Puddn Head Wilson: An Analysis

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, Contending Forces (1900), characters articulate views on race problem, full identity and citizenship. Baym (2008) describes Mark Twain’s The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894) as: “a dark and troubling view of the nineteenth century American values in a Mississippi river town of the 1830’s and centered on the switching of two babies born on the same day-one the result of miscegenation, the other the legitimate son of a white slave owner. Twain’s purpose for writing this story is to reveal the absurdities of slavery and its victims and victimizers alike-the underserved self-hate of slaves and the unearned pride of whites. The way in which Twain portrays the twinning of law and customs in sustaining the institution of slavery indicates his despair over prospects for true racial equality, a despair supported by the realities of Jim Crow laws and the escalation of lynching in the post Reconstruction Period (p. 96).

Twain himself has been suggested as a racist based on the fact that he uses the word "nigger" in his book. However, Twain was an avid abolitionist. For those who claim that Twain was a racist must have only been looking out for themselves and not those who are willing to learn about the past whether it be ugly or perfect. Racism was and forever will be a dark part of the American past, and no one can change that, no matter how many books one may alter.

America in the 1800’s was an inherently racist place. There is no question that the treatment of the races was drastically different during that time. The unfortunate abundance of morally controversial topics regarding race and slavery paved the way for many influential American novelists. Mark Twain is among such novelists who offered unrefined views about these complex societal issues in many of his novels. Specifically, Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson takes an objective and satirical stance on slavery and racial issues and denotes the hypocrisy of both. Though Pudd’nhead Wilson does not deeply explore the hardships of slavery, it clearly investigates the society's artificially constructed view of racial distinctions

     There is a major argument among literary critics whether the adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is or is not a racist novel. The question focus on the depiction of Jim, the black slave, and the way he is treat by Huck and other characters. The use of the word “nigger” is also a point raised by some critic, who feel that Twain uses the word too often and too loosely. Mark Twain never presents Jim in a negative light. He does not show Jim as a drunkard, as a mean person or as a cheat.

For example, on page 4 Huck flicked a spider into a candle and states “I didn't need anybody to tell me that was an awful bad sign…” This example therefore highlights Huck’s hypocrisy as well as his own lack of understanding in the world. The deeper point that Twain is trying to make is about the racial prejudice that formed the foundation of southern white society. Even in the purest of its population (the youth), there is still a negative view towards blacks, despite the fact that they may be doing the exact same thing. I would again agree with this point, due to the fact that hypocrisy and racial discrimination was found clearly in every aspect of southern

In the novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Twain uses irony, sarcasm, and satire to show that slavery and racial discrimination are morally wrong and that people shouldn’t be treated differently because of their ethnicity and race. Twain’s use of irony and ridicule exposes and criticizes the society’s viewpoints of what is right and wrong in contrast of Huck’s conscience and his experience on the journey with Jim to come to find what he believes is right or wrong. While writing the novel, Twain was living in a society where racial tensions and discrimination had a great impact during these times. Twain illustrates the stupidity of slavery and racial discrimination by mocking many different aspects of the society in which Huck grew up in. Throughout Huck’s and Jim’s adventurous journey down the river,

One argument made by people who fully support Mark Twain’s novel, Huckleberry Finn, say that a man who pay for a black man’s education and feels that slavery should have never been okay, could not possibly have written a racially offensive novel. (Marx) Throughout my research I discovered Twain’s joy behind the challenging of the ideas of racism within his writing. He wanted to be known for his perspective and controversial issues. For example, in his book Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain is left with the question on whether or not white or black people were different from each other, rather than by skin color.

Mark Twain has always been one of the most controversial authors of all time. Though in recent years, there has been increasing controversy over the ideas expressed in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In some extreme cases the novel has even been banned by public school systems and censored by public libraries. The basis for this censorship is the argument that Mark Twain's book is racist, but in reality Twain was against racism and used this book to make people aware of what was going on in the south. He did this by using the regional dialect of the south, showing the attitude of the other characters in the novel toward black people, and showing his depiction of black characters. If one were to "read between the lines"

Mark Twain, in the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, exposes and criticises a series of flaws that had existed during the atrocities of discrimination and slavery. Throughout the fiction, Mark Twain uses vulgar and improper language to properly provide the reader a full and vividly realistic experience of prejudism during this time; in doing so, he points out the immorality of specific social problems such as the outlook on slavery. Twain leads the reader throughout the novel from the perspective of the protagonist, Huck Finn, who, interestingly, isn’t the average mundane christian child that lived back in the mid 1800s. For example, he didn’t endeavor to perform admirable deeds and reach man’s eternal bliss: heaven; instead, he desires a more dangerous approach of life that resembles a mindset similar to novel-like adventures. Huck even explicitly declares that he mind if he was

While Twain included many racial slurs and language that is considered inappropriate today, he wrote the book using that language to make a point. That is how people talked then. The language brought attention to how colored people, and others, were treated. Twain did not mean to insult anybody but he did want them to be uncomfortable. He knew they would talk about his book if they were uncomfortable.

The book expresses the time period of America in which Twain was writing, realistically through the way the people speak, the way people acted and are treated and through how society had impacted the youth into having racist thoughts. This caused much controversy in the time period. Nobody wanted to acknowledge that there was a problem with color, nor did anyone want to address the fact that blacks and poorer people were treated harshly. This book put these issues in the spotlight for the first time

Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884, and it has been a controversial piece of American literature ever since. In this novel we see Huck and Jim go through a series of events, on there adventure to freedom, covering different aspects of culture and society in the United States in that time period. One of the main aspects being slavery and racism, the reader’s interpretation of the theme of race is largely determined by how they understand the character of Jim. An uninformed reader may take Twain’s rendering of Jim as racist and uneducated. People may say Twain is being racist with how Huck or other characters talk about Jim, using derogatory terms like “Nigger”, but I believe that Twain uses Jim to expose

Roxy explains the situation “I got sumpin better to do then sociated with niggers as black as you”.(6) Pudd'nhead Wilson is the smartest character in the book and even he has racial prejudice that all people would have had in Missouri at the time. Pudd'nhead says of roxy “The drop of black blood is superstitious”. ( 32) Pudd'nhead northeast education could not even take away his racial biases. Blacks were seen as being more gullible.

Mark Twain is someone who is against segregation and it is shown throughout his books, the narrator of his stories are always selected to be best and that is especially the case in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. When Huckleberry Finn was first written it was banned because of its view on society telling it that it is wrong. The book talked mainly about the unfairness of blacks. Huck Finn lived in a world of hate and through it he managed to learn how to love not only those of his own colour but other people of colour as well.  The choice of a 14-year-old white boy to be the narrator of a story about how blacks are treated unfairly may seem like an odd choice at first, but once you see it you’ll get why. Twain used Huck as a narrator to show have a narration that society is wrong, the evils of racism affect everyone and are not fair, how family isn’t predetermined and you can make your own family and view them as either a blessing or a curse and how young people aren’t clueless and can even be just as smart as adults.

     Roxana, or Roxy, is a beautiful slave who can pass for white, though she is one- sixteenth black. To save her infant son from ever being