Discussion Summary

The most interesting thing to consider, I think, is the question of nature vs. nurture and how it pertains to Pudd’nhead Wilson. If Roxy had not switched the children at birth would their personalities remain similar and the only thing to change would be their names and status or would everything be switched, names personality, and status. Also, what exactly which one did Mark Twain have in mind when writing the book. If it is a critique of slavery, than he probably intended for the reader to believe that it is nurture that is more important and ultimately what caused the children to develop the way they did. However, as Ms. Ross said on Monday, not everybody sees the slavery critique and so some people may assume that the children’s personalities are as they would have been had they not been switched. Another interesting part was “Tom,” who is actually the real Chambers, reaction to finding out he is a slave. It seems to change the way he sees himself, his “father,” the other slaves, “Chamber” (who is actually Tom). But this changed view doesn’t seem to last. His life returns back to relative normality and he goes back to St. Louis to gamble again. Has he actually changed or was it only the shock of first finding out that changed his view of slavery and now that the shock has faded he has gone back to being his normal self.

So the discussion was mainly people talking about their personal opinions on nature vs. nurture and how that caused them to interpret the book differently. I think that what we really should focus on is finding evidence in the text to suggest that Mark Twain was intending for nature or nurture to play a bigger part in Tom and Chambers personalities. We also touched on labels and how even though they identify a certain person as belonging to this group of people or that group of people that does not mean that the person innately belongs to this or that group. A lot of people in this book are placed into groups that they don't really belong in because of the labels that they have received from those around them or labels that they have placed upon themselves.