People are Shaped by Their Environment
For a long time, people have argued over whether an individuals behavior is controlled solely by their environment. Their experiences, and the people they grow up with shape the way they behave as people. People teach others ways of acting and thinking that are kept for the rest of their lives. In Mark Twain's, Pudd'nhead Wilson, the characters live in a society that criticizes the way they live their daily lives. The town's expectations, opinions and values affect their personalities. For these reasons, environment is the driving force shaping the way individuals live.
Chambers, who grows up in an environment of discrimination and abuse, becomes ashamed and insecure about himself. For example, because Roxy swapped Chambers and Tom, therefore switching their environments:
Tom got all the petting, Chambers got none. Tom got all the delicacies, Chambers got mush and milk, and clabber without sugar. In consequence Tom was a sickly child and Chambers wasn't. Tom was "fractious," as Roxy called it, and overbearing; Chambers was meek and docile (41).
The slave system insists that because Chambers is "black" he must be treated differently from those who are not . The punishment Chambers receives emotionally scar his thoughts and causes him to act inferior. In addition, when Chambers finally finds out his true identity, "The real heir suddenly found himself rich and free, but in a most embarrassing situation. He could neither read nor write, and his speech was the
basest dialect of the Negro quarter" (166). The effects of his damaging childhood have now affected his capability to become the successful man he could have been. Although Chambers is now free from slavery, with...
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...ad been many a day now since she had ventured a caress or a fondling epithet in his quarter. Such things, from a "n-----," were repulsive to him, and she had been warned to keep her distance and remember who she was (44).
Tom's overpowering lifestyle causes him to believe he has the right to beat on Roxy.
Tom was taught to believe that he has the authority over "n------", which has an affect on the way he treats his slaves. In addition, Tom intends to humiliate Pudd’nhead Wilson by bringing up his unusual hobby in front of the Capello twins asking:
How's the Awful Mystery flourishing these days? Wilson's got a scheme for driving plain window glass out of the market by decorating it with
how Mark Twain 's character development could describe what having more power means. It is easy to say that the community wants some attention in their life. The townsfolk feels that having more attention could develop a personality for the community to be ruthless. By the community being ruthless leaders, it portrays a passage where they are controlling the black people as their personal slaves. The community in Mark Twain 's novel symbolizes a stereotype where they act like
But he is not in any way greatful for any of it. Despite everything Tom has he still belittles others, and cheats on Daisy. Tom has a racial attitude, for example, he disapproves interracial marriage. He is very egoistic and has a high opinion of himself. Even more supporting that he has no morals and a dark side also, Tom's affair with Myrtle Wilson also supports the conclusion that he's quite the
The author continuously characterizes Tom in a way that makes the readers deride him and not want to follow the example of his like. For example, after Tom's wife takes all their valuables and tries to strike a bargain with the devil as Tom won't do it himself, Tom goes looking for her. The reader sees that he doesn't really care about her as much as he cares about the valuables: "He leaped with joy; for he recognized his wife's apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables"(263). That shows that he is really greedy and ruthless; no one wants to follow someone portrayed like that. Furthermore, Tom had evidence that his wife was fighting with the devil when she tried to strike that bargain. The passage that provides his reaction has a satirical tone: "He shrugged his shoulders, and he looked at the signs of a fierce clapper clawing."Egad," said he to himself, "Old scratch must have had a tough time if it!" Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property, with the loss of his wife"(264). Contrasting words like fierce and prowess, which are serious words, with words like clapper clawing, egad and old scratch, Irving highlights...
Society is formed into a hierarchical format demonstrated by the relationship between slaves and slave owners. Douglass refers to this concept of racial formation in the following statement, “my faculties and powers of body and soul, are not my own. But property of a fellow mortal” (199). This statement refers to the master who has power to compel his slaves in any format that he or she may desire to a point of controlling every single movement the slave makes. Douglass utilizes his knowledge of language to expose the psychology of the slave masters and the complex mechanisms that are created in order to systematically enslave African-Americans. Douglas refers to this idea as being “a slave for life” which underlies the issue that society is being organized hierarchically (157). Take for instance, when Douglass’ master Thomas chose not to protect him as a man or as property from the brutal treatment of Covey (171). This relationship demonstrates how masters willingly objectify their slaves as replaceable commodities. Many slave owners took advantage of the power they had over their property without any regards to the repercussions. Instead, African-Americans were belittled and coerced into being oppressed to a point where they accepted being a puppet in a master’s
The lives we lead and the type of character we possess are said to be individual decisions. Yet from early stages in our life, our character is shaped by the values, customs and mindsets of those who surround us. The characteristics of this environment affect the way we think and behave ultimately shaping us into a product of the environment we are raised in. Lily Bart, the protagonist in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, is an exceedingly beautiful bachelorette who grows up accustomed to living a life of luxury amongst New York City’s upper-class in the 20th century. When her family goes bankrupt, Lily is left searching for security and stability, both of which, she is taught can be only be attained through a wealthy marriage. Although, Lily is ashamed of her society’s tendencies, she is afraid that the values taught in her upbringing shaped her into “an organism so helpless outside of its narrow range” (Wharton 423). For Lily, it comes down to a choice between two antagonistic forces: the life she desires with a happiness, freedom and love and the life she was cut out to live with wealth, prestige and power. Although, Lily’s upbringing conditioned her to desire wealth and prestige, Lily’s more significant desires happiness, freedom and love ultimately allow her to break free.
Douglass will ultimately experience many more of these awful crimes to humanity, but this first experience changed his entire view of the world. If he didn’t fear his slave master’s before, then he certainly did at this point. Life for him wouldn’t be happy and free, but cruel and harsh, much like the beating of Aunt Hester. Clearly slavery was already real at that time in the 19th century, but this is the m...
used to go after their own personal goals. Tom is a character who desires to leave his house to
In the first few chapters of the book, we can already see just how spoiled Tom becomes due to his indulgent lifestyle. While Chambers is being fed “mush and milk,” Tom is being spooned “delicacies” with no limits (Twain 17). This leads Tom to always getting what he wants and bullying those who don’t comply to his rules. Although I might have thought this pampered lifestyle would fashion Tom into a strong and credible young man, much like a prince grows into the leader of a kingdom, it ended up ruining him into a weak and almost sickly child, with a character to match. Because Tom was always being ushered his life on a silver platter without lifting a finger, he later develops into someone who is unable to look after himself and solve his own problems. Later on in the book, we can most clearly see the effect of Tom’s upbringing onto himself after Roxy admits to Tom his true herita...
We do not know much about Tom’s childhood; however it is clear that his life has progressed into a sociopathic lifestyle. We do know that, “[His] parents died when [he] was very small” and that “[He] was raised by [his] aunt in Boston.” (25) He disliked his aunt, hated her, and wanted to kill her.
Mark Twain expresses and displays the reality of the vigorous debate of nature versus nurture in his novel, Pudd’nhead Wilson, through the development of one of the main characters, Tom. In addition to tossing ideas around of nature versus nurture, Twain also does the same in terms of other societal issues that still exist even in modern society, such as gender roles and racism. Yet, through both Tom’s and Chamber’s upbringings and resulting attitudes shown towards the end of the novel, Twain shows that how a person is raised, their privilege, or lack thereof, and their surrounding environment affects their future personality and attitude towards others. Considering all these factors, it is obvious that a person grows up to be an adult that
She wants Laura, if not herself to be taken care of. At that moment in the play Tom is the breadwinner in the family and up to this point Tom is the underpriviledged child that wants to move on. He wants to pursue his dream, a more adventurous life. Tom was a likable character until we find out he didn't pay the electric bill with the intended money. When Jim is over and he says "I paid my dues this month, instead of the light bill".
Tom was careless in a much more obvious way. He was brutal as well as
Tom's acts in love are childish and immature. At first, Tom's love for Becky Thatcher is just a crush. He tells Becky about his "marriage" to Amy and it starts a fight. After that, they both play a game of "hard to get". After this, Tom is too proud to apologize. Also, Tom makes good decisions. First, when Becky accidentally rips Mr. Dobbins' book a, Tom takes the blame, and this ends their feud. Another mature event takes place in McDougal's cave. When Tom and Becky are in the cave, they become lost. Then Tom takes responsibility for himself and Becky's life. These events are part of becoming a young man.
According to Jacqueline O’Connor she saw confinement as a main theme in the play. She says, “Tom speaks frequently about the confinement that keeps him from fulfilling his dreams.” “In scene three, he berates his mother for the lack of priva...
Tom is a character many people in this generation can relate to. Although the play was written many years ago Tom is just like any other millennial from this day and age. He basically hates his job because it’s not fun. He can’t cope with the fact that he has to pick up all the slack his father left behind. He even seems to think that running away will fix everything. All of these things are very common in society today.