Fitting into Society (Tom the most unfortunate soul)

       At the end of Pudd'nhead Wilson the real Tom Discroll faces an extremely difficult problem. He has to try and fit back into a Anglo man’s society, having been raised as a slave. Even though Tom is actually white and is of white blood. Having been raised as a slave his speech and mannerisms are completely different from the Anglo society. This also completely annihilates his relationships with his fellow slaves. Since he is no longer one of them and instead owns them now. Tom not only made the transformation from slave to white man. He became a wealthy affluent white man. Tom is a man with a prominent last name that is well known throughout the south and an heir of a big inheritance. These are extremely difficult shoes for anyone to fill let alone a man that’s never had to deal with that much stress before. Tom is a man that stands in the middle of two cultures and societies with his special circumstance. This to a much lesser degree has become a normal problem for many young people in America today. Especially those with parents that are immigrants or are from diverse ethnic backgrounds themselves. 

In today’s American society we have all different types of people living here. Many are 1st generation immigrants and some have been here for many generations. A familiar problem that kids with mixed raced parents face is the same as Tom’s which is trying to fit in into both cultures. Thankfully in today’s we don’t face the type of problems Tom faced (slavery and discrimination). Still however there is the problem of trying to fit in society and finding your own identity. When you’re filling out applications to almost anything they’ll always ask for race/ethnicity and almost always they make you only pick one. There are those that find these questions simple and identify with one or the other however there are those that try to get the best of both worlds. This is where the real problem begins. Those who embrace both their cultures are seen as outcasts by many. There’s a common saying in Spanish that describes this problem which is “Ni de aqui, ni de alla” which translates to “neither from here nor from there”. As these kids grow older they begin to accept the culture they are currently living in and start to slowly let go of their original roots. There’s nothing wrong with this change but their community can see this as the child not wanting them anymore and can lead them to shunning them once they leave. Also if the child is of a different color (skin wise) then they will have a hard time solidifying their place and the Anglo society. What do you guys think? Is this problem we see today? Or is something minor that our society will soon get over?