How does the time and place which you live in affect who you are as a person and your life in general? Would you be a different person if you had grown up in a different time? Personally, I live in a time period in which technology is taking over people 's lives, terrorism is becoming a greater fear, cars are driving themselves, religion is becoming less common, and people are living longer. All of these aspects of the time in which I am living have an effect on who I am as a person and the life that I live. Similarly, in Mark Twain 's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim is a runaway slave whose life is greatly affected by the time period and places which he lives in. Throughout the story, Jim travels along a river in search of freedom
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In the beginning of the story, Jim is the property of Miss Watson, because during the 19th century there are no existing laws forbidding people from owning other people as property. In order to become a free man and escape the harsh treatment associated with being a slave, Jim runs away from Miss Watson. Jim explains, "Ole missus—dat 's Miss Watson—she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she wouldn ' sell me down to Orleans. But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader roun ' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy. Well, one night I creeps to de do ' pooty late, en de do ' warn 't quite shet, en I hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn ' want to, but she could git eight hund 'd dollars for me, en it 'uz sich a big stack o ' money she couldn ' resis '. De widder she try to git her to say she wouldn ' do it, but I never waited to hear de res '. I lit out mighty quick, I tell you" (Twain 32-33). Slavery causes Jim to flee from his home because he is in fear of being sold to another master. Also, slavery causes Jim to have make the decision to put himself before his family and run away in order to gain freedom from slavery. Later in the novel, slavery causes Jim to be separated from his best friend Huck. When the group that Huck and Jim are traveling with runs out of money, the group decides to sell Jim in order to solve their financial problems, which angers Huck. Huck exclaims, "after all we 'd done for them scoundrels, here it was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars" (160). If it were not for slavery, Jim would have never been a slave, and he would never have lost his freedom. Slavery not only causes Jim to lose his
In the beginning of the story, Jim is the property of Miss Watson, because during the 19th century there are no existing laws forbidding people from owning other people as property. In order to become a free man and escape the harsh treatment associated with being a slave, Jim runs away from Miss Watson. Jim explains, "Ole missus—dat 's Miss Watson—she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she wouldn ' sell me down to Orleans. But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader roun ' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy. Well, one night I creeps to de do ' pooty late, en de do ' warn 't quite shet, en I hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn ' want to, but she could git eight hund 'd dollars for me, en it 'uz sich a big stack o ' money she couldn ' resis '. De widder she try to git her to say she wouldn ' do it, but I never waited to hear de res '. I lit out mighty quick, I tell you" (Twain 32-33). Slavery causes Jim to flee from his home because he is in fear of being sold to another master. Also, slavery causes Jim to have make the decision to put himself before his family and run away in order to gain freedom from slavery. Later in the novel, slavery causes Jim to be separated from his best friend Huck. When the group that Huck and Jim are traveling with runs out of money, the group decides to sell Jim in order to solve their financial problems, which angers Huck. Huck exclaims, "after all we 'd done for them scoundrels, here it was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars" (160). If it were not for slavery, Jim would have never been a slave, and he would never have lost his freedom. Slavery not only causes Jim to lose his