"Puddinhead Wilson" and "Tom Sawyer"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the theme of racial discrimination in the two books "Puddinhead Wilson" and "Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain. The paper compares and concentrates on specific incidences of the mixed race individuals' place in and treatment by society.

From the Paper:

"Perhaps Mark Twain, in depicting the difficulty for Injun Joe of assimilating; but then also depicting Roxy's relative ease of doing so, reflects his own observations about eease or difficulty of assimilation among such ethnic minorities in actual life.
The motif of mixed race individuals' place in and treatment by society begins with Injun Joe in the graveyard scene in Tom Sawyer. We do not know many details surrounding Injun Joe's arrest and public beating. We do know Injun Joe came to the doctor's house and asked for food five years ago and was rebuked. The rest Injun Joe explains thus: "And when I swore I'd get even with you even if it took a hundred years, your father had me [sic] jailed for vagrancy." We may perhaps glean from this that the doctor perceived this as a threat and feared for his safety. This outburst from Injun Joe over his being refused food in a rude manner reflects his understanding of how the town's citizens viewed him. If Injun Joe had understood and accepted that he was seen, due to his ethnicity, as being inferior to white property owners like the doctor, he would have been able to understand the rebuke in a less personal context. Twain's use of a minor incident of Injun Joe's unsuccessfully begging for food as a catalyst for threats of violence and revenge shows the perceived wild nature of Injun Joe. And his own reaction to the doctor's refusal of food only reinforces the existing stereotypes that he is of a temperament and mind-set viewed as being both unfamiliar and dangerous by white society. "

More papers on "Puddinhead Wilson" and "Tom Sawyer":

• Analytical Essay # 140595 : "Growing Up in "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer"
• Analytical Essay # 126005 : "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn"
• Book Review # 17639 : "Twain/Clemmens: Adventures Of Tom Sawyer"

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