Huckleberry Finn Fan
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
I would have to say I disagree completely with Merrisa. In "Huckleberry Finn", Huck and Jim are well developed, amazing characters- their story is one of fear, excitement and suspense. I respected the characters in Huckleberry Finn for their ingenuity and originality. Conversely, the characters in "Pudd'nhead Wilson" are ridiculous. Does it really make any sense that NO ONE would notice Tom, dressed up as a woman with a veil, stealing spoons at the party? Roxy is an intelligent character, however she is overly selfless, selling herself into slavery. Yes, she does come back and show her frustration with Tom, but the statement that a white woman would do anything for her baby and thus she would as well makes no sense. Tom is one dimensional and many of the other characters, including Puddn'nhead, are not well developed. Yes, it has some brilliant moments, like all Twain novels... ie the derivation of the name Pudd'nhead, but overall, this book is superficial and feels forced; at the time when Twain was writing the book, he was in debt and one of his children had recently died, in my view, it seems that the book suffers from those distractions- it feels like it was written to make money, not for the passion of the written word.