Huck Finn Deceit Analysis

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In 1884, Mark Twain published the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which featured a young boy named Huck Finn, who experiences how deceit is used by various people, including himself, throughout his journey from Hannibal, Missouri down the Mississippi River. Defining deceit as, “distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading” (Dictionary.com), deceit shows itself throughout many instances during the novel, which Twain tries to illustrate the morality of the various cons to each specific situation, each one proving to contain a separate purpose other than to simply tell a lie. Huck experiences several examples of how deceit can weave its way into everyday situations, whether it is Huck himself who uses it, or one of the various people around him throughout the novel. Deceit is found in the lives of…show more content…
However, Huck believes that, in some instances, telling the truth can actually be riskier than telling a simple lie (Twain 186). In many cases, people believe that telling a lie will always lead you back to the truth, but only if you follow the right path. Another psychologist explains, “The overarching premise is that if we can only see our own point of view, we can authentically argue our case because our deceits bind us to the truth” (Article 1). Psychologists believe that although someone can tell a lie that may be far from the truth, each lie is connected with the truth in some manner. As each lie or con is told throughout the novel, each character faces the odds of being caught red-handed, and in some cases with the Duke and King, the outcomes could prove to be harmful (Twain 59, 152). In these few specific instances, the lies are necessary for the survival of someone within the novel; however, although the lies are necessary, they also place the characters in complicated

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