Saturday, July 25, 2009

Can you look at my lit crit paper? 10 points if you can help me!?

Ok the intro and conclusion arnt that great, i really need to rework them. my paper is on puddnhead wilson. if you could tell me if its logical and cohesive as of right now that would be great because its just a first draft. Thanks!





Pudd’nhead Wilson: Deluge of Irony





“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it” (Proverbia np). Thomas Jefferson, one of the great founding fathers, once stated the above. Slavery, for all intents and purposes, was a social institution enacted by some of the First Families of Virginia. It was not abolished until the 1860’s, a point at which Abraham Lincoln stopped the repetitive psychological enterprise which had been ingrained into the minds of children for years, thus carrying on a hideous practice. Mark Twain conveyed the idea, through irony, that the social institution of slavery was, in essence, what determines how a person behaved, in his novel Pudd’nhead Wilson.


Cross dressing was a vehicle in which irony was expressed in Pudd’nhead Wilson. Two children, one a slave and the other a master, were switched by the ***** mother/nanny. They both grew up in opposite worlds of what they were born into, where the “slave” became the “master”, and the “master” was the “slave.” Chambers the “master”, whom we know as Tom, changed his appearance many times, and thus enacted a situation of multiple identities. Many times a person may suffer a disease, caused by childhood abuse, called Multiple Personality Disorder. Tom was not abused, during almost any portion of his life, yet he showed many signs of such an ailment. According to the American Psychiatric Association, as cited in an article on Medicinenet, some of the symptoms include, “the presence of at least two distinct personalities with their own relatively enduring pattern of sensing, thinking about, and relating to self and environment. And at least two of these personalities assume control of behavior repeatedly” (Medicinenet np). Tom was the one who showed these symptoms repeatedly, but, in reality, it was Chambers who was maltreated as a child, and he never suffered from such a disorder. This is a strong showing of how Twain illustrated irony within Pudd’nhead Wilson. As put plainly by Fredrick Anderson, in a piece by Laura Skandra-Trumbly, “Chamber’s instances of cross-dressing: ‘There are, in sequence, that of a white man with a beard, a young woman, an old white woman (whose clothes Tom borrows from his ***** mother), a young ***** woman wearing a veil, and finally “a disguise proper for a tramp”’” (Skandra-Trombly np). Through this frequent change of attire, Tom, “‘makes multiple interchanges of sex, race, and social position’ even though he must simultaneously maintain ‘the role of a respectable member of the family of the town’s leading citizen…when he learns of his ***** heritage he must assume the further role of a ***** passing as a white’ (295)” (Skandra-Trombly np). Twain used this instance of cross-dressing on the part of Tom to show that movement in and out of certain social standings, race and gender, may seem as simple as putting up a different facade, but when looked at more closely, it is a complication that would eventually drive Tom to do something insane.


Roxana, the woman who switched the two babies, was also an actor in the role of transvestite. When given a description of Roxana, it should be noted that “…Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one-sixteenth of her which was black out-voted the other fifteen” (Twain 16). For anyone to look upon this woman, he would think that she was white, but her actions and speech told a completely different story. “She had an easy, independent carriage—when she was among her own caste—and a high and ‘sassy’ way, withal; but of course she was meek and humble enough where white people were” (Twain 16). As a child, she was brought up in the mindset that she was to serve and submit to her “superiors”. Had she been switched as a child, she would have fit in perfectly with the Caucasian race. Although, according to the thought of the time period, race was certainly an indicator of how a person would act. It was merely a thought process that festered through the generations. Although not a science, most recently Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics draws a strong correlation between a person’s name and his economic status. It may also be a contributing factor to how a person behaves. Roxana’s persona was not brought on by the fact that she was one fifteenth black, but more with the fact of how she was raised by her parents and community. As pointed out by Fredrick Anderson, “Roxana must ‘disguise herself further by blackening her face in order to make her skin color conform to her speech’” (Skandra-Trombly np). This in itself is quite ironic due to the fact that she must color her face to look more like the “normal” *****. The typical ***** had a large nose, dark face, and was considered “obsolete and dumb.” Roxana was the complete and utter opposite of this description, with her beautiful chestnut hair, almond eyes, and flawless, fair skin. She represented a dichotomy or irony in motion. One could not figure our why this ***** dialect was coming from the voice of such a pretty young “white” woman.


When comparing the two cross-dressers, it is essential to look at power. Roxana had the ability to switch from disguise to disguise due to the fact that she always dressed herself as a *****, never attempting to be a white person. She understood that she was very low on the societal ranking system. Her disguises were merely for the On the other hand, Chamber switched gender and race when he changed his attire. This inverse relationship between master and slave is a major theme in the book. “Pudd’nhead Wilson thus implies a world in which the power of those who rule has been transferred to those who serve, for if the origin of Tom’s force is the lust out of which he was created, the immediate source is embodies in the personality of his mother, Roxana, who shifts him into the cradle of the white heir” (Cox 260). It must also be duly noted that the meaning of Roxana means “bright or star” (behind the name np). This pertains to the fact that she was rising up from her societal chains, like a star rising in the sky. It must also be noted that Thomas means “twin” (behind the name np), which is quite ironic in the fact that he and his half-brother, “Chambers” and he looked so much alike, which was why the boys were switched with such relative ease. Another interesting thing is the fact that, although, there is no formal meaning for the name “Chambers”, it is similar to chamber that has a less often used dictionary definition of a compartment or enclosed space (Dictionary np), which could suggest being held against one’s will. It is not difficult one step further to understand the connotation of slave.


Throughout the novel Roxana embraced white morals and values. “Roxy thus represents the last trace of unhandseled nature that has survived the perverted training of society…But with a beautiful irony Mark Twain shoes that she has adopted many of the values of the white aristocrats: their pride of ancestry, their code of honor, even their contempt for Negroes” (Smith 250-251). Property rights were a prevalent moral for the White people, but not as much for Roxana, even though she had adopted many seemingly “white” values. John Locke, a philosopher of the 1600’s had an idea that all men were to be given the natural rights: life, liberty, and the right to property. Roxana was actually in agreement with the fact that life was a moral law to follow, but she completely disagreed about liberty “…Roxy is indifferent toward property rights; she offers as a matter of course to help Tom in his burglaries when he needs money to pay his gambling debts…Roxy is…free of the heaviest burden that slavery has imposed on the whites: the sense of guilt” (Smith 251).


When speaking of the color line, it must be noted that it was very difficult for Tom to cross over it.


“Since miscegenation can culminate in ‘passing’ the color line, the arbitrary changeling device functions as the comic equivalent of historic possibility and can legitimately dramatize the last phase of a society trapped by its secret history…spawned at the very center of their legalized institution of slavery, he crosses the color line in the white disguise six generations of white blood have given him” (Cox 260).


(THIS QUOTE DOESN’T REALLY MAKE SENSE HERE…FIND A BETTER PLACE).


Mark Twain conveyed, through irony, the idea that the social institution of slavery was, in essence, what determined how a person acted in his novel Pudd’nhead Wilson. Cross-dressing and transvestitism were vehicles in which Mark Twain conveyed irony. The same thing is apparent with power. So remember, Pudd’nhead Wilson is all about how societal upbringing is what affects a person’s demeanor. There is no innate “master” or “slave” outlook, just what the people are taught when they were growing up.

Can you look at my lit crit paper? 10 points if you can help me!?
interesting looks good



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