"Pudd'nhead Wilson"

For this blog post, I want to comment on the discussion we had in class today about Pudd'nhead Wilson and the many topics that Twain brings up within the book, as I find them all very interesting. I will only focus on one or two, however, since there were so many and I only have so much energy.


A large overarching theme in this novel is "Nature vs. Nurture." Roxy's real son is raised a gentleman and turns out to be pretty rotten, which isn't the case for her adopted son, who is raised with the humility and subordination of a slave. I think that Twain is commenting on Nature vs. Nurture here in a way that doesn't really put him on either side of the debate definitively. Tom's bad temperament could be his spoiled upbringing, or his "one drop" of ethnic blood. Chambers' strength and good temperament could either be attributed to his humble slave upbringing or to his inherent whiteness. From the way I and many other readers perceive it, the boys' upbringing heavily influenced their personalities, but as someone brought up in class, the twins have been together for their whole life and have differing personalities. Twain is commenting on Nature vs. Nurture in a way that does not put him on either side of the fence definitively.


The "One Drop" rule is also fascinating in its logic (or lack there of). The idea that one drop of African blood can make a person undeniably black while many, many drops of white blood do not automatically classify a person as white is silly. It doesn't surprise me, however, that that is the way in which society viewed it at the time, because we still hold onto that idea today. One example is the way in which our president is viewed by the public. He is just as white as he is black, if not more, but no one refers to him as white, sees him as white, or describes him as half black or half white. Biracial and multiracial children and adults often have difficulties "fitting in" for this very reason. Chambers is unable to fit into the white, wealthy crowd because of his cultural differences and the dialect that he speaks, and once Tom finds out his true identity, he is unable to see himself as completely white after that. They are both stuck in an awkward cultural and social limbo that many people of multiple ethnicities find themselves in today.