Of Roxy, Twain writes “…one sixteenth of her was black, and that sixteenth did not show…her complexion was very fair” (Twain 12). This item is part of JSTOR collection In Pudd’nhead Wilson, Mark Twain rips into the establishment of slavery, and writes a relevant novel pointing out its injustices, social mutations, and its lasting implications. To be black in this culture was to be denigrated, glory-less, and a “nigger”  (Twain 27). This in itself shows the extreme dichotomy race represented in this era. Works Cited. Press, 1990]). Simply put, Twain introduces us to the idea that humans are a product of their environment much more than they are their biology. Mark Twain's novel Pudd'nhead Wilson is a controversial commentary on race, identity and social determination. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. institution. Check out using a credit card or bank account with. This is true even against the point of action in the novel. institution, Login via your In Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain has created such buoyant characters as Roxy and Tom, and developed them to such an extent, that the story’s plot becomes merely an elemental and minor extension of the characters. Wilson also represents the element characterized in realist literature of human beings controlling their own destiny. There is a particular emphasis in the text on clothes, veiling and face painting, all of which serve as masks and disguises. of article abstracts, review essays, and an annotated bibliography of Fields writes, and this is as relevant to the study of Pudd’nhead as anything so far in terms of context, that “…ideology is impossible for anyone to analyze rationally who remains trapped on its terrain” (Fields 100). Arnold, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whitman, Twain, and Henry James. From the beginning, identity is introduced in the novel as someth... Continue reading this essay ©2000-2020 ITHAKA. MegaEssays.com, (December 31, 1969). MegaEssays. In Pudd’nhead Wilson, Mark Twain rips into the establishment of slavery, and writes a relevant novel pointing out its injustices, social mutations, and its lasting implications. Realism:  Racial Devaluation in Pudd’nhead Wilson. Web. Current CA. 21 Oct. 2020. The illustration here brings up this initial point:  How does the “element of character” trump that of action or plot in relation to the race issue? © 1992 University of California Press With a personal account, you can read up to 100 articles each month for free. Login via your Request Permissions. JSTOR®, the JSTOR logo, JPASS®, Artstor®, Reveal Digital™ and ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. Racism Contradicts Themes of Pudd’nhead Wilson Essay Sample. Scholars of literary history and theory turn to Nineteenth-Century earned a legendary reputation for innovative scholarship, scrupulous As mentioned before, his character remained true to himself the entire story, and even though it took 25 years for society to realize his un-Pudd’nhead-like qualities, the truth eventually was revealed. The central figure of the novel, Roxy stands out as a very interesting and contradictory character. Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson demonstrates how technologies of identification attempt to counter how bodies evolve beyond previous constraints—in particular, the constraints of racial classification. For example, Tom’s behavior throughout, his significant personal traits – such as being a “bad baby”, a “usurper”, and “fractious and overbearing” (Twain 22-24) – all foreshadow his later actions as an adult. DMCA They exchange their race, their identity, their social position and even their lives. His sense of humor proves too much for the townspeople, though, and his law practice goes nowhere. To conclude a study such as this is to reveal a number of things that tie in specifically with the racial overtones of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Perhaps it does not reconcile itself perfectly in the slavery debate, but his part in the story reveals societal prejudices and how they can “label” an individual despite what is true. In an almost Shakespearian vein, Mark Twain joggles with the notion of mistaken or stolen identity. This is very much the case in Twain’s commentary; as the town, its prominent citizens, and even the slave characters are part of (in Mullen’s words), “…a race-class-gender system that inexorably reduces individuals to their functions within an economic mode of production (Mullen 71-72). As Harryette Mullen points out in her essay Optic White:  Blackness and the Production of Whiteness, “…whiteness is produced through the operation of marginalizing blackness (Mullen 74). A white character in the same time and place would not have these same fears. A story about miscegenation in the antebellum South, the book is noted for its grim humour and its reflections on racism and responsibility. Mark Twain is regarded as one of the most influential American realists because his novels contained strong and identifiable characters, offered unfiltered views into complex societal issues of the day, and did not pretend to portray a scenario or a culture in any light other than what was “real”. Even David Wilson’s character, the unwavering horizontal evenness of it, shows us much more than the plot does. Such character development is important because it supersedes, or yet defines, why certain actions take place. The town eccentric, Pudd'nhead Wilson first came to Dawson's Landing intending to set up a law practice. Fields perhaps balances the entire race debate with this well versed explanation – “…although it is now frowned upon to attribute biological disability to those designated to be a race, it is eminently fashionable to attribute biological disability…to those demonstrated to be racists” (Fields 117). Race in Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Retrieved 17:27, October 21, 2020, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/202917.html. ( Log Out /  His character shows us that a person can, and often does, vertically progress up the ladder of social standing. First published in 1945 as The Thus, her main role in the novel is to prove that identity is not dictated by the racial origin, but by the social environment in which a certain person lives. It mattered not to them that his biological father was the esteemed Cecil Burleigh Essex of the “highest quality” (Twain 55). His main characters, by no means black in appearance, are developed to illustrate the deep racism that existed in the mid-19th century. The changelings exchange thus more than their names, which are Thomas a Beckett and Valet de Chambers, respectively. The action of the novel takes place in a small town in Missouri, called Dawson's Landing, in a society in which the relationship between the white people and the black was still a … Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. In other words, from Dawson’s Landing’s point of view, despite their outer white appearance, they must be treated in the exact same segregated manner that a person of complete “blackness” must be treated. As the plot progresses, and the eventual secret of the boys’ races is revealed, an analytical reader will notice that without the racial aspect of the story, the plot wouldn’t hold up as interesting prose. Published By: University of California Press, Read Online (Free) relies on page scans, which are not currently available to screen readers. Every issue offers 150 pages of important articles, a convenient section They carry throughout the novel, much like Roxy’s maternal and sometimes selfish characteristics, which do more to create divisiveness in terms of race than they do to provide any positive results. By interpreting these two elements and how they establish Twain’s commentary on slavery, we can gain a more complete understanding of race, its implications in 19th century America, and the social injustice it represented. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. His use of irony, for example, in how Roxy deals with “protecting” her son, is a strong illustration. Attempting so save her son from being sold "down the river", she switches the two babies that were born the same day, soon after their birth. 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