When Tom and Chambers were babies, the only thing that made
it so people could tell one was white and the other was black was what they
were wearing. Then, when Roxy changes them they are raised by people that were
either higher or lower than the other. No one could tell that the babies had
been switched and they didn’t act any different. They were seen as the role
that they were in. For me, this showed that nurture is superior to nature. Fake
Tom was raised white and by his aunt and uncle who gave him everything he
wanted and he turned out bad. But Fake Chambers was raised by Roxy and ended up
fine (he wasn’t too big of a character though). The nurturing aspect of their
lives took over. Fake Tom saw himself as superior and acted as such. He didn’t
feel a moment of his “blackness”, until he was told he was 1/32 black. When
Fake Tom found out, he somehow felt it in him all of a sudden—like it was a
disease. This shows the theme identity. He all of a sudden felt like he lost
his identity and was so confused about who he was that he could only identify
as black because from the way the town has brought him up has made him see the
one drop rule as crucial. Crucial to Roxy’s existence and now crucial to his.
He lost his identity. Mark Twain, I believe, is showing how ridiculous it is
that someone who is only a part black can all of a sudden see himself as so low
when a second before he felt superior.
This hypocrisy with race and seeing themselves as above or
below someone relates back to the dog joke. Pudd’nhead Wilson says that he wish
he owned half the dog so he could kill it. We talked in class how this relates
to the idea that we can’t have a nation that is split up between free and
constrained and slaves and master. We can’t survive with a society that see’s
some as below or someone as above…it doesn’t work. If Fake Tom hadn’t had that
confusion with his identity or if he hadn’t cared about whether he was black or
white or both than he wouldn’t have lost his form of self and started killing
people. He was shot in one part of him and the rest died along with him.
Nature vs. Nurture is a topic our group has talked about in discussions about Pudd’nhead Wilson. This has been a theme throughout many of the books we have read this year such as, Frankenstein and Hard Times. Pudd’nhead Wilson focuses on the idea of growing up with the belief you are a certain type of person, and realizing you are different. As soon as Tom realized that he was actually black, he took on the stereotypes of a black man. Nature has a lot to do with how people will view themselves, but so does society. The stereotypes that society gives types of people affects how they view themselves compared to others. To me, this book was one of the most interesting that we have read because of the ideas around racism at the time, and how they can still be present in today’s society. I thought that was an interesting take on how humans are viewed and how they view themselves. I agree with your ideas presented and thought you had great observations on the overall story of Pudd’nhead Wilson.
ReplyDeleteThe dog joke is indeed the key, and, as Haley says, nature versus nurture plays a role in all of our readings, almost (even _The Picture of Dorian Gray_).
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