In 1894, Mark Twain wrote a book titled Pudd'nhead Wilson. At the beginning of the book it was set in the 1830s but years pass by (Twain, 1). At this time slavery was a huge part of people's lives. The One-drop rule is present in this book. The One-drop rule states at if just one of the person's ancestor is an African Americans then they are considered a slave. This book shares many ideas from the Group Minds, an article, by Doris Lessing. In this article, Doris Lessing talks about how people in the same group think alike. She uses the term group polarization, which means that groups have a tendency to make decisions together and think the same and have that groups attitude (Lessing, par. 5). In Pudd'nhead Wilson, the novel, people have…show more content… Tom went of to Yale University when he was old enough and when he came back wearing northern clothes and white gloves the people of the city made fun of him. Tom has a gambling problem and starts to steal to make up the money. He wears woman's clothes to commit burglary. Aunt Patsy wants to rent out one of the rooms in her house and eventually finds two Italian twins. While stealing one day Tom steals the twins' jewel encrusted dagger. The twins put up an award for it. Pudd'nhead Wilson promised the twins they they would get their dagger back but Tom leads the people to believe that the twins were lying and there was no dagger. Tom tries to steal from Judge of the town but he wakes up and Tom kills him. Pudd'nhead Wilson uses the fingerprints to figured out Tom was switched and that he committed the murder. Doris Lessing's ideas can be used to explain some of the choices the town people make. She explains that it is human nature to form groups that are similar to the way that you think. When you are in the group you eventually assimilate the way the group thinks with how you think (Lessing par.6). Your ideas beginning to shift with the majority of what the people are thinking. This is how people conform to the group that they are a part of. This idea is what she considers to be group
