We are told how David Wilson got his name, but wasn't he just trying to make a joke? The townspeople thought that Wilson was crazy for saying that he "wished he owned half of a dog". I thought that he was just trying to be funny in a sort of complicated way. Should the townspeople be the ones called "Pudd'nhead?"

-- Anonymous, February 24, 2000

Answers

The town people should be the ones called pudd'nheads. I believe that is the point Twain is attempting to make. The people in that town, as well as any other small town on the river, is who Twain is attempting to strike out at. Wilson made a joke that the towns people fialed to understand, mostly because they over analyzed it. That one misunderstood remark labled him a fool for years in the town. The people didn't even let him explian his remark before he was being adressed as fool.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2000

I agree with the idea that the townspeople should be the ones considered "puddnheads" Like you said Wilson was just trying to make a joke to break the ice with the townspeople since he was new in town. They were the ignorant ones for not seeing his sense of humor and for carrying on and on about his remark about the dog. People with no sense of humor are definetly pudd'nheads in my book.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2000

I agree Mr. Wilson was just trying to fit in he didn't really mean what he said. It kind of shows how small minded people can be. I think that in a smaller community people are less open minded and a first impressions mean everything. Mr. Wilson didn't make a good first impression so he was then labled as a "Pudd'nhead" which is terrible. The sad part is that the towns people can't get past that and call him by his right name.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2000

I think that even though Mr. Wilson was simply trying to make a joke it was a humor that was more complex than the people of the town were able to understand. It was kind of an "intellectual" joke that he understood but that they wouldn't. I know that you understood that to be funny b/c you understand intellectual humor. The same concept in the book is also true in our Jr. English class. Some didn't get it. Some of us did. I think that it is the same concept here.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000

Mr. Wilson was just trying to make a joke, but I feel he should have came up with something different. First impressions are the most important and he should of realized this. He didn't know these people or how they would react.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2000