“I wish you would, because it’s pap that’s on there, and maybe you’d help me tow the raft ashore where the light is. He’s sick-and so is mam and Mary Ann.” (Twain, pg. 94) This is one example of the many lies told in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In this story, there are lies told that may be considered “good lies,” and also lies told that would be considered “bad lies.” Many people wonder if both types of lies are wrong, or what the difference between the two are. Good lies are told in order to protect someone or something. An example of a good lie told in this story would be when Huck told the men looking for runaway slaves on the shore of the Mississippi River that his mom, dad and sister were sick on his raft. In reality, …show more content…
In this book, these types of lies are told frequently by the Duke and the Dauphin. These two people are frauds who often tell lies in order to trick people and get their money. For instance, when they pretended to be the Wilkes brothers so they could get Peter Wilkes’s inheritance after he died. This is a bad lie because the family is trying to mourn the loss of their uncle, and the Duke and the Dauphin are posing as someone else just to get the money. The family of Peter Wilkes catches on that the Duke and Dauphin may not actually be the true brothers, so they start questioning them. When the question of what Peter had tattood on his chest comes, the two men give a suspicious answer that causes the family to go to Peters burial site and dig him up. Huck knows that the two men are lying and aren’t really the brothers, and he gets very stressed as they are going to the burial site. “I couldn’t bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn’t think about nothing else.” (Twain, pg. 199) Another time a bad lie was told in this story was when the Duke and Dauphin put on a fake Romeo and Juliet. People that lived in the town that they put this play on in came and payed money to watch it, however once it started, the people soon realized that they had been scammed. The men were rolling around across the stage naked. These are just a few of the many bad lies told throughout this