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Chapter 8
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Pudd’nhead Wilson, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science, Race, and Identity
Slavery
Motherhood
Foreignness and Xenophobia
Disguise, Deception, and Masculinity
Summary
Analysis
Later that night, Tom meets Roxy at the haunted house, where she has been staying while in Dawson’s Landing. There, she tells him the truth he never suspected: that he is her son. At first Tom doesn’t believe her; he insists that he isn’t afraid of her telling the story to his uncle because he won’t believe her, either. But when Roxy starts to leave, Tom falls into a panic, knowing instinctively that she isn’t lying. Roxy says that from now on, he must call her “ma” or “mammy” when they are alone together, and Tom agrees.
The commencement of Roxy and Tom’s adult mother-son relationship is full of strife. Roxy only tells Tom the truth about his identity because she is angry and, having lost her savings, needs to bribe him for money. Tom, for his part, is horrified by the truth. In other words, the emotional content of this scene isn’t gratifying—a mother and son finally being able to acknowledge their connection—but rather tense and uncomfortable.
Active
Themes
Roxy lays out a business arrangement. She will keep the secret of Tom’s true identity if he gives her half of his allowance every month. She asks for her monthly share now—25 dollars—and Tom explains that he can’t pay her because he’s in debt due to gambling. When Roxy asks how he plans to pay it off, he tells her the secret he originally believed she knew something about: that he has been disguising himself as a young woman to steal valuables from the citizens of Dawson’s Landing and then selling them elsewhere. Roxy approves of this way of paying off the debt and says she will come to the haunted house every month to receive her payment.
In most ways, Roxy and Tom are quite different: she is a strong and self-sacrificing character, while he is weak and selfish. And yet in some ways, they are similar. For instance, they both navigate financial difficulties by resorting to questionable tactics. Roxy uses bribery to get what she wants, while Tom steals. The fact that Tom steals while wearing a female costume is important—it demonstrates his complicated relationship to social expectations around gender.
Active
Themes
Recalling Tom’s poor treatment of her over the years, Roxy begins sobbing. Tom protests that he didn’t know she was his mother, and Roxy is appeased. Before Tom leaves, he asks Roxy who his father was, and Roxy says it was Colonel Essex, the patriarch of one of the finest families in Dawson’s Landing who, coincidentally, passed away the same year Tom’s supposed father, Percy Driscoll, died. She tells Tom that, due to this parentage, he is the most well-bred enslaved person in town and should hold his head high.
