The Power Struggle in Pudd'nhead Wilson

While reading Pudd'nhead Wilson, I have noticed that there is a huge power struggle between Roxy and Tom (who is actually her biological son). This also brings up the gender and position that these two characters are in and who really holds the power in their relationship. One of the first times that we see Roxy take control and really show how much power she has in on page 108-109, when she makes Tom get down on his knees and beg after she tells him about his true heritage and threatens to go to Judge Driscoll about the matter. This particular scene is important to understanding the struggle between the two characters because, for the first time, we see Roxy, an enslaved woman, take the upper-hand and almost switch the master-slave role with her son Tom.

Throughout the novel, we continue to see Roxy struggle for power over her masters. After Tom sells her in the slave-trade, she is put on a plantation where she works out in the cotton fields. Once Roxy sees her master beat a little girl for trying to share her food, Roxy becomes infuriated and explains to Tom, "All de hell-fire dat 'uz ever in my heart flame' up, en I snatch de stick outen his han' en laid him flat" (183). Again, we see Roxy take the upper-hand with her master and attempt to gain control.

I find it very interesting that Twain uses an enslaved woman for this role. She doesn't carry the docile role that many slaves in narrative embody, she is fighting to gain power and it seems as though she is trying to move up in societal classes. It makes me wonder if Twain himself struggled with issues of power, which compelled him to use a character that wasn't seen as a human being at the time to challenge this role within society? It also makes me wonder if he almost felt as though he was an enslaved person, almost trapped if you will, at the time?

The Prince and The Pauper

"Once, when his royal "sister," the grimly, holy Lady Mary, set herself to reason with him against the wisdom of of his course in pardoning so many people who would otherwise be jailed, or hanged or burned, and reminded him that their august late father's prisons had sometimes contained as high as sixty thousand convicts at one time, and that during his admirable reign he had delivered seventy-two thousand thieves and robbers over to death by the executioner, the boy was filled with generous indignation, and commanded her to go to her closet, and beseech God to take away the stone that was in her breast, and give her a human heart"

"The Prince And The Pauper" page 158.

This quote really stuck out to me when I read it last night.  I thought it was funny and made Tom Canty an even more real character.  Throughout the book, Canty seemed to learn less and care more about the riches and rewards that come with being a King, instead of remembering his own life.  This sentence was the first time in a while that Tom had seemed like his old self, and it seemed like he had a heart again.  As I said before, I felt like it was done in a funny way, but I also think it showed that even though Tom had been subjected to the hardships in his life, he still remembered them while he was impersonating the King.  Did anyone else feel that Tom Canty had forgotten his past, and was simply becoming another monarch that didn't care about the poor, and only how many servants he had?

So Fresh and Soo Clean

I am choosing to write about the role of cloths in The Prince and the Pauper.  Clothing is a very important part of the way people are treated in the book.  In the Prince and the Pauper Tom Canty, the pauper trades cloths with the prince of England, Edward.  The two boys features are strickingly similar and the only difference is the cloths that they wore.  After they switched the guards mistake the Prince for Tom because he is wearing rags.  The prince is promptly kicked out of the palace and Tom is now believed to be the true prince.  This theme of the cloths make the man is very common in Mark Twains stories.  Another story where this is a theme is in the million pound bank note.  When the poor man goes to buy things in his rags people laugh and do not treat him kindly but after he has purchased a suit on credit all stores treat him like royalty.  The Prince and the Pauper has a similar theme.  For even though Tom claims many times throughout the story that he is not the Prince they all believe that he has gone mad because he looks so much like the Prince.

Quote

I chose the quote from the last page of Chapter 3 in The Prince and the Pauper: "Here the jeering crowd closed around the poor little prince and hustled him far down the road, hooting him, and shouting 'Way for his royal highness! way for the Prince of Wales!'" (Twain, 19).

I chose this quote because I think that it says a lot about what the prince and the pauper both expected to happen when they traded places. The prince thought that he was going to have this wonderful experience being able to do whatever he wanted without having to be royalty anymore but still being recognized as the prince. However, he soon realizes that since the people no longer see him as the prince, the is treated with no respect and pushed out of the way. The pauper thinks that he will be able to live his dream of becoming royalty and that he will enjoy this life more than the life that he had before. But once he is in the position of royalty, it is much different than how he had imagined it. Especially since no one can tell the difference between the two boys.

They both end up in positions that they don't enjoy being in, and I think that this quote sets up the rest of the book in the sense that both boys are no longer in their niches. Neither one of them has been treated the way they are now treated and Twain seems to poke fun at the fact that sometimes when we get what we want, we realize that we don't really want it anymore.

Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!

"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!  A most odd and strange position, truly, for one so matter-of-fact as I.  I will not laugh-no, God forbid, for this thing which is so substanceless to me is real to him.  And to me, also, in one way, it is not a falsity, for it reflects with truth the sweet and generous spirit that is in him."  page 65

My quote, as stated above, from The Prince and the Pauper, is said by Miles Hendon, who befriends the young Royal boy, Prince Edward VI.  Miles Hendon does not know that Prince Edward VI is telling the truth, when he talks about his royalty, but Hendon plays along with the young prince's illusions.  Just a moment before the quote of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows, the prince had knighted Hendon and he thus refers to this whole episode of the young prince the "Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows".  Hendon thinks that the young boy is just fantasizing about being the Royal Prince, therefore, calling it a Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows; only in slumber and in fantasy is Edward a prince and Hendon a knight (so Hendon thinks- SURPRISE! Edward is the future king of England!)  Hendon thinks that his knighthood is just a boy's play, but little does he know at this point in the story that he has actually been knighted and is not "substanceless". 

Slavery and the Idea of the "Sambo" slave

Slavery is a prominent topic found in Mark Twain's works. Relations between the colored and the whites occupy many stories authored by Twain, like in "A True Story".  Twain uses "Aunt Rachel" to portray a long known stereotype of the Sambo slave.  The sambo slave is depicted as a person who is submissive, faithful, superstitious, childlike and content; however, this portrayal may be just the outward persona a slave takes on, either to prevent a master's suspicion of any funny business (escape/ rebellion plans- like Nat Turner) or harsher punishment (beatings or labor).  The white masters came up with this idea of the "sambo" slave to provide a justistification for the enslavement of blacks.  The justisitification goes as follows, the blacks can't fend for themselves, therefore, the white masters must be the parent of the childlike slave, by creating a paternalistic relationship between the master and slave.  This ideal of the "sambo" slave, that the white master thought was reality, was in fact, not reality at all but, an illusion put forth by the cunning slaves to mislead their true intentions and character's.

I found that Aunt Rachel in "A True Story" illustates the characteristics of the sambo slave, when she was"sitting respectfully below our level, on the steps" and when she was never heard sigh and always had a laugh in her eye (Twain, 95).  She wasn't planning a huge rebellion or escape, but Aunt Rachel put on a front that she was perfectly content and submissive, albeit this story was set in the post-civil war era.  Maybe "Misto C" held fast to the inherited "sambo" slave figure, when he thought that Aunt Rachel had no trials or tribulations in her lifetime.  Maybe Misto C had thought that Aunt Rachel was just content, submissive, and happy to be serving the white folk, or maybe that's just what Aunt Rachel wanted him to believe and think, like most "sambo" slaves did.  But of course, this is all speculation of Misto C's mindset.  Was Aunt Rachel playing the part of the "sambo" slave?  Or was Misto C just an ignorant idiot who didn't pay attention to details (emotions)?  Or was Misto C oblivious to the fact that Aunt Rachel had deep human emotions- which also begs to the ask if Misto C regarded blacks as fellow human beings? 

We may never know the answers to these questions solely based on "A True Story", but it doesn't help to wonder about what Twain wanted us to contemplate about the slavery era and race relations between coloreds and whites.

Idealism vs. Reality

During class, we have discussed one of the topics that tend to be in many of Twain’s short stories: idealism vs. realism. I think that this is shown at great extents in his short story A Day at Niagara. In this story, the narrator, a white tourist, is visiting Niagara Falls and is expecting to have the perfect experience while there. However, he soon finds out that this is not the experience he will be getting. There is an overall tone of sarcasm is his voice while he talks about the time he spends at Niagara. At one point he says, “It is worth the price of admission to hear the guide tell the story nine times in succession to different parties, and never miss a word or alter a sentence or a gesture” (21); talking about how going on a tour isn’t really worth it because it is scripted. It’s not the authentic experience that everyone is looking for, even though most people buy into the idea that it is an authentic experience.

The narrator also has this idea that he is going to encounter The Noble Red Man, a man that he has great respect for because the narrator has read about this Noble Red Man in books, and is fascinated by the character that he always plays. However, the tourist comes to find that the Noble Red Men of the area aren’t at all kind, like the woman at the store told him, and that they are actually Irish immigrants. When the tourist approaches these “relics” he addresses them in a very racial way by using stereotypical jargon that would generally not be used by an outsider of a group. After the first man he approaches gets angry with him, the tourist tries to find another group of Red Men to talk to so that he can get the response he is looking for. However, by the time he approaches the third group, they beat him up, break his bones, and throw him over the falls.

Even though all of these terrible things keep happening to the narrator, he continues to pursue the experience he expects to have. He continually is unable to attain his expected experience. I think that this is seen all the time in society. We are continually trying to live the “American Dream” and we have such unattainable expectations of what is supposed to happen. Sometimes it is hard to realize that these ideals may never become a reality. But, Twain pokes fun at this idea, through the narrator in this story, that if we continue to strive for the experience we are expecting to have, that it will eventually become our reality. Once again, in A Day at Niagara, Twain shows us that no matter how hard we try to get the authentic experience, and live in the ideal world, that it is simply never going to happen. It is just part of life, and we have to learn to live in reality and let go of our ideal world.