Point of View

The story is told from the first person point of view of narrator and protagonist Balram Halwai, a self-proclaimed “entrepreneur” who intends that his story be read by a soon-to-be visiting Chinese politician. On one level, Balram’s point of view, in telling the story, is that the Chinese people in general and the Premier in particular have a great deal to learn about entrepreneurship, and that Balram is just the person to teach them. On another level, however, there is the sense that despite his protestations to the contrary, Balram is still troubled by what he did to Mr. Ashok, and is using the letter, probably unconsciously, as a means of confession or of justifying himself: in some ways, it feels as though that Balram is writing because he believes that if he is able to convince someone important that what he did was...