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Pudd Nhead Wilson Theme Of Identity

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Black, But Barely Who are you? This question is constantly asked throughout Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson where identity plays a huge role in society. Set in a Pre-Civil War era, the novel revolves around switched identities of children. The characters lives are drastically, as well as differently affected by the way they’ve been portrayed in their society. The plot facilitates character development, while focusing on the identity of different members of the Mississippi society. Tom, Chambers, Luigi, Angelo, and Pudd’nhead are each faced with challenges that reveal facets of their societally influenced personalities. In Pudd’nhead Wilson, Mark Twain utilizes detailed characterizations to form the identities of each key player. Tom and Chambers …show more content…

Pudd’nhead Wilson, the character who solved the baby switching mystery, was labeled as being stupid in the very beginning of the book. The cunning required to utilize logical inferences, data collection and careful observation was certainly not that which was within the capabilities of an imbecile. Regardless, “that first day's verdict made him fool, and he was not able to get it set aside… The nickname soon ceases to carry any harsh or unfriendly feeling and was to continue to hold its place for twenty long years” (26). Pudd’nhead earned his name through a simple miscommunication, or rather the ignorance of his society, and was made to be a pariah until after the trial. Twain does this to show the influence of group thinking. The townspeople only shared the mutual understanding of a joke, and that was all it took to alter David Wilson’s identity. He gets completely cut out of society after this and is labeled a stupid Pudd'nhead. Even more disturbingly, Pudd'nhead is the smartest character in the novel, “Pudd’nhead could do wonderful things no doubt”(164). He had an identity which was societally based, but fortunately for him it was subjectively based and could change. After his day in court, he was rectified and no longer considered a

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