There’s a common idea that says first impressions matter. Where that’s mostly true, the circumstances around that meeting are just as important. If two people are on walking down the street and bump into each other without apologizing, their first impressions of each other would be negative. That doesn’t mean that each person is inherently bad, but their first impressions deemed them so. Back in the 1800’s, white people’s thoughts regarding African slaves made it seem as though they were not human. They did not take the time to get to know the slaves since society painted them to be monsters. But how does the impression of a young boy mold his view of a slave? Having taken place during the 1830’s, Twain’s novel tells the tale of Huckleberry …show more content…
Huck took refuge on Jackson Island after he faked his own death. He soon found out that Jim was also hiding on the island in order to get away from his owner who’d try and sell him. Jim had heard about Huck’s “death” and believed Huck to be a ghost trying to haunt him, but Huck explained the circumstances. Huck wanted to know how Jim had ended up on the island, and Jim hesitantly responded before quickly adding that he hoped Huck wouldn’t tell anyone. Huck responded with, “I said I wouldn’t, and I’ll stick to it…. People would call me a low down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum--but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t agoing to tell, and I ain’t agoing back there anyways. So now, le’s know all about it” (Chapter 8). Huck could’ve easily run straight to the first white person he saw and told them about Jim’s secret. Well, everyone did think that Huck was dead, but even if that wasn’t so, Huck wouldn’t have told anyone. He promised Jim that he’d keep his secret. Before Huck had found Jim, they were both completely alone with nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to. But they didn’t have to be alone anymore. That moment might’ve been the first concrete time where they had both seen each other as