Discrepancies in Pudd'nhead Wilson

I'd like to discuss some of the attributes of Pudd'nhead Wilson that were talked about in class today. One of particular interest to me that was mentioned in the discussion was the idea of having any relation of African descent, associates you as such, as it should, but of course that was a negative thing during that time period, or could be considered to many. This, known as "one drop", it seemed that Mark Twain intended on making some fun of it with nutlike of the characters. Roxy, who was one sixteenth African American, yet looked like she was white physically but still was a slave because of her heritage. And then her son, who was one thirty second African American and her slave owner's son who was white, looked so much alike that the only person who could tell them apart was Roxy because she took care of them both. So the irony that they could both be considered white if no one knew of Chambers' (Roxy's son) background, he could pass as any other white child and eventually man. Which is exactly why Roxy switched Chambers and her owner, Percy Driscoll's son, Tom, in hopes that her son wouldn't end up sold down the river. To me, it appears that Mark Twain is making fun of the idea of "one drop". And along with that idea, there was a notion as well that the "whiter" someone was, the smarter they were. But Twain contradicts his making fun of "one drop" with the idea that the whiter you were the smarter you were and somewhat agreeing with that, at least in his writing. Because he made the real Tom an actually good person with lots of potential, and also being fully white. And the fake Tom, aka Chambers, stupid and mean and a bad person, and also of African descent. So with that it seems like Twain does agree that whiter equals smarter. Does Twain believe some of the racial stereotypes that go along with African Americans and white people or is he trying to make fun of those stereotypes? This book kind of shows him doing both. But then if you think about where he is coming from, the time period, both could be possible. It is just tough to read, the whole book, because it is full of controversial and contradicting ideas. And the ending almost makes it feel like the whole book was pointless because it screws over the real Tom, and even though it gives Chambers a chance at not being disadvantaged, in turn it completely disadvantages Tom and Chambers gets "sent down the river" anyways. I just feel like, why even read this? I mwan we get to have these discussions but with no answers. Which is how a lot of things are, I know. It is just frustrating.