Pudd Nhead Wilson Character Analysis

In Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, an enslaved woman named Roxy switches her own baby with the child of her master to save him from the terrible fate of being sold “down the river”. Her son is renamed Tom, while the real heir becomes Chambers the slave. Growing up, Chambers is mistreated; he is forced to work hard and is abused by Tom, yet still ends up being a kind and generous person. Meanwhile, Tom has a perfect childhood. He is raised white and educated, and doted upon by everyone around him. However, he becomes a gambler, resorts to thievery to pay off his debts, and even murders his benefactor. Chambers and Tom had greatly contrasting upbringings and turned out very differently from each other, without an obvious reason why. Twain seems to suggest it is nature, …show more content…
He consistently manages to go above and beyond his job requirements as a slave in order to help people, specifically Tom. For example, when Tom and Chambers are young, Tom is in danger of drowning and Chambers recognizes this and rescues him. Tom insults him and punishes him for this. However, Chambers still manages to be helpful years later when Roxy visits Tom to “have of jes one sight of him en die for joy,” (36). Chamber risks Tom’s wrath as a favor to her because he is a nice person. He continues to show his compassion further down the road, as Chambers, “the young fellow whom [Roxy] had inflicted twenty-three years of slavery continued the false heir’s pension of thirty five dollars a month to her,”(121). In all of these situations, Chambers show generosity because he was born with a good nature. Nothing that happens in his life gives any reason for this, except that he was born that way. Twain shows support for nature as the controlling factor as Chambers’ nature drives him to what is right, despite that the way he was nurtured tells him it is not always in his best