Connections

Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech connects to Mark Twain's //Pudd'nhead Wilson// by them both sharing the same views on discrimination. They both believe that whites and blacks should be treated as equals and that there should be no distinction between race. Mark Twain shows this when Roxana switches the babies, one black - Chambers, and one white - Tom. No one can tell the difference between the babies even after they switched. This shows that Mark Twain believes that there should be no distinction between whites and blacks.

Martin Luther King Jr shares the same beliefs as Mark Twain. For example, in his speech when he says, "One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in an exile in his own land." This means that whites and blacks should be treated as equals, not as seperate races. Whites and blacks both occupy the same land and it belongs to both races, not just whites. So that both races are American and there should be no distinction between the two.

The themes in //Pudd’nhead Wilson// are prevalent to real life. For example, Mark Twain uses the Capello twins to help the readers connect and relate to the story. He does this to make the story more believable and relatable for the readers because they are rich white folks who are of the same caliber as the twins. Additionally, one might not be able to tell which race someone belongs to, or descends from. This is seen when Roxana switches the black baby with the white baby and the white baby goes in place of the black baby. Once this happens no one is able to tell them apart.  In this day and age, if someone is raised by a family of different decent than their own, they often grow up to be of a different temperament than their real race stereotypically is. This also happens in //Pudd'nhead Wilson// even though it is in a different time period. In the novel by Mark Twain, Roxana switches the babies; one was born rich and white, the other black and poor. But, when they were switched, the black, poor baby grew up as a rich white male and became rude, discriminatory, and arrogant. The complete opposite of how he would have turned out. Also, the rich white baby, was raised in an environment in which he was a slave and he learned how to work and be respectful, which is the complete opposite of how he would have turned out if he had been raised by rich white folks.

//Understanding Race// connects to Mark Twain’s //Pudd’nhead Wilson// because it shares various viewpoints on how and why race is not real, as does Mark Twain. Mark Twain shows that race is not real because when two babies of different races are switched, no one in the town is able to see a difference. In //Understanding Race//, it is said that race cannot be classified merely as skin color. This represents the basic idea of //Pudd’nhead Wilson//, that race is not real. Additionally, Mark Twain shows that when people grow up, believing that they are of a certain race, they will fall into their respective racial stereotypes. For example, the real Tom grows up believing that he is a slave, adhering to the same customs, like the way of speaking, as black people; the real Chambers grows up believing that he is white, and matures as a bigot against black people. In //Understanding Race//, a view is shared that race is entirely based on false science. It is said that white men went exploring and found a group of foreign peoples living in one area- living the same way- they classified them as one simple group, a "race." Since then, people have fallen into the stereotypes of their race, created by others. This idea that race is caused by stereotypes and surroundings is a unifying theme between //Understanding Race// and //Puddn'head Wilson//.

In //A Class Divided// and //Puddn'head Wilson//, the same lesson is taught. Mark Twain teaches his readers about discrimination, showing that by judging a person by his or her skin color, a person can be making false assumptions, connecting skin color directly to the quality of the person. He also shows that a person may not always be the race they appear to be, by switching two babies of different races, but of the same skin tone. By doing this, Mark Twain teaches his audience a lesson in racism and discrimination. In //A Class Divided//, Jane Elliot, the teacher of a third grade class, takes on the role of Mark Twain, teaching her audience a lesson in discrimination. She divided her class into "Blue-Eyes" and "Brown-Eyes," giving blue-eyed children a preference over brown-eyed children. In doing so, she taught her class that judging a person by how they look- by eye or skin color- was making assumptions about that person and his or her life. The children also learned that it didn't matter if they had blue eyes or brown eyes, they were still equals- the basic idea in //Puddn'head Wilson//.