Provincialism in Pudd'nhead

I think they way which Twain caricatures small towns in his portrayal of Dawson's Landing is incredibly interesting. He emphasizes the characters' lack of diversity and the dearth of cosmopolitanism that occurs in the town. This creates a theme of provincialism inherent in the book's setting, which simultaneously contrasts the drama and excitement of Tom and Roxy's plot line and also solidifies this book as an example of Regionalism that was mentioned in class on Tuesday.

Very little happens in Dawson's Landing. The narrator emphasizes this detail when the twins arrive, and Aunt Patsy and Rowena become town celebrities. But Roxy and Tom's story line is really very exciting, filled with lies, secret lineages, theft, and deception (it's almost like a soap opera). However, no one in the town is aware of this, and so their plot line takes on an important significance as an outright juxtaposition of the town in which it occurs, but a juxtaposition which no one in Dawson's Landing actually perceives.

Twain's playful representation of the townspeople occurs almost immediately, at the end of the first chapter, when he describes David Wilson's comment about the dog. The town reacts with confusion and even anger at Wilson's humorous statement. This establishes the town residents as people who don't get jokes, as people who lack intellectual competence as a result of their geographic location: a small town in the south. Twain satirizes this small town southern lifestyle in order to criticize provincial attitudes and point out the hilarity of certain American ideals and behaviors on a local scale.