Lying In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Everybody lies, some more than others, and many times there seems to be no real purpose. Compulsive liars are people who are so accustomed to lying that they do not even know or realize that they are lying. In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, all the main characters are skilled liars. The novel is centered around a boy, Huck Finn, who throughout the novel, lies to protect himself and to help his friend Jim escape slavery. During their journey, they pick up two con artists who try to trick them into thinking that they are lost members of royalty and demand Huck and Jim to wait on them like slaves. Towards the end of the novel, Huck is trying to save Jim from another slave plantation and has to pretend to be Tom Sawyer,

When Jim and Huck begin their journey together on the river, they come across a house floating on the water and they notice a dead body sprawled on the floor. When they go to check the house for money and other useful items, Jim recognizes the body to be Huck’s father, so he says to Huck, ‘It’s a dead man. He’s been shot in de back. I rek’n he’s ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan’ look at his face-it’s too ghastly’ (Twain 50), to protect Huck from the shock of seeing his dead father. This is a benevolent instance for Jim to lie to Huck and in this novel Twain draws a clear line between harmful, childish lies and morally corrupt

Before parents claim that their child is lying, they should try to understand the reasoning behind their lies because all lying is not the same and some “lies” are not even lies. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim are floating down the river on their raft and canoe when fog rolls in and Huck gets separated from Jim. When they are reunited, Jim tells Huck that he was so worried about him and Huck decides to play a joke on Jim saying, ‘I hain’t seen no fog, nor no islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing. I been setting here talking with you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon I done the same. You couldn’t ‘a’ got drunk in that time, so of course you’ve been dreaming’ (Twain 84), after a while Jim finally realizes that Huck is pulling a prank on him and he does not forgive Huck until he apologizes to him. It seems like Huck was only trying to have a little fun with Jim because he is a young boy and there is not much to do while floating on the river, but Jim seems to have interpreted it as Huck was lying to him and he feels betrayed. This is the tricky part about lying because to some people it might be portrayed as a joke, but to others they might see it as