In Pudd'nhead Wilson, Mark Twain takes the different types of irony- verbal, situational, and dramatic- and uses them as an escape. He tries to explain the life of African- Americans through the satire of Caucasians.

Set in antebellum Missouri, Twain tells his story through the eyes of Pudd'nhead Wilson. Twain satirizes whites, more specifically the whites of the slave holding south. This is brought out originally in the scene where Wilson receives his name. The serious attitudes of property prevents the white townspeople from understanding the joke Wilson makes about the dog. It is apparent that Twain is pointing out the stupidity of the townspeople rather than that of Wilson. Not only are the townspeople ignorant to the fact of Wilson's intelligence, but they are also ignorant to the fact of Roxy's ingenious.

Twain also shows Roxy as a black that is in a small way superior to the townsfolk. She is able to outsmart the entire town, including her own master, by switching her own child with her master's son. Ironically, the only white who figures out this scheme is Wilson, the person the townspeople labels a "pudd'nhead." Here, Twain again satirizes the whites of the south

Twain also questions the self-concept of blacks. Here, some of Twain's racist attitudes are displayed. He tries to show the irony of the blacks' view of themselves in the case of Roxy. Though Roxy has no physical characteristics that distinguish her as black in her own mind, that is what she is. From the very start of her life she has worn that label and her personality has been patterned after that. Her dialect is poor and uneducated just as she herself is. She has not been schooled as to the proper manners of a lady and thus she is crass and vulgar at times. All of these outward facets of Roxy's personality expose her as black, though her features do not. Even being raised in this manner, Twain portrays Roxy as feeling superior to the other slaves because of her white heritage. At one time she says to Jasper, another slave, "...I got somep'n' better to do den 'sociat'n' wid niggers as black as you is." This was all in jest, but throughout the book, Twain shows Roxy as having a low view of blacks, especially her own black heritage. When scolding her son Tom for refusing to challenge the twins, Roxy blames his cowardice on "de nigger" in him. After noting all of the predominant white members of his pedigree, she concludes that "de nigger" is his soul. Twain seems to have some assumptions of his own that blacks have no pride in their own heritage.

Twain, Mark. Pudd'nhead Wilson. New York: Bantam, 1959.

by showing their ignorance. These people are so preoccupied with the idea of race, yet they cannot tell the difference between a person they would label a "nigger" and the person they would consider a white. Twain also raises some questions regarding the natur

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Approximate Word count = 1128
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)