Oral (or speech-like); Wordy
Oral (or speech-like): Yakety-Yak
Style is supposed to be about the way a book is written. So where do we get off describing the style of this novel as oral? Hang with us for a minute and we'll explain.
One of the things you'll probably notice as you're getting into this story is that a lot of the dialogue (especially Roxy's and Chambers's lines) looks a bit different than what you might be used to seeing. We're talking about lines like this:
"Bofe of us is imitation white—dat's what we is—en pow'ful good imitation, too—yah-yah-yah!" (8.26)
This kind of dialogue, better known as dialect (or in some circles, by the even fancier term "vernacular"), is supposed to give us a sense of how characters would sound if they were actually speaking the words out loud. See why we described the writing as oral? And you thought we were just nuts.
Twain's use of dialect in Pudd'nhead Wilson shows that he was pretty hip to the times of the late nineteenth century as far as American literary trends go. Regionalist or local color stories with their heavy use of dialect were all the rage in this period. But, of course, we figured Twain would be on the cutting edge, right?
Now here comes the controversial part. Contemporary literary scholars have raised a boatload of questions concerning the uses of dialect in late nineteenth-century U.S. literature. And one of the juiciest of these questions concerns how readers relate to characters who speak in dialect.
On the one hand, dialect could be viewed as a method of writing that helped readers understand and connect with characters who represented people who spoke much differently from themselves.
So in the case of Pudd'nhead, white readers might gain a more intimate sense of African American life by listening to Roxy talk. Intimacy with this character might, in turn, encourage those readers to have sympathy for her. A good thing, right?
Not so fast. On the other less optimistic hand, Roxy's dialect could make her seem alien, unrelatable, and even unintelligent to white readers. In that case, readers might feel distanced from and perhaps even superior to Roxy. As a result, they could be far less willing to take seriously the struggles of African Americans that her character represents.
So, what do you say? What effects do you think Twain's use of dialect, or an oral style of writing, has on his readers?
Wordy: A way with (lots of) words
We all know that Mark Twain is known for pithy, concise remarks packed with humor and wit. "Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company" or "Don't let schooling interfere with your education" are just a couple of his gems. It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, that a lot of the writing in Pudd'nhead Wilson contains, well, a lot of words.
Never fear, though: even when Twain is long-winded, it's usually in the service of his trademark humor.
Let's take, for example, the narrator's descriptions of Aunt Patsy and Rowena as they host the reception for the twins. Try reading this sentence out loud without taking a breath:
Eager inquiries concerning the twins were pouring into [Aunt Patsy's and Rowena's] enchanted ears all the time; each was the constant center of a group of breathless listeners; each recognized that she knew now for the first time the real meaning of that great word Glory, and perceived the stupendous value of it, and understood why men in all ages had been willing to throw away meaner happiness, treasure, life itself, to get a taste of its sublime and supreme joy. (6.17)
Sure, we could boil all this down to a much briefer sentence like, "Patsy and Rowena were psyched." But the narrator's lengthier, over-the-top version conveys just how in awe, to the point of ridiculousness, of the twins these two ladies are. And ridiculous usually equals funny, right?
If we've got to plow through a lot of wordy sentences, at least it's a good thing they're written by someone as funny as Twain.