True Blood

I had a hard time deciding what to actually write about for this post. I feel like we have brought up so many topics in class that could still be delved into, but they branch off in too many directions. However I have been thinking a lot about the question of "What is the Truth?". Thinking about this lead me to wondering about who's truth we are looking for. I feel as though there are two levels to the book, the level for most of the readers of Twain's time (the ones like the citizens who cannot understand Pudd'nhead's ironic comments) and then another layer very subtly criticizing the norms of Dawson's Landing.

Before reading the end of the book I wondered if Mark Twain would end it in such a way as to suggest that he may agree with the slavery and racism that goes on throughout the novel. At times it felt as though Tom's attitude and behaviors were blamed on his "drop of black blood", so I thought it might feel in the end that even though he was held accountable for his actions it was not his upbringing but his heritage that was to blame. In a way that is what happened, no one stopped to think; Tom came from such a nice family, how could he do a thing like that, or something of the like. No, he lost his identity when he was exposed as a, albeit unintentional, usurper. Yet, I believe it is written in such a way because that is how the people of the town would think. Certain excerpts such as the following lead me to feel as though he is subtly hinting at the hypocrisy of the situation.

"The real heir 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. His gait, his attitudes, his gestures, his bearing, his laugh - all were vulgar and uncouth; his manners were the manners of a slave. Money and fine clothes could not mend these defects or cover them up, they only made them the more glaring and the more pathetic."

Unlike in The Prince and the Pauper, this quote mentions the inability of clothing and fine things to disguise the man inside, they do they opposite and highlight his differences. To me Chambers after the trial is an example of how the changelings were shaped by their upbringing. Yet despite his speech and manners he is accepted if not welcomed into the upper tier of the hierarchy. All the things that set him apart from them can suddenly be ignored, in the same way that the Tom the associated with for twenty years can be "sold down the river" without a second thought. How can things get turned upside down so readily? Doesn't that imply that blood only has the power allotted to it by supposed knowledge and the societal perceptions that go along with it?

I find it hard to think of Twain as a racist, although the satire in many of his other works has been a lot more apparent and biting than in this novel. Is there a purpose behind that? or is it really meant literally? Does anyone agree of disagree with me?