Culture,identity and class in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger

One of the most important novels of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens? Great Expectations and another novel, The White Tiger with which Indian writer Aravind Adiga won the Booker Prize in 2008 might be analysed with different themes, approaches and dimensions. Yet the aim of this study is to explore the relationships between three important concepts such as culture, class and identity in each of these two novels. It tries to implement such an exploration not only in the context of western thought, but also in different angles with the realities of oppressed nations of the Third World, especially India in order to construct the `other? based on the other individuality. It also aims to critically analyse these concepts based on postcolonial and marxist theory. Both of the prominent writers in their works lay bare many scenes that focus on the attitudes and problems of the heroes that usually create the basis of the events which are examined. That is why they take into consideration the state of the individual, because the central characters? conflicts and developments present different aspects of the novel while constructing the individuality and identity behind the societal problems in terms of class and cultural conflicts. They live under different circumstances to discover themselves and in each of the novels we can bear witness to the existence of some characters who achieve a sense of personal and social identity in Victorian society of England, a time when great social and economic changes were taking place, and following the Industrial Revolution there was a strict division between the rich and the poor; and then in India where people suffer from the administrations of the members of Gandhi family led by especially Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. As can be seen therefore, the major part of this study will be concerned with how to treat the individual brought up by the society of which he or she is part.