Puddn'head Wilson Essay
...nvironmental character development, identity, and family obligations. The protagonists Pudd’nhead, “Tom”, and “Chambers” all deal with issues related to one another’s issues. For example, with character development Pudd’nhead was placed in the category of an insane person because of his intelligence in a sarcastic comment that the towns’ people didn’t not understand. Being that Pudd’nhead is from upstate New York, the people of southern customs did not understand his northern personality so they picked him out to be crazy. That proves the environment you are raised in can create barriers or social boundaries that keep people from communicating with you. With identity “Chambers” gets put into a slaves position and has to grow with the hardships of being black because of being 1/32 black. “Chambers”, the real Tom, grew up a slave faced anti-sociality and being mistreated even after he was proven to be white because of his black speech patterns. Racial characteristics were big factors in the south, which proved that your identity made who you were. Family obligations wasn’t important to “Tom” even after he discovered that he was really a black man and his mother, Roxana, switched him with “Chambers” at birth. “Tom” sold his mother to another slave master not caring at all that she saved his life. He also killed his uncle who raised him as his son after his father died showing that he had no real care for his family obligations. All three themes are distorted throughout the entire novel, and can be misunderstood at the beginning, but all come into play as the book comes to an end. Several literary devices occur in this novel but the main focuses are dialect, irony, and metaphors. The literary devices all take their place and have an important role on the plot of the story. Dialect comes into play as Pudd’nhead speaks with the townspeople and the pattern is of a southerner who has no real education on correct grammar. In the book when Pudd’nhead talks with people they use words such as “Pears”, “reckon”, and “aint”, which are commonly used in the south. Irony in the novel comes mainly from “Tom” who acts totally different towards his situations than a normal person would. It’s ironic that he would send his own mother “down the river” being sold as a slave, whereas you would expect him to free her and reward her. Also it’s ironic that “Tom” a racist is sold “down the river” just like the slaves he hate. The main metaphor would be Pudd’nhead’s nickname. The people think that he is a fool and declare him a pudd’nhead, stating that he is not sane. Another metaphor is when “Tom” calls the whole incident of him being black moonshine because it all seems to be homemade. Without the literary devices the whole storyline would have to be changed because everything runs as one making the story believable and have some realness to it. Pudd’nhead Wilson, is mysterious, full of characters, and a bit puzzling because of the dialect used. The story keeps you interested and wanting to know more by gradually bringing the plots closer and closer as the story winds down. The novel at first may seem racist but the more detail it goes into the more everything makes sense. Many people misinterpret what the author is trying to show thinking it’s racism but really he opposes racism and slavery through the messages of his theme. The story is packed with characters which makes it harder to figure out who the protagonist is and who the antagonist is. The story was originally written to make Luigi and Angelo the protagonist but as the story changed so did they roles of the two broth...