Balram's Case

The biggest impediment that is constraining Balram from reaching his potential is his ambivalent responsibility for his family. As a young child, Balram excelled in school and was recognized by the school inspector that he is special and intelligent, however due to his poor family, he needs to leave school to go to work. Balram explains, “The family had taken a big loan from the Stork so they could have a lavish wedding and a lavish dowry for my cousin-sister. Now the Stork had called in his loan. He wanted all the members of the family working for him and he had seen me in school, or his collector had. So they had to hand me over too.” (31). Balram is forced to leave school to help support and pay back the money his family owed. In front of the class, he was acknowledged for being a great student and had potential to be better than just a driver.

He would stand out from his peers who envied him therefore when he ended up dropping out of class to work in a sweet shop crushing coal, he was constantly teased.

He hates the fact that his destiny of being a fully educated scholar was taken away again because of his responsibility to his family. Nonetheless his ambivalent responsibility made him tolerate and accept it for as long as he has. As Balram argues internally about whether or not he should steal and run away, he arrives at the train station to get another understanding of his surroundings, “I was picked up by the neck and shoved back into the coop. I picked the chit up and reread it. My heart began to sweat. I sat down on the floor. Think, Balram. Think of what the Buffalo did to his servant’s family.” (212). The Buffalo killed the servants’ and his family because the man lost the Buffalo’s kid to a kidnapper. Every servant knows that if they betray their master then they will be risking their

family. Balram is at a crossroad where he can choose to accept his destiny or leave the Rooster Coop, a strategy to maintain social order. He can continue to work for Mr. Ashok as a simple man or steal the bag of rupees to gain freedom from servitude. The Rooster Coop works because the masters use the servant’s family to threaten them to know their place and at the moment, Balram is not an exception. Balram’s responsibility towards his family causes him to be indecisive. He despises the responsibility that he has for them because it controls his every action even if he doesn’t want it. Yet, out of instinct they are consistently his most important reason to continue being a servant. He is willing to risk it all to live a life like a wealthy boss except Balram doesn’t want to be responsible for the death of his family. In multiple cases, Balram has the chance to reach his potential, but his responsibility towards his family always restrained him.