Examples Of Nature Vs Nurture In Pudd Nhead Wilson

Kenneth Cruz-Flores
Ms. Parascandolo
Humanities II
25 August 2014 Proving Tom Was Nurtured Into Becoming Spoiled
The nature versus nurture debate has been going on for a long time. Pudd'nhead Wilson is just one book out of many that has this debate as a theme in its story. Tom was switched at birth by Roxy, his actual mother. When the boys later grow up Tom is spoiled and lazy while Chambers is afraid of white society because he was raised as a slave. There are many reasons why this happens, some say they were born that way. Others say it’s because of their genetics. Well, Mark Twain favors the nurture side of the debate. This is because in the novel a mostly-white baby and all-white baby were switched. The novel then raises the question;

When Tom grows up he acts like a spoiled person and he is also mean and lazy. Then Roxy decides to tell Tom his true identity, "Yassir, en dat ain't all! You's a nigger - bawn a nigger en a slave!" (70). This shows that Roxy was fed up with Tom’s behavior and she exposed his true identity.Since he was raised this way he goes back to being selfish, "He dropped gradually back into his old frivolous and easygoing ways and conditions of feeling and manner of speech" (76). Tom acted spoiled when he thought he was white, and he still acted this way when he was informed he has black blood in him. Whether or not he is black or white, Tom still acts like he is above all others. This is more evidence that Twain is in support of the logic that an individual is nurtured into becoming who they

Chambers grew up to be a strong, good fighter, "Chambers was strong beyond his years, and a good fighter; strong because he was coarsely fed and hard worked about the house, and a good fighter because Tom furnished him plenty of practice..." (42). The reason he became strong and a good fighter was because he was a slave and slaves had to work hard. Tom would also mess around with Chambers which made Chambers a good fighter. All of a sudden he found out that he wasn’t a slave; “The real heir suddenly found himself rich and free, but in a most embarrassing situation. He could neither read nor write, and his speech was the basest dialect of the Negro quarter... Money and fine clothes could not mend the defects or cover them up; they only made them the more glaring and more pathetic" (166). This means that since Chambers is actually a white person he acts like that of a slave. He cannot read or write or act like a white person. This shows that he was nurtured to becoming a slave because he thought he was black. This is almost irrefutable evidence that portrays Twain’s dismay against the idea that nature and genetics is what you become to be in