The Tragedy of Puddnhead Wilson

Roxy was upset, hurt, and disgusted with the way Tom Driscroll Jr. treated her, but why? She switched him and the original Tom at birth, leaving her son to be raised in a home that she was a slave in. This fear of separation fueled her decisions to alter the lives of the two boys drastically. When trying to better her son's life, she gave him an opportunity to not only succeed but detach himself from her. She became Driscoll Jr's (her actual son) mammy. Roxy’s son grew up as a white man. He would frequently bark at her, "N**** wench," which birthed disdain in Roxy. She loved her son enough to ruin another child's life, only to have him socially acclimated into hating her. Driscoll Jr. is an example of how hate is taught and never inherent. As well as an example of the limits to his whiteness. Is Roxy justified in her actions? In her eyes, she is getting back at the Whites for the treatment of their slaves, but the magnitude of how awful slavery was will not be corrected by Roxy; however, I would argue it is a start. Roxy forced the boundaries of Race to open. A white reader during the Reconstruction Era would have fell out their chair, or at least did laughed off the idea of a black man living as a white man and reaping that privilege. Its weird because critics of Twain’s time focused more o n how “messy” his plot was. It was almost like a calculated attack to discredit his book and the ideas in it. Honestly, though, the storyline is busy, but with what the books does, it requires a busy storyline. It shows how Twain decides to portray his view on Race. When I read this book, I could not stop thinking about how he was raised by whites but acted out. The society of the time was trying to figure out how to integrate newly freed slaves into society, this novel is telling us that the United States society decided to cast blackness as innately criminal. The reconstruction era society never really “reconstructed” itself into something new. Instead, it repaired the previous social norm- blacks are not equal -, painted over that with -blacks are criminal. Our society never left that thought process. And that strategy was used to marginalize many other groups of people in the united states: The Mexicans, The Japanese, The Filipinos, all The Native Americans. It is strange how much of the past has rippled forward.

Driscoll Jr faced an identity crisis later in the book, which was coordinated by Roxy. She not only birthed this man, but she created his societal position. A slave woman was able to fabricate a male body with agency in a society that adhered to strict and arbitrary race laws. She was able to give him an identity and held the power to strip him of this identity. My assumption of a calculated Roxy is solidified when, " She would plan schemes of vengeance and revel in the fancied spectacle of his exposure as an imposter to the world". Like all mothers, there is that one moment that make them snap. Anything from being a smart ass, to not thawing out the chicken can make a mother switch. Well for Roxy, it was when Driscoll Jr. refuses to spare his mammy a dollar. I know it was the 1800's but being shiesty with the woman who raised you is not it. Roxy unleashes her years of resentment on her biological son by informing him of his African Ancestry. This sends Driscoll Jr. into an existential crisis and contemplative state, questioning the difference between his skin color and the white walls behind him. He loses himself realizing his life is a lie. His position as white man in society was built on false pretenses, he was a fake white person. On one hand, if your mom has not made you question your life once, are you really living? On the other hand, how tangible is whiteness? The only thing he could compare his whiteness to, a wall. This is a bleak yet honest depiction of whiteness: what exactly does it depend on?