Huck Finn Lies Essay

In the Novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Huck Finn can lie well when he is doing it to help people he cares about or feels bad for. Huck’s life has been based on lies, but he can only lie presumably when he is not doing it for his own benefit. Huck’s lies are not believable when he is lying for selfish reasons. Huck lies out of necessity, so when he lies for a want instead of a need or to save someone else, the lies do not sound truthful. Huck’s ability to lie depends on the people he is with. He is generally able to lie better when he is with someone he cares about rather than someone he is not as fond of. Huck Finn can only lie in a believable manner when he is doing it for a reason he comprehends as morally correct.

Huck does not want his friend, Jim, to be taken by these men, so he lies and tells them that his father is on the raft and that he is sick; hinting that his father has Smallpox, which is not something anyone would want to catch. The men ask what is wrong with his father, and Huck explains, “It’s the–a–the–well, it ain’t anything much”(Twain 107). Huck is pretending to be hiding something to make the men worry. He tells them that every time he would try to find help for his father, the people would leave as fast as they could. He says this so the slave hunters catch on about the supposed Smallpox. Huck doesn’t want them to go into the raft because they will likely take Jim away, and the Spallpox lie should keep them away. The men realized, “Your pap’s got the smallpox, and you know it precious well. Why didn’t you come out and say so? Do you want to spread it all over?”(107). Huck lies to them; he did not say it was Smallpox because his Pap desperately needs help. The men stay away from the raft after Huck’s very believable lies because they do not want to get sick as well, which saves Jim from being taken. Huck and Jim come across a wrecked steamboat

After Jim and Huck have both successfully escaped from their previous lives and come to Jackson’s Island, Huck travels back to the mainland to see what has been going on. Huck wears the clothes of a girl, so he will not be recognized after faking his death. He finds the house of a middle-aged woman to ask if news of his death has gotten around. He comes up with the name Sarah Williams and asks the woman who she thinks killed Huck. As time goes on Huck starts to struggle with acting like a girl and even forgets the fake name he created. The woman grows suspicious and asks what Huck’s real name is. She realizes Huck is a boy and does not let him leave, “No, you won’t. Set down and stay where you are”(71). She has noticed all the things Huck has done wrong trying to act like a girl. Huck comes up with a new fake name and the woman says, “Well try to remember it, George. Don’t forget and tell me it’s Elexander before you go,”(72). She tells him how to act the next time he lies about being a girl “Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle, don’t hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the tread at it–that’s the way a woman most always does”(72); and “when you throw at a rat or anything hitch yourself up a tip-toe, and fetch your hand up over your head as awkard as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven foot…[W]hen a girl tries to catch anything