But the attacks were and are silly—and miss the point.The novel is strongly anti­slavery.Jim's search through the slave states for the family from whom he has been forcibly parted is heroic.As J．Chadwick has pointed out，the character of Jim was a first in American fiction—a recognition that the slave had two personalities，“the voice of survival within a white slave culture and the voice of the individual：Jim，the father and the man.”

　　There is much more.Twain's mystery novel Pudd'nhead Wilson stood as a challenge to the racial beliefs of even many of the liberals of his day.Written at a time when the accepted wisdom held Negroes to be inferior(低等的)to whites，especially in intelligence，Twain's tale centered in part around two babies switched at birth.A slave gave birth to her master's baby and，for fear that the child should be sold South，switched him for the master's baby by his wife.The slave's lightskinned child was taken to be white and grew up with both the attitudes and the education of the slave­holding class.The master's wife's baby was taken for black and grew up with the attitudes and intonations of the slave.

　　The point was difficult to miss：nurture(养育)，not nature，was the key to social status.The features of the black man that provided the stuff of prejudice—manner of speech，for example—were，to Twain，indicative of nothing other than the conditioning that slavery forced on its victims.

【2017届湖北省黄冈市高考英语阅读理解二轮精练：24（含解析）】相关文章：

★ 2017届高考英语二轮复习大题冲关秘籍之日常交际用语大全：高考英语常考的数词、代词及其用法（含解析）

★ 重庆市2014高考英语阅读理解一轮（精品）训练题（6）附答案

★ 2017高考四川省广安市英语阅读理解一轮系列训练：14（含解析）

★ 湖南省汝城二中2014届高考英语一轮复习阅读训练 (70)

★ 湖南省汝城二中2014届高考英语一轮复习阅读训练 (49)

★ 湖南省岳阳市2014高考英语一轮单项选择训练题（17）及答案

★ 【优化方案】2017届高考英语二轮复习全国卷Ⅱ题型重组训练：第18组（含解析）

★ 湖南省汝城二中2014届高考英语一轮复习阅读训练 (42)

★ 2017届高考英语二轮复习课时训练：23（含解析）

★ 2017届高考英语二轮复习课时训练：21（含解析）