I know we have been talking a lot about race and whatnot in class, but I would like to bring this book back to a HUGE reason why we are reading it: we have been reading crime literature all semester, and obviously this book is setting up/already contains criminal activity and detecting.
I don't know about anyone else, but personally, I have LOVED "watching" Tom squirm whenever he thinks someone might be onto him and his raiding, or now, that someone might suspect that, gasp! he's got African American (slave) blood in him. I think the scene I have enjoyed so far in this novel is when Wilson reads Luigi's palm. First of all, it is extremely ironic that even though Tom is ridiculing the art/science of palmistry, the twins actually help out Wilson by making it known that it is in fact practised and is know to have some truth in it. Therefore, Tom's own plan of ridicule and mockery ends up backfiring. In addition, Tom's quotation on page 54 basically makes it clear that, at least in the case of palmistry, he could be found out at any time. The quotation reveals, "It beats anything that was ever heard of! Why, a man's own hand is his deadliest enemy! Just think of that--a man's own hand keeps a record of the deepest and fatalist secrets of his life, and is treacherously ready to expose him to any black-magic stranger that comes along." Tom is obviously extremely worried and afraid that he is unsafe from eventually being discovered as the culprit, both of more gambling and for raiding the town, but especially being discovered as being Roxy's son. Between WIlson's fingerprint collection and now his palm-reading, Tom is probably soon going to be put in a corner too small for him to squeez out of again.
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