傻瓜威尔逊.ppt

Puddnhead Wilson background Background of Pudd’nhead Wilson “Dark Period” Reconstruction Characters Roxy Roxana is a slave, originally owned by Percy Driscoll and freed upon his death. Roxy is only 1?16 black, and could easily pass for white based on appearance alone. However, due to social convention ,she is considered black, and she herself considers herself black, speaking the dialect of slaves in the antebellum South. She is the mother of Valet de Chambre and acts as nanny to Thomas Driscoll. Due to her sons light skin and Percy Driscolls inattention as father, she is able to switch the childrens identities as infants, thus guaranteeing an upper-class upbringing for her own son. TThoThomasThomas  Thomas à Becket Driscoll is the son of Percy Driscoll. Tom is switched with Roxys baby Chambers when he is only a few months old, and is called Chambers from then on. Chambers is raised as a slave and is purchased by Judge Driscoll, childless and sad, when the judges brother Percy dies, to prevent Tom from selling him down the river. Chambers is a decent young man who is often forced to fight bullies for Tom. He is kind and always respectful towards Tom but receives brutal hate from his master. Raised as a black man, he speaks in the black dialect spoken during slavery. Chambers Valet de Chambre is Roxys son. Chambers is 1?32 black, and as Roxys son, was born into slavery. At a young age he is switched by his mother with Thomas à Becket Driscoll, a white child of similar age born into an aristocratic family in the small town. From then on he is known as Tom, and is raised as the white heir to a large estate. Tom, the focus of the novel, is spoiled, cruel and wicked. In his early years he has an intense hate for Language analysis Chambers even though Chambers protected Tom and saved his life on numerous occasions. Toms feelings and attitude portray him as the embodiment of human folly. His weakness for gambling leads him into debt, and his uncle (an