures).
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The White Tiger is a novel which raises globalization issue in India. The novel
was written by an Indian writer, Aravind Adiga, in 2008. This novel has also won the
first Man Booker Prize at the same time. This novel told the story about the struggle
of an indigenous Indian whose identity has been influenced by the complexity of
globalization in India. In this novel, Adiga presented the portrait of globalization in
India and its impacts through the story of the main character. He portrayed the dark
perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a
retrospective narration from the main character, Balram Halwei. The novel was
written in the form of a confession letter by Balram Halway to the Chinese Prime
Minister, Mr. Wen Jiabao, when the prime minister visited India for an official
assignment.
The story was about the journey of Balram Halwei, a poor native Indian who
became a great entrepreneur in India. He came from a darkness area in India called
Laxmangarh. Then, he became a private driver and also a servant for his master,
Ashok. After some periods, he killed his master, robbed his money and fled. After
that, with the robbed money, he built a taxi driver company and became a great
entrepreneur in Bangalore, the world’s center of technology and outsourcing.
The writer chooses this novel as a research object because of the unique
characteristics of the main character, Balram Halwei. Balram’s story was about his
journey escaping from exploitation and becoming a great entrepreneur is interesting
enough to learn about. His response to his social environment and his unpredictable
actions became the other interesting point of this character.
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In this study, the writer tries to find how the main character represents hybrid
identity as a response to globalization. The globalization as a transmutation of
imperialism and colonialism becomes the main issue of this novel, which means that
the writer wants to find out the main character’s response to the globalization.
Hopefully, this research can give a new enlightening perspective.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How is the main character characterized in this novel?
2. How is the globalization in India presented in the novel?
3. How does the main character represent hybrid identity as a response to
globalization?
C. Objectives of the Study
The first objective of this study is to know how the main character is
presented in this novel. In this context, the writer will describe and discuss the
characterization in the story. The second objective of this study is to know how the
globalization in India is presented in the novel. In this phase, the writer will describe
and discuss the globalization in India that presented in the novel. Then, the third
objective of this study is to know how the main character represents hybrid identity as
a response to globalization. By focusing on the combination of characteristics that
was influenced by globalization and the globalization in India, the writer wants to
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show the role of a globalization toward the main character’s thought and how he
overcame the social problem in globalization era.
D. Definition of Terms
To avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding, the writer would like to
explain some terms which are widely related to the topic that is going to be discussed.
1. Globalization
Globalization is the process whereby individual lives and local communities are
affected by economic and cultural forces that operate world-wide. As the results is the
process of the world becoming a single place (Ashcroft, 1994: 111).
2. Hybrid Identity
Hybridity commonly refers to the creation of newtranscultural (This term
refers to the reciprocal influences of modes of representation and cultural practices of
various kinds in colonies and metropoles, and is thus ‘a phenomenon of the contact
zone (Ashcroft, 1989:233)) forms within the contact zone produced by colonization
(Ashcroft, 1989:118). Hybrid Identity is identity that refers to the creation of new
transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization.
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The White Tiger is known as a realistic novel about social injustice in
India, the social disparity between the poor and the rich. It represents the social
condition in India. Yet, some reviewers focused on the two intrinsic elements: the
main character (Balram) and the unpredictable plot of this novel.
The result is an Indian novel that explodes the clichés – ornamental prose,
the scent of saffron – associated with that phrase… Caught up in Balram's
world – and his wonderful turn of phrase – the pages turn themselves.
Brimming with idiosyncrasy, sarcastic, cunning, and often hilarious,
Balram is reminiscent of the endless talkers that populate the novels of the
great Czech novelist Bohumil Hrabal. Inventing such a character is no
small feat for a first-time novelist (www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/books/reviews/the-white-tiger-by-aravind-adiga823472.html).
It is true that the main character becomes the main favorite focus taken by
most researchers. He had a combination of different characteristic which differed
him from others. The writer of this research will also use the main character as the
main focus of this research. The complexity and the unique characteristic of the
main character, Balram, becomes the writer’s passion in doing this research.
One research that has similar perspective with this research is an essay
from Lily Want, a Professor of English at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar,
India, entitled The Poetics and Politics of Cultural Studies in Aravind Adiga’s The
White Tiger. This research used a postcolonial perspective to analyze the novel.
Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008) can easily be placed in the gamut
of Cultural Studies since it shares most of the features of this school. For
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example, it can easily be analyzed as a form of cultural resistance to
homogenizing capitalism, as the emphasis throughout is on the
particularities of the proletariat suppressed under the dominant high
culture. But what strikes one as odd is that this particular class has been
undermined in the text to such an extent that the writer not only fails to
redefine the social order but also ends up as a spokesperson of the
conventional Eurocentric perspective of the East to the extent that it has
led literary critics to debate how far he fits a Western cosmopolitan model
of writing (Want, 2011: 69).
The essay focused on the resistance of Eastern culture to the Western
culture that is represented in this novel. Moreover, this essay attempted to unravel
these diametrically opposed strands in the fabric of The White Tiger as Adiga
while silencing certain voices ends up allowing the narcissism of the Western
culture to raise its garrulous head.
Another study about Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is an undergraduate
thesis by Eka Shanti Budi Asih, a student of English Letter Department, Sanata
Dharma University. Her study is entitled Sociopathic Personality as Seen in the
Main Character of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. She studied the influence of
social condition to the main character (Balram)’s personality that led him into
becoming a sociopath. She emphasized the personal development of Balram and
the influence of the social condition that caused Balram to become a sociopath.
She judged that the main character, Balram is an individual with anti social
personality disorder, or can be called sociopath, with no further explanation. So,
the writer sees that this undergraduate thesis looked like other literary criticisms,
which was trapped in the judgement of normality and abnormality.
This research originates from the writer’s disagreement to the thesis of Eka
Shanti Budi Asih. The writer disagrees if the main character is judged as a
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sociopath. Generally, Eka’s opinion was true as she saw the main character from
one perspective, but there are some considerations to refuse the judgement. First,
the writer disagrees if the main character was judged as a sociopath because Eka’s
judgement put the main character only in between good or bad condition only. The
second one, Eka did not put specific issues or causes that changed Balram into
becoming a sociopath in her analysis and conclusion. This opinion is based on the
below quotation that the writer found in the novel:
Me, and thousands of others in this country like me, are half-baked,
because we were never allowed to complete our schooling. Open our
skulls, look in with a penlight, and you'll find an odd museum of ideas:
sentences of history or mathematics remembered from school textbooks
(no boy remembers his schooling like one who was taken out of school, let
me assure you), …. all these ideas, half formed and half digested and half
correct, mix up with other half-cooked ideas in your head, and I guess
these half-formed ideas bugger one another, and make more half-formed
ideas, and this is what you act on and live with (Adiga: 2008: 8).
The quotation above indicated that Balram’s characteristics are not the
only one in his country. There were a lot of people who were like him, and
Balram’s was only one example from such phenomenon that occurred in India. It
means that there must have been a main cause behind the phenomenon. Hence, the
writer will try to find it in this undergraduate thesis.
Moreover, the study from Lily Want also gave an influence to the writer in
doing an analysis about the issue of cultural resistance in The White Tiger. But the
writer will give specific emphasis to the main character as the one that represents
a mixed culture as the result of colonization as well as a response to globalization.
The writer thinks that the complex characteristic of the main character is
interesting to be studied as the complexity has brought him into having a hybrid
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identity. This is what the writer wants to know much about the main character.
The writer will learn about how the main character represents hybrid identity as a
response to globalization.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
a. Theory of Character
There are two main qualities in character’s case (Colwell, 1968: 10-13).
First is morality. Aristotle’s Poetic defines character as moral quality, goodness
and badness. The second is personality, which defines character as a personal and
unique person. It sees a character as different from other characters. Abrams, in
his book, The Glossary of Literary Terms, combined these two qualities to define
character as “The persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are
interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and dispositional
qualities that are expressed in what they say – the dialogue – and by what they do
– the action” (Abrams,1993: 23).
From the definition above, it can be said that in literary works, character is
the author’s medium to express the author’s ideology or perspective. It can be
seen through the dialogues between the character(s) or the character’s behaviour.
Still from Abram, based on the importance, characters are divided into
major and minor characters. Major characters are described more detailed than
minor characters. The description makes the major character becomes the focus of
the story. They will be presented in almost all scenes in the story: the introduction,
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raising action, the conflict, the climax and the falling action. Otherwise, the minor
characters are presented merely as the ‘complement’ of the story. They are not
presented at all scenes of the story and are not described in details as the major
characters. The importance of minor character is their influence to the major
character.
According to E.M. Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel (1974),
characters are divided into two: flat and round characters. Flat characters are only
described in a single quality. It means that the characters are showed in one aspect
of their appearances in the story. Their quality is not developed from the
beginning until the end of the story. The second category is round characters. The
term ‘round’ shows the fullness of the characters’ behavior. This kind of character
may shift its point of view to other point of view. Generally, this character may
have conflict of its own for making decision. Forster also wrote that round
characters have ability to surprise the readers because the changes of their
behaviors. In short, round characters develop from the beginning until the end of
the story.
b. Theory of Characterization
Characterization is important to create the character in a story. The way the
author creates the characters is defined as characterization. According to Murphy
in Understanding Unseen (1972: 160-173), there are nine ways that the authors
use to make the characters understandable to the readers:
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Personal Description
The author describes the characters’ appearances directly, from the body,
such as the face, skin, the hair, the height, the eyes’ shape and even clothes. It will
help the readers understand the characters.
ii.
Character as Seen by Another
The author describes the characters through the other characters in the story
like in the personal description; the description of character as seen by another is
covering the physical things of the character.
iii.
Speech
The description can be the character’s speech or in the conversation through
another character’s speech. Murphy explains, “Whenever a person speaks,
whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an
opinion, he is giving us some clues to his character” (Murphy, 1972: 164).
iv.
Past Lives
The author can give out clues to the reader that shape a character’s nature
through his or her past life in order to get some ideas about the his or her thoughts,
behaviour, and action. “This can be done by direct comment by the author,
through the person’s thought, through his conversation or through the medium of
another person” (Murphy, 1972:166).
v.
Conversation of Others
The author gives some clues to the readers about the character through the
others characters conversation.
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Reaction
The author gives out clues to a character by letting the readers know how
the character reacts to various situations and events.
vii.
Direct comments
The author directly describes or gives comments on a character. The
difference of direct comments to personal description is that the direct comments
mostly about the psychological things of the character, not the physical things.
viii.
Thought
The author can give the readers direct knowledge of what a character is
thinking about. It is only accepted in the novel.
ix.
Mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies
The author describes the character’s ways of behaving, which may also tell
the readers about specific characteristics of different people. The manner of the
character is habitual.
2. Theory on Globalization
In the book Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies, Bill Ashcroft defined
globalization as “the process whereby individual lives and local communities are
affected by economic and cultural forces that operate world-wide. As the result it
is the process of the world becoming a single place” (Ashcroft, 1994: 111).
Furthermore,
Aschroft
explain
that
the
chief
argument
against
globalization is that global culture and global economy did not just spontaneously
erupt but originated in and continue to be perpetuated from the centers of
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capitalist power (Ashcroft, 1994:111). Ashcroft also said that in some respects,
globalization, in the period of rapid decolonization after World War II, has
developes from an imperialism into the supra-national operations of economics,
communications and culture “The chief argument against globalization is that
global culture and global economy did not just spontaneously erupt but originated
in and continue to be perpetuated from the centers of capitalist power” (Ashcroft,
1998: 111).
Moreover, Ritzer, an economist, in his book Globalization: A Basic Text,
describes that globalization is not built in one concept, but there are many
concepts that build globalization from some aspects: “there are many other
concepts that either described earlier historical, or contemporary, realities that
deal with at least a portion of that which is encompassed with globalization”
(Ritzer, 2010: 64). Based on Ritzer explanation, it seems that globalization has
influenced by some concepts that has born earlier. In this study, the writer deals
with two concepts that are related to globalization: imperialism and colonialism.
a. Imperialism
In its most general sense, imperialism refers to the formation of an empire,
and, as such, has been an aspect of all periods of history in which one nation has
extended its domination over one or several neighboring nations (Ashcroft,
1998:122). Moreover, Edward Said used imperialism in this general sense to
mean “the practice, theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center
ruling a distant territory’ a process distinct from colonialism, which is ‘the
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implanting of settlements on a distant territory” (Said, 1993: 8). On the same
hand, Vladimir Lenin, a communist leader, stated that imperialism is the highest
stage of capitalism as he put it in his book, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of
Capitalism. Lenin stated that there are five characteristics of imperialism in this
world. Nevertheless, only one out of Lenin’s five characteristics that can be
applied in this thesis: “the concentration of production and capital developed to
such a stage that it creates monopolies which plays a decisive role in economic
life” (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/ 1916/imp-hsc/ch01.htm).
b. Colonialism
In the book Introduction to Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory,
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman defined colonialism in its relationship with
globalization.
The conquest and direct control of other’s people land, is a particular
phase in the history of imperialism which is now best understood as the
globalization of the capitalist mode of production, its penetration of
previously non capitalist region of the world, and destruction of pre- or
non-capitalist forms of social organization (Williams, 1994: 3).
Williams’ statement above shows that there is a relation between colonialism
and globalization. His statement’s proofs that globalization is a transformation of
colonialism in the present time. Williams’ statement is also similar to Ania
Loomba’s statement. In her books Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Loomba stated
that colonialism is not just the result of domination from the outside and not only
the operation of forces in cooperation, but also because of the use of old system
which is previously copied from the inside and is used as a new
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version.”Colonialism was not an identical process in different parts of the world
but everywhere it locked the original inhabitants and the newcomers into the most
complex and traumatic relationships in human history” (Loomba, 1998: 2).
The statement above provided an affirmation that colonialism still
continues until the present time. The emphasis of colonialism concept is not
merely identical in its relationship between the East and the West, but it becomes
a relationship that involves two main subjects: the original inhabitants and the
newcomers, whoever they are. On the same hand, Bill Aschroft said that there is
no society who gets full freedom from the colonizer for free.
It is significant that no societyever attained full freedom from the colonial
system by the involuntary, active disengagement of the colonial power
until it was provoked by a considerable internal struggle for selfdetermination or, most usually, by extended and active violent opposition
by the colonized (Aschroft, 1998: 49).
Form Aschroft’s statement above, Aschroft emphasized that colonialism ‘never
stops’. In other words, he emphasized that the full freedom could only be gained
through a resistance to the colonizer. Then he also said that the freedom always
begins by a ‘pioneer’ that provokes the society to realize about the real condition
of being colonized and who does a resistance.
Moreover, Ashish Nandy in his book The Intimate Enemy (1983) stated
two forms of colonization: the first is a physical conquest of territories and the
second is the colonization of theminds, selves and cultures. The first mode is
violent, transparent in its self interest and greed. The second mode is that of the
rationalists, modernists and the liberals who claim to have the responsibility of
civilizing the uncivilized world.
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This colonialism colonizes minds inaddition to bodies and it releasesforces
within colonized societies toalter their cultural priorities once andfor all. In
the process, it helps togeneralize the concept of the modernWest from a
geographical andtemporal entity to psychological category. The West is
noweverywhere, within the West andoutside; in structures and in minds
(Nandi, 1980: xi).
Nandi’s theory above shows that the practice of colonialism is not fixing
only in one method, but it has a different method with same subject pattern and
same purpose. In other words, Nandi said that the physical conquest has been
change to be mind conquest, and it still involved the West as the main subject of
the colonialism practice.
Besides, colonialism has a close relation to orientalism. Orientalism means
”a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction
made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident” (Said, 1979:
2). Said identified European cultural tradition of 'Orientalism', as a particular and
long-standing way of identifying the East as 'Other' and who inferior to the West.
The Orient, he said are featured in the Western mind 'as a sort of surrogate and
even underground self (Literature in the Modern World, ed. Dennis Walder, p.
236). This means, in effect, that the East becomes the repository or projection of
those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge
(cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness, and so on).
At the same time, and paradoxically, the East (Orient) is seen as “a
fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive. It also tends to be
seen as homogenous, the people there being anonymous masses, rather than
individuals, their actions determined by instinctive emotions (lust, terror, fury,
etc.) rather than by conscious choices or decisions” (Barry, 1995:192).
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On the other hand, Occident is considered superior over the Orient and
furthermore, as Said stated, “what gave the Oriental’s world its intelligibility and
identity was not the result of his own efforts but rather the whole complex series of
knowledge manipulations by which the Orients was identified by the West” (Said
1993: 2, 40).
c. Globalization in India
India (Republic of India) is a country in South Asia continent. This country
got its independence from British colonizer in 15 August 1947. The British also
had left India with a rudimentary industrial and scientific base; great poverty; a
large and growing population; social cleavages along caste and economic lines;
and contentious territorial boundaries that have led to armed conflicts against
Pakistan, China, and numerous insurgent groups (Library of Congress – Federal
Research Division, 2004).
The economic globalization of India was started in 1991. It happened after
India experienced economic crisis in early 1990. India’s Minister of Finance at the
time (who now becomes India’s current Prime Minister), Manmohan Singh, made
an economic policy which had changed the economic system in India from
socialist into capitalist. It meant that the modern India’s capitalist free enterprise
economy started to replace Nehruvian Socialism (Wolpert, 2009: 461). Since that
time, India grew up into an economic giant in South Asia. Also, India got
advantages from the system change, such as: exports rocketed by 25 percent,
industrial production jumped over 10 percent, and the inflation fell to little more
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than 6 percent in1995. Some ‘world wide’ Western investors like Pepsico, IBM,
and Xerox, started to build their factory in India because of the cheap labor wage
applied in India.
On the other hand, the globalization increased disparities between the rich
and the poorest, making those differences more disconcertingly glaring. The
minimum wage made labors and poor people could not improve their well-being.
The effects were the rise of urban social problems like urban slum, bogged down,
as well as squalor that rose along with the economic growth. Besides, the effect of
imbalanced system caused country disaster such as famine and flood.
For India's most impoverished 300 million landless peasants and urban
slum dwellers bogged down in mud and squalor, at the mercy of monsoon
rains bringing famine and flood, however, Manmohan's reforms brought
little relief and less comfort. The daily drudgery of village India's bullockcart economy remained as precarious as it had always been, while the
wretched crowding of mega polis slums in Bombay, Calcutta became more
painful to those who labored to erect palaces of urban prosperity without
earning enough to feed their families (Wolpert, 2009: 465).
In the same time, the population growth went hand in hand with the
economic growth. The uncontrolled population growth made India has the world’s
largest youthful population with more than 600 million under age 25. In 2011,
total
population
in
India
had
been
over
than
one
billion
(approximately1,216,728,000). This condition made India becomes the second
most populated country after China. Besides, because of the complexity of
language, race, religions, etc. India also grows into becoming the largest
democratic country in the world.
Joseph E. Schwartzberg, Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of
Minnesota, said that India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in
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the world. He said that apart from its many religions and sects, India is home to
innumerable castes and tribes, as well as to more than a dozen major and hundreds
of minor linguistic groups from several language families unrelated to one
another. Then, he also said that religious minorities, including Moslems,
Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, still account for a significant proportion of
the population; collectively, their numbers exceed the populations of all countries
except China (www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India).
One of the impacts of globalization in India is the development of
Bangalore city. Bangalore, renamed as Bengaluru in 2006, the state capital of
Karnataka, is a megacity located at the south of India. Since the 1980s, from 1981
to 2004, its population had doubled to about six million. In 2007, Bangalore was
categorized as the fifth largest city in India after Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and
Chennai (Dittrich, 2007: 45).
During the 1990s, Bangalore had developed into a preferred location for
high-technology industries such as electronics, information and communication
technology (ICT), and IT-enabling services, and it had emerged as a globally
integrated center of high technology research and production (Fromhold-Eisebith
2001; Dittrich 2003, 2004; Heitzman 2004). This city got labeled as the
'Electronics Capital of India' and 'India's Silicon Valley', which represents one
particularly positive showcase of the new opportunities for Newly Industrializing
Countries to benefit from recent trends in economic globalization (Dittrich, 2007:
46). In the correlation with India’s culture, globalization has impact to some
India’s cultures such:
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i. Caste
Caste is a traditional India’s system of social order and control. Caste is
the most elaborate form of social stratification ever known. It has dominated the
Indian sub-continent for about three millennia, and is also the most obnoxious of
all exclusionary systems. “Caste-exclusions are explicit in traditional society.
Membership and status are determined by birth; there is a hierarchy of social
precedence among the castes; there are restrictions on social and cultural
intercourse between castes; castes are segregated and stratified with regard to
civil and religious privileges; occupations are caste determined with relatively
little choice allowed; restrictions on marriage outside one’s sub-caste help
maintain the system” (Ghurye, 1979: Chapter 1).
Nowadays, caste still continues to play an important role in Indian life. In
rural areas, movement out of caste specializing occupations and access to
resources is still difficult and slow for the lower castes, but in urban areas, caste is
now a less significant part of daily life. Although discrimination on the basis of
caste has been outlawed in India, caste has become a means for competing for
access to resources and power in modern India, such as educational opportunities,
new occupations, and improvement in life chances (Sekhon, 2000: 45). The higher
castes, which exploited the lower castes for centuries, continue to discriminate
against them both socially and economically today. The present Indian society is
moving from its closed systems towards a state of change and progression marked
by the assertion of the human spirit irrespective of castes and creeds (Velassery,
2005: xii).
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THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MAIN CHARACTER’S HYBRID
IDENTITY AS A RESPONSE TO GLOBALIZATION IN ARAVIND ADIGA’S
THE WHITE TIGER
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters
By
DIONISIUS SONY WIDYA MUNARSA SUPRIHANTO
Student Number: 074214047
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
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“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free
our minds” - Bob Marley -
“Imagination is more important than knowledge”
- Albert Einstein vi
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For The Sky and The Earth
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank God and the universe for I could finish this
undergraduate thesis. I would also like to show my greatest gratitude to my family:
my father, Ignatius Joko, and also my beloved mother, Yosefin Hantoro for their
material and immaterial support. I also thank my little brother Filipus Neri, who has
supported me in finishing this thesis.
I also would like to thank my advisor, Dr. FX Siswadi, M.A., who has
guided, helped, and given enlightenment to me during the process of writing this
undergraduate thesis. The help and guidance he has given to me along the writing of
this undergraduate thesis have been very contributing. I also thank my co advisor
Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum. for inputs regarding my writing content.
All classmates and English Literature mates: Ani, Herman, Kenan, Samson,
Hindra, Sepi, Natal, Cici, Edy Kedibro, Nisa, Elissa, Aryo, Dita, Aya, Hellene,
Iyuth, Umi, Satriya, Alwi, Wahmuji, Vallone. I would also like to thank Froyd
team, all lecturers of English Letters Department, and others that I could not
mention one by one. Then, I would like to thank Widi and Irene who have helped me
in discussing my writing. I also give thanks to Thesa Paskarina who always supports
and reminds me to finish this writing. And for the last and the main, I would say
special gratitude to Maria Hartiningsih. Without her support and her patience, I
would not get a chance to study in the university.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………..i
APPROVAL PAGE…………………………………………………………………ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE……………………………………………………………. iii
Lembar Pernyataan Persetujuan Publikasi Karya Ilmiah…..….……………………..iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY…………………………………….v
MOTTO PAGE ……………………………………………………………………..vi
DEDICATION PAGE…..………………………………………………………….vii
ACKONWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………….viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………...ix
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………....xi
ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………………..xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................1
A. Background of the Study ............................................................................1
B. Problem Formulation...................................................................................5
C. Objectives of the Study...............................................................................6
D. Definition of Terms.....................................................................................6
1. Globalization..........................................................................................6
2. Hybrid Identity.......................................................................................6
CHAPTER II: THEORITICAL REVIEW..............................................................7
A. Review of Related Studies..........................................................................7
B. Review of Related Theories.......................................................................10
1. Theory of Character and Characterization...........................................10
a. Theories on Characters....................................................................10
b. Theories on Characterization...........................................................11
2. Theory of Globalization.......................................................................13
a. Imperialism....................................................................................14
b. Colonialism....................................................................................15
c. Globalization in India....................................................................18
i. Caste..........................................................................................21
ii. Dowry........................................................................................22
3. Theory of Hybrid Identity...................................................................22
C. Theoretical Framework..............................................................................23
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY.........................................................................25
A. Object of the Study....................................................................................25
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B. Approach of the Study...............................................................................26
C. Method of the Study..................................................................................27
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS......................................................................................28
A. The Characterization of the Main Character (Balram Halwei)........................28
1. The Physical Characterization of Balram Halwei.....................................31
2. The Non-physical Characterization of Balram Halwei.............................34
a. Conscious…………………………………………………………….35
b. Intelligent…………………………………………………………….38
c. Open Minded………………………………………………………...41
d. Passionate……………………………………………………………44
e. Integrated…………………………………………………………….47
B. The Globalization in India That Presented in The Novel................................49
C. The Main Character’s Representation of Hybrid Identity as a Response to
Globalization…………………………………………………………………57
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION................................................................................71
BIBLIOGRAPHY…..................................................................................................75
APPENDIX……………………………………………………….…………………77
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ABSTRACT
DIONISIUS SONY WIDYA MUNARSA SUPRIHANTO. The Representation of
the Main Character’s Hybrid Identity as a Response to Globalization in Aravind
Adiga’s The White Tiger.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
The White Tiger is a novel written by Aravind Adiga that portrays the struggle
of a native Indian named Balram Halwei to get out off poverty and also against the
oppression from the local authority. In this novel, Balram is described as a native who
has the consciousness that he is a victim of a bad system. In this case, the poverty and
the oppression are the effects of globalization in his country: India.
The objective of this study is to address the relationship between Balram
Halwei and the globalization process in his country. There are three research
problems raised in this undergraduate thesis: the first problem is to find out how
Balram Halwei is described in the novel. The second is to find out how the
globalization is described in the novel, and the last is to find out how Balram Balwei
represented a hybrid character as a response to globalization.
The writer uses library research as the methodology. The main reference of
this study is the novel The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Meanwhile, the other
references are obtained from several theories in printed books and some articles from
the internet. The writer uses postcolonial as the study approach. The writer feels that
this approach is suitable to analyze the problems because the novel is a representation
of a native’s struggle against colonialism in globalization era.
In the analysis, it is found that Balram Halwei has a hybrid characteristic. He
is conscious, intelligent, open-minded, passionate, and integrated. Generally, those
characteristics are found through the Balram’s speech description. Specifically, those
are found through his past lives, reaction, thought and habit. Then, it is found that
globalization in this novel is described through social condition and description of
places in India. Moreover, it is also found that globalization as an imperialism and
colonialism practice are described through the way Balram’s grandmother, Kusum
and Stork, the land lord, treated Balram. Lastly, it is found that Balram’s hybrid
characteristics are a response to the condition in his country. His characteristics
represent a critique to the government and Indian people itself about how they
respond to globalization. What Balram had done is only to make his country a better
country within the era of globalization.
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ABSTRAK
DIONISIUS SONY WIDYA MUNARSA SUPRIHANTO. The Representation of
the Main Character’s Hybrid Identity as a Response to Globalization in Aravind
Adiga’s The White Tiger.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
The White Tiger adalah novel karya Aravind Adiga yang menggambarkan
perjuangan seorang pribumi India bernama Balram Halwei untuk lepas dari jerat
kemiskinan dan penindasan oleh para penguasa di sekitarnya. Dalam novel ini,
Balram digambarkan sebagai seorang pribumi yang mempunyai kesadaran bahwa ia
adalah korban dari sistem yang buruk. Dalam hal ini pula, kemiskinan dan
penindasan yang dirasakan Balram tersebut merupakan sebuah akibat dari globalisasi
yang terjadi di negaranya, India.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui lebih jauh mengenai
hubungan karakter utama dengan proses globalisasi yang terjadi di negaranya.
Terdapat tiga tujuan utama dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama adalah untuk
mengetahui bagaimana Balram Halwei digambarkan dalam novel ini. Yang kedua
adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana globalisasi digambarkan dalam novel ini. Dan
yang terakhir adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana gambaran Balram Halwei
merupakansebuah representasi identitas hibrid sebagai respon terhadap globalisasi.
Metode yang digunakan penulis dalam melakukan studi ini adalah studi
pustaka. Sumber utama adalah novel The White Tiger karya Aravind Adiga.
Sedangkan sumber referensi didapatkan dari buku-buku teori dan beberapa artikel
dari internet. Dalam menganalisa masalah-masalah di atas, penulis menggunakan
pendekatan poskolonial. Sudut pandang ini dirasa tepat oleh penulis, sebab novel ini
merupakan sebuah representasi pribumi dalam usaha melawan penjajahan di era
globalisasi.
Dalam analisis studi ini, ditemukan bahwa Balram Halwei mempunyai
karakteristik hibrid. Ia adalah manusia yang mempunyai kesadaran, cerdas, terbuka,
bergairah, dan terintegrasi. Secara umum, karakteristik tersebut digambarkan melalui
paparan Balram. Kemudian, globalisasi dalam novel ini dipaparkan melalui deskripsi
kondisi sosial di beberapa tempat di India. Lebih dari itu, globalisasi sebagai bentuk
praktek imperalisme dan kolonialisme ditemukan dalam diri Kusum, nenek Balram
dan Stork, si tuan tanah, melalui cara mereka memperlakukan Balram. Pada akhirnya,
ditemukan bahwa hibriditas karakteristik Balram merupakan cara Balram untuk
merespon kondisi situasi di negaranya dalam menghadapi globalisasi. Karakter
Balram yang hibrid ini merupakan bentuk kritik terhadap negaranya: pemerintah dan
masyarakat India sendiri dalam merespon globalisasi yang terjadi di negaranya.
Semua itu Balram lakukan karena dia ingin membuat India menjadi lebih baik.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Aristotle, in his book Poetic, defines poetry as an imitation (from Greek word:
mimesis) of human actions (Abrams, 1993: 89). By ‘imitation’, he means it as a
‘representation’ of human action and re-presenting it in a new “medium”. The
definition above can be applied toa general literary works and becomes a mimetic
criticism. Mimetic criticism views literary work as an imitation, or reflection, or
representation of the world and human life, and the primary criterion applied to a
work as that of the “truth” of its representation to the subject matter that it represents,
or should represent (Abrams, 1993: 40).
If work of literature is seen as a mirror of reality then we can relate it to the
real world. For instance, there is a phenomenon that rose in the early of the 21th
century called globalization. Nowadays, this phenomenon extends to all corners of
the world. Generally, globalization can be defined as “the process by which
businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating
on an international scale” (https://oxforddictionaries.com/). The definition above
seems too general. It is seen from economic perspective only, which refers to a
process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated
through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. Moreover the
concept of globalization does not stop at the definition above but it also has a deeper
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meaning. The following quotation is what Amartya Sen a Nobel Laureate and
Economist states about globalization:
Global interaction, rather than insulated isolation, has been the basis of
economic progress in the world. Trade, along with migration, communication,
and dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge, has helped to break
the dominance of rampant poverty and the pervasiveness of ‘nasty, brutish
and short’ lives that characterized the world. And yet, despite all the progress,
life is still severely nasty, brutish and short for a large part of the world
population. The great rewards of globalized trade have come to some, but not
to others (Amartya Sen, Foreword, Make Trade Fair, Oxfam, 2002).
From Amartya’s statement, it is apparent that globalization is a complex
concept. Globalization has several dimensions: political, technological, humanity,
environmental, and cultural. These dimensions may reflect or contribute to the
exclusion of the economically and educationally poor people especially in developing
countries, and environmental degradation, as well as the growth of prosperity and
peace in some areas (Pais, 2006: 1).
On one side, globalization has positive effects. The large volumes of money
movement, increased volume of trades, changes in information technology and
communication are all integral to a global world (Pais, 2006: 1).
Some analysts embrace it enthusiastically as a positive feature of a changing
world in which access to technology, information, services and markets will
be of benefit to local communities, where dominant forms of social
organization will lead to universal prosperity, peace and freedom, and in
which a perception of a global environment will lead to global ecological
concern (Ashcroft, 1998: 110-111).
But in the other side, although globalization is believed by many people as a
way toward prosperous society, it can actually lead to the opposite condition.
Ashcroft said that in some respects, globalization, in the period of rapid
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decolonization after World War II, becomes a demonstrate of the transmutation of
imperialism into the supra-national operations of economics, communications and
culture “The chief argument against globalization is that global culture and global
economy did not just spontaneously erupt but originated in and continue to be
perpetuated from the centers of capitalist power”(Ashcroft, 1998: 111).
At one level it may appear that globalization has no significant impact on
people’s lives, it seems that their lives are ‘normal’ in most circumstances. Many
people are not aware of how they become a crucial part of this phenomenon. The
reality is that every individual is affected in one way or another. Then, these changes
affect people’s identities and cultural values, which sometimes become altered
significantly. “
Whether it is between generations, or intra-personally, new values can cause
dissonance and conflict with existing deeper-rooted values. Sometimes such
transitions and changes can further cause difficulty with internal growth and
development (Pais, 2006: 2).
Hybrid identity is the consequence of the culture acculturation caused by
globalization. Barry said that it can be described as ‘the process of cultural adaption’.
In the process of cultural adaptation, individuals can be classified into four possible
categories based on their acculturation attitudes, as depicted by Barry and colleagues’
seminal work (e.g., Barry, 1990): assimilation (identification mostly with the
receiving culture), integration (high identification with both cultures), separation
(identification mostly with the culture of origin), or marginalization (low
identification with both cultures).
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The White Tiger is a novel which raises globalization issue in India. The novel
was written by an Indian writer, Aravind Adiga, in 2008. This novel has also won the
first Man Booker Prize at the same time. This novel told the story about the struggle
of an indigenous Indian whose identity has been influenced by the complexity of
globalization in India. In this novel, Adiga presented the portrait of globalization in
India and its impacts through the story of the main character. He portrayed the dark
perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a
retrospective narration from the main character, Balram Halwei. The novel was
written in the form of a confession letter by Balram Halway to the Chinese Prime
Minister, Mr. Wen Jiabao, when the prime minister visited India for an official
assignment.
The story was about the journey of Balram Halwei, a poor native Indian who
became a great entrepreneur in India. He came from a darkness area in India called
Laxmangarh. Then, he became a private driver and also a servant for his master,
Ashok. After some periods, he killed his master, robbed his money and fled. After
that, with the robbed money, he built a taxi driver company and became a great
entrepreneur in Bangalore, the world’s center of technology and outsourcing.
The writer chooses this novel as a research object because of the unique
characteristics of the main character, Balram Halwei. Balram’s story was about his
journey escaping from exploitation and becoming a great entrepreneur is interesting
enough to learn about. His response to his social environment and his unpredictable
actions became the other interesting point of this character.
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In this study, the writer tries to find how the main character represents hybrid
identity as a response to globalization. The globalization as a transmutation of
imperialism and colonialism becomes the main issue of this novel, which means that
the writer wants to find out the main character’s response to the globalization.
Hopefully, this research can give a new enlightening perspective.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How is the main character characterized in this novel?
2. How is the globalization in India presented in the novel?
3. How does the main character represent hybrid identity as a response to
globalization?
C. Objectives of the Study
The first objective of this study is to know how the main character is
presented in this novel. In this context, the writer will describe and discuss the
characterization in the story. The second objective of this study is to know how the
globalization in India is presented in the novel. In this phase, the writer will describe
and discuss the globalization in India that presented in the novel. Then, the third
objective of this study is to know how the main character represents hybrid identity as
a response to globalization. By focusing on the combination of characteristics that
was influenced by globalization and the globalization in India, the writer wants to
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show the role of a globalization toward the main character’s thought and how he
overcame the social problem in globalization era.
D. Definition of Terms
To avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding, the writer would like to
explain some terms which are widely related to the topic that is going to be discussed.
1. Globalization
Globalization is the process whereby individual lives and local communities are
affected by economic and cultural forces that operate world-wide. As the results is the
process of the world becoming a single place (Ashcroft, 1994: 111).
2. Hybrid Identity
Hybridity commonly refers to the creation of newtranscultural (This term
refers to the reciprocal influences of modes of representation and cultural practices of
various kinds in colonies and metropoles, and is thus ‘a phenomenon of the contact
zone (Ashcroft, 1989:233)) forms within the contact zone produced by colonization
(Ashcroft, 1989:118). Hybrid Identity is identity that refers to the creation of new
transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization.
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The White Tiger is known as a realistic novel about social injustice in
India, the social disparity between the poor and the rich. It represents the social
condition in India. Yet, some reviewers focused on the two intrinsic elements: the
main character (Balram) and the unpredictable plot of this novel.
The result is an Indian novel that explodes the clichés – ornamental prose,
the scent of saffron – associated with that phrase… Caught up in Balram's
world – and his wonderful turn of phrase – the pages turn themselves.
Brimming with idiosyncrasy, sarcastic, cunning, and often hilarious,
Balram is reminiscent of the endless talkers that populate the novels of the
great Czech novelist Bohumil Hrabal. Inventing such a character is no
small feat for a first-time novelist (www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/books/reviews/the-white-tiger-by-aravind-adiga823472.html).
It is true that the main character becomes the main favorite focus taken by
most researchers. He had a combination of different characteristic which differed
him from others. The writer of this research will also use the main character as the
main focus of this research. The complexity and the unique characteristic of the
main character, Balram, becomes the writer’s passion in doing this research.
One research that has similar perspective with this research is an essay
from Lily Want, a Professor of English at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar,
India, entitled The Poetics and Politics of Cultural Studies in Aravind Adiga’s The
White Tiger. This research used a postcolonial perspective to analyze the novel.
Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008) can easily be placed in the gamut
of Cultural Studies since it shares most of the features of this school. For
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example, it can easily be analyzed as a form of cultural resistance to
homogenizing capitalism, as the emphasis throughout is on the
particularities of the proletariat suppressed under the dominant high
culture. But what strikes one as odd is that this particular class has been
undermined in the text to such an extent that the writer not only fails to
redefine the social order but also ends up as a spokesperson of the
conventional Eurocentric perspective of the East to the extent that it has
led literary critics to debate how far he fits a Western cosmopolitan model
of writing (Want, 2011: 69).
The essay focused on the resistance of Eastern culture to the Western
culture that is represented in this novel. Moreover, this essay attempted to unravel
these diametrically opposed strands in the fabric of The White Tiger as Adiga
while silencing certain voices ends up allowing the narcissism of the Western
culture to raise its garrulous head.
Another study about Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is an undergraduate
thesis by Eka Shanti Budi Asih, a student of English Letter Department, Sanata
Dharma University. Her study is entitled Sociopathic Personality as Seen in the
Main Character of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. She studied the influence of
social condition to the main character (Balram)’s personality that led him into
becoming a sociopath. She emphasized the personal development of Balram and
the influence of the social condition that caused Balram to become a sociopath.
She judged that the main character, Balram is an individual with anti social
personality disorder, or can be called sociopath, with no further explanation. So,
the writer sees that this undergraduate thesis looked like other literary criticisms,
which was trapped in the judgement of normality and abnormality.
This research originates from the writer’s disagreement to the thesis of Eka
Shanti Budi Asih. The writer disagrees if the main character is judged as a
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sociopath. Generally, Eka’s opinion was true as she saw the main character from
one perspective, but there are some considerations to refuse the judgement. First,
the writer disagrees if the main character was judged as a sociopath because Eka’s
judgement put the main character only in between good or bad condition only. The
second one, Eka did not put specific issues or causes that changed Balram into
becoming a sociopath in her analysis and conclusion. This opinion is based on the
below quotation that the writer found in the novel:
Me, and thousands of others in this country like me, are half-baked,
because we were never allowed to complete our schooling. Open our
skulls, look in with a penlight, and you'll find an odd museum of ideas:
sentences of history or mathematics remembered from school textbooks
(no boy remembers his schooling like one who was taken out of school, let
me assure you), …. all these ideas, half formed and half digested and half
correct, mix up with other half-cooked ideas in your head, and I guess
these half-formed ideas bugger one another, and make more half-formed
ideas, and this is what you act on and live with (Adiga: 2008: 8).
The quotation above indicated that Balram’s characteristics are not the
only one in his country. There were a lot of people who were like him, and
Balram’s was only one example from such phenomenon that occurred in India. It
means that there must have been a main cause behind the phenomenon. Hence, the
writer will try to find it in this undergraduate thesis.
Moreover, the study from Lily Want also gave an influence to the writer in
doing an analysis about the issue of cultural resistance in The White Tiger. But the
writer will give specific emphasis to the main character as the one that represents
a mixed culture as the result of colonization as well as a response to globalization.
The writer thinks that the complex characteristic of the main character is
interesting to be studied as the complexity has brought him into having a hybrid
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identity. This is what the writer wants to know much about the main character.
The writer will learn about how the main character represents hybrid identity as a
response to globalization.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
a. Theory of Character
There are two main qualities in character’s case (Colwell, 1968: 10-13).
First is morality. Aristotle’s Poetic defines character as moral quality, goodness
and badness. The second is personality, which defines character as a personal and
unique person. It sees a character as different from other characters. Abrams, in
his book, The Glossary of Literary Terms, combined these two qualities to define
character as “The persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are
interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and dispositional
qualities that are expressed in what they say – the dialogue – and by what they do
– the action” (Abrams,1993: 23).
From the definition above, it can be said that in literary works, character is
the author’s medium to express the author’s ideology or perspective. It can be
seen through the dialogues between the character(s) or the character’s behaviour.
Still from Abram, based on the importance, characters are divided into
major and minor characters. Major characters are described more detailed than
minor characters. The description makes the major character becomes the focus of
the story. They will be presented in almost all scenes in the story: the introduction,
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raising action, the conflict, the climax and the falling action. Otherwise, the minor
characters are presented merely as the ‘complement’ of the story. They are not
presented at all scenes of the story and are not described in details as the major
characters. The importance of minor character is their influence to the major
character.
According to E.M. Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel (1974),
characters are divided into two: flat and round characters. Flat characters are only
described in a single quality. It means that the characters are showed in one aspect
of their appearances in the story. Their quality is not developed from the
beginning until the end of the story. The second category is round characters. The
term ‘round’ shows the fullness of the characters’ behavior. This kind of character
may shift its point of view to other point of view. Generally, this character may
have conflict of its own for making decision. Forster also wrote that round
characters have ability to surprise the readers because the changes of their
behaviors. In short, round characters develop from the beginning until the end of
the story.
b. Theory of Characterization
Characterization is important to create the character in a story. The way the
author creates the characters is defined as characterization. According to Murphy
in Understanding Unseen (1972: 160-173), there are nine ways that the authors
use to make the characters understandable to the readers:
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Personal Description
The author describes the characters’ appearances directly, from the body,
such as the face, skin, the hair, the height, the eyes’ shape and even clothes. It will
help the readers understand the characters.
ii.
Character as Seen by Another
The author describes the characters through the other characters in the story
like in the personal description; the description of character as seen by another is
covering the physical things of the character.
iii.
Speech
The description can be the character’s speech or in the conversation through
another character’s speech. Murphy explains, “Whenever a person speaks,
whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an
opinion, he is giving us some clues to his character” (Murphy, 1972: 164).
iv.
Past Lives
The author can give out clues to the reader that shape a character’s nature
through his or her past life in order to get some ideas about the his or her thoughts,
behaviour, and action. “This can be done by direct comment by the author,
through the person’s thought, through his conversation or through the medium of
another person” (Murphy, 1972:166).
v.
Conversation of Others
The author gives some clues to the readers about the character through the
others characters conversation.
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vi.
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Reaction
The author gives out clues to a character by letting the readers know how
the character reacts to various situations and events.
vii.
Direct comments
The author directly describes or gives comments on a character. The
difference of direct comments to personal description is that the direct comments
mostly about the psychological things of the character, not the physical things.
viii.
Thought
The author can give the readers direct knowledge of what a character is
thinking about. It is only accepted in the novel.
ix.
Mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies
The author describes the character’s ways of behaving, which may also tell
the readers about specific characteristics of different people. The manner of the
character is habitual.
2. Theory on Globalization
In the book Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies, Bill Ashcroft defined
globalization as “the process whereby individual lives and local communities are
affected by economic and cultural forces that operate world-wide. As the result it
is the process of the world becoming a single place” (Ashcroft, 1994: 111).
Furthermore,
Aschroft
explain
that
the
chief
argument
against
globalization is that global culture and global economy did not just spontaneously
erupt but originated in and continue to be perpetuated from the centers of
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capitalist power (Ashcroft, 1994:111). Ashcroft also said that in some respects,
globalization, in the period of rapid decolonization after World War II, has
developes from an imperialism into the supra-national operations of economics,
communications and culture “The chief argument against globalization is that
global culture and global economy did not just spontaneously erupt but originated
in and continue to be perpetuated from the centers of capitalist power” (Ashcroft,
1998: 111).
Moreover, Ritzer, an economist, in his book Globalization: A Basic Text,
describes that globalization is not built in one concept, but there are many
concepts that build globalization from some aspects: “there are many other
concepts that either described earlier historical, or contemporary, realities that
deal with at least a portion of that which is encompassed with globalization”
(Ritzer, 2010: 64). Based on Ritzer explanation, it seems that globalization has
influenced by some concepts that has born earlier. In this study, the writer deals
with two concepts that are related to globalization: imperialism and colonialism.
a. Imperialism
In its most general sense, imperialism refers to the formation of an empire,
and, as such, has been an aspect of all periods of history in which one nation has
extended its domination over one or several neighboring nations (Ashcroft,
1998:122). Moreover, Edward Said used imperialism in this general sense to
mean “the practice, theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center
ruling a distant territory’ a process distinct from colonialism, which is ‘the
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implanting of settlements on a distant territory” (Said, 1993: 8). On the same
hand, Vladimir Lenin, a communist leader, stated that imperialism is the highest
stage of capitalism as he put it in his book, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of
Capitalism. Lenin stated that there are five characteristics of imperialism in this
world. Nevertheless, only one out of Lenin’s five characteristics that can be
applied in this thesis: “the concentration of production and capital developed to
such a stage that it creates monopolies which plays a decisive role in economic
life” (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/ 1916/imp-hsc/ch01.htm).
b. Colonialism
In the book Introduction to Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory,
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman defined colonialism in its relationship with
globalization.
The conquest and direct control of other’s people land, is a particular
phase in the history of imperialism which is now best understood as the
globalization of the capitalist mode of production, its penetration of
previously non capitalist region of the world, and destruction of pre- or
non-capitalist forms of social organization (Williams, 1994: 3).
Williams’ statement above shows that there is a relation between colonialism
and globalization. His statement’s proofs that globalization is a transformation of
colonialism in the present time. Williams’ statement is also similar to Ania
Loomba’s statement. In her books Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Loomba stated
that colonialism is not just the result of domination from the outside and not only
the operation of forces in cooperation, but also because of the use of old system
which is previously copied from the inside and is used as a new
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version.”Colonialism was not an identical process in different parts of the world
but everywhere it locked the original inhabitants and the newcomers into the most
complex and traumatic relationships in human history” (Loomba, 1998: 2).
The statement above provided an affirmation that colonialism still
continues until the present time. The emphasis of colonialism concept is not
merely identical in its relationship between the East and the West, but it becomes
a relationship that involves two main subjects: the original inhabitants and the
newcomers, whoever they are. On the same hand, Bill Aschroft said that there is
no society who gets full freedom from the colonizer for free.
It is significant that no societyever attained full freedom from the colonial
system by the involuntary, active disengagement of the colonial power
until it was provoked by a considerable internal struggle for selfdetermination or, most usually, by extended and active violent opposition
by the colonized (Aschroft, 1998: 49).
Form Aschroft’s statement above, Aschroft emphasized that colonialism ‘never
stops’. In other words, he emphasized that the full freedom could only be gained
through a resistance to the colonizer. Then he also said that the freedom always
begins by a ‘pioneer’ that provokes the society to realize about the real condition
of being colonized and who does a resistance.
Moreover, Ashish Nandy in his book The Intimate Enemy (1983) stated
two forms of colonization: the first is a physical conquest of territories and the
second is the colonization of theminds, selves and cultures. The first mode is
violent, transparent in its self interest and greed. The second mode is that of the
rationalists, modernists and the liberals who claim to have the responsibility of
civilizing the uncivilized world.
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This colonialism colonizes minds inaddition to bodies and it releasesforces
within colonized societies toalter their cultural priorities once andfor all. In
the process, it helps togeneralize the concept of the modernWest from a
geographical andtemporal entity to psychological category. The West is
noweverywhere, within the West andoutside; in structures and in minds
(Nandi, 1980: xi).
Nandi’s theory above shows that the practice of colonialism is not fixing
only in one method, but it has a different method with same subject pattern and
same purpose. In other words, Nandi said that the physical conquest has been
change to be mind conquest, and it still involved the West as the main subject of
the colonialism practice.
Besides, colonialism has a close relation to orientalism. Orientalism means
”a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction
made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident” (Said, 1979:
2). Said identified European cultural tradition of 'Orientalism', as a particular and
long-standing way of identifying the East as 'Other' and who inferior to the West.
The Orient, he said are featured in the Western mind 'as a sort of surrogate and
even underground self (Literature in the Modern World, ed. Dennis Walder, p.
236). This means, in effect, that the East becomes the repository or projection of
those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge
(cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness, and so on).
At the same time, and paradoxically, the East (Orient) is seen as “a
fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive. It also tends to be
seen as homogenous, the people there being anonymous masses, rather than
individuals, their actions determined by instinctive emotions (lust, terror, fury,
etc.) rather than by conscious choices or decisions” (Barry, 1995:192).
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On the other hand, Occident is considered superior over the Orient and
furthermore, as Said stated, “what gave the Oriental’s world its intelligibility and
identity was not the result of his own efforts but rather the whole complex series of
knowledge manipulations by which the Orients was identified by the West” (Said
1993: 2, 40).
c. Globalization in India
India (Republic of India) is a country in South Asia continent. This country
got its independence from British colonizer in 15 August 1947. The British also
had left India with a rudimentary industrial and scientific base; great poverty; a
large and growing population; social cleavages along caste and economic lines;
and contentious territorial boundaries that have led to armed conflicts against
Pakistan, China, and numerous insurgent groups (Library of Congress – Federal
Research Division, 2004).
The economic globalization of India was started in 1991. It happened after
India experienced economic crisis in early 1990. India’s Minister of Finance at the
time (who now becomes India’s current Prime Minister), Manmohan Singh, made
an economic policy which had changed the economic system in India from
socialist into capitalist. It meant that the modern India’s capitalist free enterprise
economy started to replace Nehruvian Socialism (Wolpert, 2009: 461). Since that
time, India grew up into an economic giant in South Asia. Also, India got
advantages from the system change, such as: exports rocketed by 25 percent,
industrial production jumped over 10 percent, and the inflation fell to little more
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than 6 percent in1995. Some ‘world wide’ Western investors like Pepsico, IBM,
and Xerox, started to build their factory in India because of the cheap labor wage
applied in India.
On the other hand, the globalization increased disparities between the rich
and the poorest, making those differences more disconcertingly glaring. The
minimum wage made labors and poor people could not improve their well-being.
The effects were the rise of urban social problems like urban slum, bogged down,
as well as squalor that rose along with the economic growth. Besides, the effect of
imbalanced system caused country disaster such as famine and flood.
For India's most impoverished 300 million landless peasants and urban
slum dwellers bogged down in mud and squalor, at the mercy of monsoon
rains bringing famine and flood, however, Manmohan's reforms brought
little relief and less comfort. The daily drudgery of village India's bullockcart economy remained as precarious as it had always been, while the
wretched crowding of mega polis slums in Bombay, Calcutta became more
painful to those who labored to erect palaces of urban prosperity without
earning enough to feed their families (Wolpert, 2009: 465).
In the same time, the population growth went hand in hand with the
economic growth. The uncontrolled population growth made India has the world’s
largest youthful population with more than 600 million under age 25. In 2011,
total
population
in
India
had
been
over
than
one
billion
(approximately1,216,728,000). This condition made India becomes the second
most populated country after China. Besides, because of the complexity of
language, race, religions, etc. India also grows into becoming the largest
democratic country in the world.
Joseph E. Schwartzberg, Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of
Minnesota, said that India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in
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the world. He said that apart from its many religions and sects, India is home to
innumerable castes and tribes, as well as to more than a dozen major and hundreds
of minor linguistic groups from several language families unrelated to one
another. Then, he also said that religious minorities, including Moslems,
Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, still account for a significant proportion of
the population; collectively, their numbers exceed the populations of all countries
except China (www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India).
One of the impacts of globalization in India is the development of
Bangalore city. Bangalore, renamed as Bengaluru in 2006, the state capital of
Karnataka, is a megacity located at the south of India. Since the 1980s, from 1981
to 2004, its population had doubled to about six million. In 2007, Bangalore was
categorized as the fifth largest city in India after Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and
Chennai (Dittrich, 2007: 45).
During the 1990s, Bangalore had developed into a preferred location for
high-technology industries such as electronics, information and communication
technology (ICT), and IT-enabling services, and it had emerged as a globally
integrated center of high technology research and production (Fromhold-Eisebith
2001; Dittrich 2003, 2004; Heitzman 2004). This city got labeled as the
'Electronics Capital of India' and 'India's Silicon Valley', which represents one
particularly positive showcase of the new opportunities for Newly Industrializing
Countries to benefit from recent trends in economic globalization (Dittrich, 2007:
46). In the correlation with India’s culture, globalization has impact to some
India’s cultures such:
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i. Caste
Caste is a traditional India’s system of social order and control. Caste is
the most elaborate form of social stratification ever known. It has dominated the
Indian sub-continent for about three millennia, and is also the most obnoxious of
all exclusionary systems. “Caste-exclusions are explicit in traditional society.
Membership and status are determined by birth; there is a hierarchy of social
precedence among the castes; there are restrictions on social and cultural
intercourse between castes; castes are segregated and stratified with regard to
civil and religious privileges; occupations are caste determined with relatively
little choice allowed; restrictions on marriage outside one’s sub-caste help
maintain the system” (Ghurye, 1979: Chapter 1).
Nowadays, caste still continues to play an important role in Indian life. In
rural areas, movement out of caste specializing occupations and access to
resources is still difficult and slow for the lower castes, but in urban areas, caste is
now a less significant part of daily life. Although discrimination on the basis of
caste has been outlawed in India, caste has become a means for competing for
access to resources and power in modern India, such as educational opportunities,
new occupations, and improvement in life chances (Sekhon, 2000: 45). The higher
castes, which exploited the lower castes for centuries, continue to discriminate
against them both socially and economically today. The present Indian society is
moving from its closed systems towards a state of change and progression marked
by the assertion of the human spirit irrespective of castes and creeds (Velassery,
2005: xii).
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