Lies and Deception in Huckleberry Finn

Jarizza Estillore
Ms. Sinclair
ENGL3S
05-16-11

Lies and Deception in Frankenstein and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Frankenstein, Mark Twain and Mary Shelley imply through their characters that lying and deceiving is acceptable if it is intended for good, and immoral if intended for bad. Huck is portrayed as a child of innocence and naivety. He is forced to lie and deceive others for the safety of his friend. Duke and Dauphin are professional con men, who lie and deceive others to swindle them of their money. Victor lies to others to hide the creature he created, so he will not face judgement and isolation. Through these characters we see the different reasons why each characters lie and deceive and what it results into.
Huck Finn is a child of only thirteen years, and he is taken in by the Widow Douglas due to his father’s drinking problems. Huck runs away but returns because it is the “respectable” thing to do. He believes strongly in superstition that he predicts when he’ll have a bad day. “Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle… fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time.” (Twain 3)   Huck is obedient towards his father, Pap, despite the fact that he hates him. Huck learns how to lie and deceive people from his father. When Pap returns to town and tries to get Huck back from the Widow, he told the judge how much he wanted to change and how much he loves Huck. (Twain 22) Once Huck returns to living with his father, Huck starts getting used to living like a “hog”. He picks on his fathers ways and sayings. He learns to cuss, use a gun and a knife, and most of all lie to people. In order to escape, Huck fakes his death by killing a wild pig and dragging its bloody body from the house to the river. Then Huck lies and fakes a smallpox outbreak on the raft in order to prevent Jim, an...