Nurture Raised In Pudd Nhead Wilson By Mark Twain

The theme of Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain is Nurture has a greater impact than Nature. Throughout the book, Twain shows this theme on several different occasions. On page 19 the text stated,”Tom got all the petting, Chambers got none. In consequence, Tom was a sickly child and Chambers wasn’t. Tom ‘fractious,’ as Roxy called it, and overbearing; Chambers was meek and docile.” As a result of the ways the boys were raised, the boys turned out very differently. This is in support of the idea that Nurture trumps Nature because in their so called “nature” tom should be naturally meek and docile because he is “black”, and the opposite extreme would fall with Chambers. Mark Twain wrote,”his manners were the manners of a slave. The poor fellow could not endure the terrors of a white man’s parlor, and felt at home and at peace nowhere but the

Even after having his true identity revealed to him, he still is the way he was raised. If the racist views that were countered in this book were to be believed, Chambers would act like a white person because he is white. At variance with this idea, Chambers carries on his normal meek and humble “n” ways because that was how he was raised and nurtured. This theme is even seen in the ostensible Tom when he finds out that he is Roxy’s son. On page 53 the text states,”It was the ‘n’ in him asserting its humility, and he blushed and was abashed. He dreaded his meals; the ‘n’ in him was ashamed to sit at the white folks table.” Because of the way he was raised, he was taught that black people were polite and humble(because they had to be). Consequently, he began to act in the way that fit the views that society enforced. This calender quote, “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man”(97). This quote is a definite description of Tom. This highlights how he betrays Roxy despite what she has