{"id":287,"date":"2014-02-12T14:25:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T19:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/?p=287"},"modified":"2014-03-26T10:16:28","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T14:16:28","slug":"roxana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/roxana\/","title":{"rendered":"Roxana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\"3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Character: <\/span><\/strong>Roxana<\/span><\/p>\n

Source Text: <\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>Mark Twain, Pudd\u2019nhead Wilson and those Extraordinary Twins<\/em> (1894)<\/p>\n

Entry Author:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Roxana is a slave woman. Over many years of racial mixing in her ancestry, she no
\nlonger appears black, the 1\/16 portion remaining no longer expressing itself. To
\noutside observers she is white, \u201cof majestic form and stature, her attitudes were
\nimposing and statuesque, and her gestures and movements distinguished by a noble
\nand stately grace.\u201d(9) It is interesting to note that her white skin allows her the
\nagency to switch her children, an act that would denied to a black skinned black
\nperson. Black skinned characters do not appear to have the ability to exercise
\nagency in any meaningful way of their own. It is only when she is heard speaking
\nthat those who do not know her understand that she is a slave and is black. She
\nconsiders herself to be black as well, and does not find that particularly odd. She is a
\nnurse maid to the children of Mr. Driscoll, as well as having a child herself. She
\nswitches her child with the child of the Driscoll\u2019s so that he may grow up to be a free
\nman. Other slaves around her recognize her to be a black person. They react to her
\neasily as a member of their community. (9) Although Roxy is unable to pass for white
\nbecause of her speech habits, which mark her as a member of the slave caste, she
\nrecognizes that because her master is unable to distinguish between the two
\nchildren, that she would be able to free her son from a lifetime of bondage by
\nexchanging him with the son of her master. This demonstrates that Roxana
\nunderstands that race is only skin deep. She doesn’t see a reason that her son
\ncouldn’t take the place of a white boy if he looks the same. The conventions of black
\ninferiority do not seem to have worked themselves into her head completely. If she is
\nable to switch the roles of her children by switching their places, they should be able
\nto function in their new positions well. Unfortunately this belief that the character of
\nwhites and blacks is fundamentally the same is untrue for her, and her child behaves
\nvery poorly. But this is not because he is black, but because he is a product of his
\nenvironment. Like Roxy, who is white in appearance but raised and acts black, her
\nchild raised as a spoiled white boy acts like one. Roxy is unable to take great
\nmeasures to enact her own freedom, like running for her life, she does find a way to
\nreclaim some power through the exchange of her child. Ultimately, Roxana
\ndemonstrates that the character of a person is determined by their upbringing and
\nsocial status, not by the genes which they carry. Although the nature and nurture
\ndebate is cast into a strange new realm today, where genetics are beginning to be
\nfound to be responsible for some elements of a persons behavior, at least
\npathologically, Roxana is a representative of a train of though which states that all
\nhuman behavior is rooted in nurture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Character: Roxana Source Text: \u00a0Mark Twain, Pudd\u2019nhead Wilson and those Extraordinary Twins (1894) Entry Author:\u00a0\u00a0 Roxana is a slave woman. Over many years of racial mixing in her ancestry, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20642],"tags":[20644,20577,20594,20578],"class_list":{"0":"post-287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-puddnhead-wilson","7":"tag-african-american","8":"tag-black","9":"tag-female","10":"tag-white","11":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}