Outside Reading Post Number One

As I was reading my book, Life Class by Pat Barker, I realized that a major theme throughout the book, but especially in the begginning was that first impressions aren't always as important as some make them out to be. Take the main characters Paul and Elinor for example. The story allways follows Paul and is told from his perspective, but from what other's say and some of Paul's actions we see that he is impatient, headstrong and easily swayed. But then we also see a side of him unlike our first impression. "Bastard. All Paul's long frustration...boiled over into hatred for this man with his florried cheeks and silver-topped cane. He jumped up and began striding along the path, meaning to cut them off before they reached the gate" (Barker 10) Paul decided to save a fifteen year old prostitute from a middle aged man because he feels so sorry for her. Almost immediatly after we make our first impressions of Paul, we are forced to change them because Paul does something so noble, a word not included in the original description above.
The same happens with Elinor. Through Paul we see her as a puzzle "She came towards until she was close enought to touch. A stir of desire, almost indistiguishable from irritation. He wasn't in the mood for "the treatment"-by which he meant the air of imtimacy Elinor created between herself and any man she spoke to" (Barker 14) We think she's some kind of,well, whore. But really she's not. If one reads on we see that Elinor is earnest and a hopeless romantic. So, first impressions can be incredibly decieving. One has to read more into someone before they really know the person. Firts impressions shouls never be trusted.