America has undeniably come a long way from its dark adolescence before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation to become a global icon of ethnic diversity. African Americans are no longer relegated to indentured servitude or the “black” water fountain. Indeed, the establishment of civil rights brought a better way of life not only for Americans of different colors, but also for women and people of different religious beliefs. American history does not glorify our past misdeeds with slavery, and our literature of the era continues to tell the stories of those on the oppressed side of that nineteenth-century dichotomy. A good example of such literature would be Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson, a novel set in antebellum America on the banks of the Mississippi. In the piece Twain portrays the human rift created by color and miscegenation through the opposing notions of wealthy landowners and their slaves. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay On the surface, the text certainly seems to reinforce the theme of human worth based on skin color. However, reading Crazy Wilson from a Marxist perspective raises questions about Twain's motivations. From this path of analysis, it becomes more difficult to dismiss the text as a simple caricature of racial conflict, but instead supports an inequality of socioeconomic proportions. From a Marxist perspective, Twain's screwball Wilson was not a representation of racial selectivity, but rather a representation of the dark side of American commodification. Twain introduces the ideology of material wealth and its social importance at the beginning of the text. In describing what makes a perfect home Twain writes: “A house without a cat – and a well-fed, well-stroked, and properly revered cat – may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove the title?” (Two 3s). Twain makes a statement about the symbolic value of the homes in Dawson's Landing, alluding to the fact that a family cannot be complete without owning a pet. This passage begins the flow of the text by establishing the unspoken social code for Dawson's Landing; a code that establishes a hierarchical value system based on conspicuous consumption. The material circumstances surrounding Dawson's Creek depict a socioeconomic machine built on the foundations of slavery; however, as George Spangler writes in his essay “A Parable of Property,” an important key in the interpretation of Twain's piece lies in the “obsession with property as a vitiating and reductive influence on human beings” (Spangler 29). This statement makes sense, especially when you consider the basic nature of slavery itself. The idea of ​​owning a group of people to carry out the arduous tasks of maintaining a farm or plantation indicates a sense of ownership. For example, towards the end of the piece, the character Roxy actually walks around with her bill of sale in her pocket as a personal statement that she wasn't actually owned by anyone but her own. A recurring statement throughout the text; one that has been cast as a threat by multiple characters and looms over Roxy and the other slaves warning of being "sold down the river". The idea that a person may have exchange value and that bad behavior on the part of slaves may well justify removal to an unwanted master reinforces the notion of human life as a commodity. And although the dynamics of the slavery system in the novel's setting proves to be a striking example of the theme of "ownership", the behavior of the characterswithin the text he often provides striking examples of the slave-master relationship in people as well as property. One of these characters from Wilson the Crazy that serves to characterize the commodification rampant throughout the text is that of the "false" Tom. From the moment Roxy swapped babies, the new Tom learned to crave material objects. As Twain writes about false Tom, “He called out whatever he saw, just saying 'Awny it!' (you want it), which was a command” (Twain 19). And as Tom grew up, his materialism led him into serious gambling debts. Several passages in the book explain his subsequent behavior as fulfilling the need to preserve his status as sole heir to the Driscoll fortune. For example, after discovering his true identity as a usurper, Tom submits to Roxy's demands and gives her half of his monthly allowance to keep the secret. This morally bankrupt Tom, who as Spangler notes has become a slave to his property, or rather to the lie that propagates his connection to material wealth, turns to petty theft in an attempt to pay off his debts. (Spangler 35). His actions begin a sequence of events that, ironically, lead to Tom himself becoming property. Roxy selflessly gives up her freedom to prevent Tom from being disinherited; an opportunity that Tom takes advantage of even as his mother is about to be “sold down the river.” This action illustrates Tom's value system of property and wealth over human well-being. His mother's exchange value allows Tom to pay off his gambling debts and return to the comfort of his lie. However, after Tom's secret is revealed in court, the irony in the town's material consciousness is illuminated in the following passage: "Everyone admitted that if 'Tom' were white and free it would be unquestionably right to punish him - it would be no loss to none; but to lock up a valuable slave for life – that was another matter altogether… As soon as the governor understood the case, he at once pardoned Tom, and the creditors sold him down the river” (Twain 121).The whole Tom's character path supports the theory that Twain's motivations for Wilson the Loon were not to show the plight of slaves, but rather to illustrate the idea of ​​being a slave to one's property. Other characters in the text support this statement are those of the twins and their benefactors, Aunt Patsy and Rowena According to Henry Chapin's article “Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson,” the slave-master relationship in the text is purposely juxtaposed when the town listens to the twins and their “masterful” piano playing (Chapin 61). The text's narrator calls their music "prodigious slam-banging," yet those in attendance "were amazed and enchanted by the magnificence of their performance... They realized that for once in their lives they were listening to masters" (Twain 33) . This passage insinuates that the city itself was ready to accept these foreign nobles as "masters", effectively redefining the details of the slave-master relationship. Furthermore, the twins themselves are considered property by their benefactors. In fact, Rowena is so enthusiastic about their foreign guests that she exclaims “And to think they are ours – all ours!” (Two 32). Rowena is so pleased with the guests that she “knew now for the first time the true meaning of that great word Gloria, and perceived its stupendous value…” (33). These lines illustrate the social value brought by the “possession” of these two self-styled nobles, promoting the theme of conspicuous consumption and commodification throughout the text. Yet another example in the piece of the connection between human slavery and wealth is explained by the twins at the beginning of the novel. In describing the death of their, 2005.