Nature v. Nurture in Mark Twains Puddnhead Wilson and...

Nature v. Nurture in Mark Twains Puddnhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins What makes a person who they are is a difficult dilemma. Mark Twains novel, Puddnhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins is a critical analysis of how nature and nurture can cultivate emotions and free will, which in turn affects the life of individuals. Twains faltering sense of direction began about slavery, moral decay, and deceptive realities (Kaplan 314). The debate of `nature versus nurture has been one of the most intriguing scientific and cultural issues for most of the twentieth century, in determining the behavioral aspects of human beings. The changes in environment, society, education, political influences, family values and morals†¦show more content†¦Caucasians in the southern states became the superior race and the Negroes became the inferior race, thus the labels of Master and slave evolved. Virtually all Anthropologists, Scientists, Sociologist, Psychologists, and scientists agree that there is no credible evidence that supports that one race is culturally or psychologically different from any other, or that one race is superior to another. Yet Twain, In Puddnhead Wilson creates the character Roxy as both races, one physically and one mentally. Though her features make her appear to white, Her complexion was very fair, with rosy glow of vigorous health in her cheeks, her face was full of character and expression, her eyes were brown and liquid, and she had a heavy suit of fine soft hair which was also brown(Twain 9). To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a Negro (Brand 308). Environment can influence some personality traits, while others are genetic. The nature theory, heredity, determines such traits as eye and hair color, due to specific genes passed down from generation to generation. With the emergence of scientific studies of DNA, many scientists are finding more traits can also be associated with human cell encoding, such as intelligence, personality, aggression,