English Literature (9675) | Aravind Adiga - Last Man in Tower

Welcome to the Study of Place in Aravind Adiga's World!

Hello! You're diving into Aravind Adiga’s powerful novel, Last Man in Tower. This text is set for the "Place in literary texts" section (Unit 2), and this is fantastic news because Place is not just the background; it is the main engine of the conflict.

In this novel, the buildings, the streets, and even the air act like characters, revealing huge truths about modern Indian society, class divides, and corruption. Don't worry if the setting seems complex—we will break down exactly how Adiga uses physical space to create meaning.

Let's analyze how the setting of Mumbai becomes a battlefield for power, identity, and the idea of 'home.'

1. Specific Geographical Location: Mumbai as a Dynamic Character

The syllabus requires us to look at specific geographical locations, and Adiga gives us one of the world's most dynamic megacities: Mumbai.

Mumbai: The City of Paradox

Adiga doesn't just name the city; he represents it as a place of extreme contrasts, constantly in flux.

• The Setting of Economic Flux (Time and Place): The story takes place in the early 21st century, a time when India is undergoing massive, rapid economic change. Mumbai is the global face of this change, a city where fortunes are made and old values are crushed.
• Analogy Alert: Think of Mumbai in this novel like a construction site that never closes. It's noisy, dusty, and everything is temporary. This represents the instability and ruthless pace of life where the weak are easily bulldozed.
• Geographical Significance: Mumbai’s density means space is the ultimate luxury. Because land is so valuable, the core conflict (the forced sale of the tower) becomes plausible and deadly.

The Micro-Setting: Shanti Park and Tower A

The true focus of the novel is the small, fictional world of the Shanti Park housing society, specifically Tower A.

• Tower A: This is an aging, middle-class building, representing the stable, older generation and their values (like Masterji). Its physical decay mirrors the decline of these values under capitalist pressure.
• The Promised C-Wing: This is the proposed new luxury skyscraper that the residents are being pressured to move into. It represents the future—the glossy, globalized, and deeply corrupt new India.

Key Takeaway: Mumbai is presented not as a beautiful homeland, but as a greedy, corrupt arena where geographical space dictates life and death.

2. Place, Social Class, and Identity: The Vertical Divide

Adiga masterfully uses the physical layout of the towers to illustrate social class and the representation of social identity. The buildings themselves are a vertical hierarchy of wealth and power.

The Language of Altitude and Aspiration

In Mumbai, the higher up you live, the richer and more protected you usually are. Adiga flips this slightly by focusing on the tension between those who have had stability and those who crave sudden, corrupt wealth.

The residents of Tower A are defined by their cramped, aging apartments. They are "placed in society" by this address, but their identity is more complex: they are the respectable, struggling middle class who suddenly find themselves sitting on a huge potential asset.

• The Residents (Identity based on Place):
  Masterji (The Last Man): His identity is completely fused with his specific apartment (Flat 14A). His pride, his memories, and his moral standing are all contained within those four walls. To lose the flat is to lose himself.
• The Shah Family (The Developers): They exist outside the towers, in the realm of corporate offices and luxury cars. Their "place" is everywhere and nowhere—they control the cityscape, treating property merely as a commodity to be bought and destroyed.

Quick Review: Class and Space
The desire to move from the humble, deteriorating Tower A to the sleek, imagined C-Wing represents the desperate aspiration for upward social mobility in modern India, often achieved through moral compromise.

3. Place as Home, Political Space, and Moral Battleground

The core conflict of Last Man in Tower is the clash between two irreconcilable definitions of ‘place’: home versus asset. This is where the political significance of place becomes clearest.

The Idea of Home and Homeland (Emotional vs. Transactional Place)

For Adiga, home is defined by emotional significance, memory, and belonging.

• Masterji's Home: It is a sanctuary. It is where his wife lived and died, where he taught his students, and where he has established moral order. This definition of place is sacred and non-negotiable.
• The Developer's View (The Opponent): For Shah, the building is just land value. Home is transactional; it can be replaced by a larger, newer apartment if the price is right. This capitalist view sees place devoid of history or human connection.

Common Mistake to Avoid: Don't confuse 'home' with 'homeland' too strictly here. While the city (homeland) is vast, the fight for the apartment (home) symbolizes the smaller citizen's fight against the vast, oppressive forces of the corrupt nation.

Place as a Political Space

The tower becomes a political space where power is violently contested.

• Power Dynamics: The developer, Shah, wields immense political power because he controls money. He can manipulate zoning laws, influence the police, and turn neighbors against each other.
• Internal Politics: The place (Tower A) breeds internal politics. Neighbors who were once friends turn into enemies, forming factions (like Mrs. Puri's group) dedicated to forcing Masterji out. The building is not a community; it is a battleground of self-interest.
• Despoliation of the Natural World: While the primary focus isn't nature, the incessant construction and the resulting decay and crowding point to the despoliation of the living environment—where concrete and corruption replace livable, sustainable space.

Did You Know? Adiga often uses the term "Vertical City" to describe Mumbai, suggesting that society is strictly stacked based on class, and movement between these levels is almost impossible without massive upheaval (like the demolition of a tower).

4. The Language and Representation of Place

How does Adiga make us *feel* the places he describes? He uses rich, contrasting language to represent the environment.

Contrast and Sensory Imagery

Adiga juxtaposes the grimy, lived-in reality with the shiny, often empty promises of the future.

• Language of Decay: When describing Tower A and the surrounding slums, he uses words related to heat, grime, sweat, and deterioration. This sensory language emphasizes the discomfort and moral decay fostered by the struggle for space. Example: The heat is often described as oppressive, reflecting the pressure cooker situation the characters are in.
• Language of Aspiration: Descriptions of the new, luxurious flats focus on surfaces—marble, glass, chrome. This highlights the superficiality and emotional emptiness of wealth achieved through corrupt means.
• Use of Metaphor: The Tower itself acts as a metaphor for society. It is structurally sound in its foundation (representing the old order), but easily cracked and corrupted at the surface (representing modern avarice).

Quick Tip for Analysis: When writing about Adiga's language, focus on the juxtaposition (the contrast) between the old places and the new places. This contrast carries the entire moral weight of the novel.

Keep practicing relating the physical descriptions in the book to the psychological and social pressures on the characters. Good luck!