identify her fate. When her son, the false heir, sells her back into slavery to pay his debts, he imagines that she would not know (125) she was on a boat headed to the dreaded South. Yet, the natural world tells her where she is going. The roar of a bigger and nearer break than usual (125-6) catches her attention. Roxanas practiced eye fell upon that telltale rush of water (126), and she knows that the boat is travelling south. Nature offers her the fingerprint of the break and its pattern as a clue of her sons moral character, just as it gives Wilson the actual fingerprints to do the same. Unlike Wilson, though, Roxana is not consumed with meddlesome science. While she might be too distracted to catch the rivers hint at first, when she does, the recognition is instant. By being receptive to the language of the environment, Roxana is able to make her judgment of Tom more quickly than the puddnhead who lets scientific thought impede his reception. As much as Puddnhead Wilson reinforces the idea of nature ultimately trumping human science in revealing the truth, it also warns that natures way can be thwarted by social constructions. The reader is informed that the real heir Thomas Driscoll, once known as Chambers, cannot recover from his life as a slave. He is illiterate and prefers being in the familiar kitchen where he once worked to the parlor. When restored to life he was born into, his manners are vulgar and uncouth; his manners were the manners of a slave (167). That he cannot assume the role he should have inherited illustrates the power man has over natural processes in this story. The social institution of slavery has corrupted Chambers -- just as it would have had he been master all along. Likewise, once Tom is found to be the real slave, he is not imprisoned; to shut up a valuable slave for life (168) is unthinkable in a world where the social construction of slavery is in no danger of ending. In presenting such an end for bo...
