Do you have ideas or insights regarding the role of lying and storytelling in the novel? If so, please share them in a comment. Remember to read the other comments before posting your own so that you can engage with the ideas already put forth. Also, remember to use specific examples from the novel and quotations (with page numbers, of course!) whenever possible.
Here are some questions to get you thinking:
What is the role of lying in the novel? Are the lies the characters
tell “good” or “bad”? Huck frequently admits to lying – does that mean we do not trust the story he tells? How do we see through the lies? How is lying similar to or different from storytelling in the novel?
Lying is an important part of the story as a whole, and many characters, both major and minor, tell lies throughout it. Lying plays a large role in Huck’s life as he makes his way along the river. He is constantly lying about who he is in order to protect his and Jim’s identities, and frequently to gain people’s sympathy. Huck doesn’t, however, feel good about people being hurt because of the lies he tells; he views lying as more of a necessity for his and Jim’s safety, and tries not to lie at the expense of other people.
ReplyDeleteHuck mentions that telling the truth rarely is the safest thing to do: “I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place, is taking a considerable many resks … and yet here’s a case where … the truth is better, and actuly safer, than a lie.” (239)
Other minor characters lie for selfish reasons, such as ‘the King’ and ‘the Duke’ who lied to Huck and Jim about being the descendants of royalty so they could get special treatment (161) and also travel from town to town, tricking people out of money as they go (172, 196-198, 209). These lies are undoubtedly for personal gain at the expense of other people and are viewed as wrong, as opposed to Huck’s lies.
At the dawn of Western literature we find the greatest liar of them all, Homer’s Epic hero, Odysseus. Odysseus tells a different, complex, and elaborate lie to every single person he meets, including, among many others, the Cyclops, the king of the Phaeacians, and even his own wife Penelope, who he hasn’t seen for over twenty years. His lies are usually elaborate stories about where he came from, how he got lost and why he wound up in front of the person he lies to. His detailed and convincing lies partially explain his nick-name: “polytropos” which can mean “man of many plots or plans,” or “man of many stories,” or alternatively, “man of many lies.” Huck is just such an epic liar. We see a lot of liars in this novel, but Huck is one of the best. In this, he is very like Odysseus. In what other ways does Huck resemble an epic hero? Is Huck also “polytropos?”
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ReplyDeleteI believe that The Duke and The King are important characters. I think they were put in to offset the belief that Huck is immoral because he lies and steals. By making the King and The Duke look so terrible Twain makes Huck look much more moral and honest. This is added to by the fact that Huck tells Miss Mary Jane the truth about her two fake uncles. The King and The Duke also lie about being revered, world-class English actors in their posters for the Royal Nonesuch, about being a Duke and a King to begin with, and about where Jim came from in their fake wanted poster. While The King and The Duke lie and manipulate people to get money and an easy life Huck lies to protect himself and his friend Jim and steals so that they can eat. By comparison to The King and The Duke Huck looks like an angel.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to point out the way Huck talks about lying, when he isn't doing it. Huck seems to absolutely abhor and dislike lying very much when he is witnessing it. For example, when the king and duke pretend to be the relatives of the deceased in a small town, they plan on taking about $600,000. Now for Huck to see them lie like this is disgusting. He says, "...because out of their mouths they can't, words being too weak and cold, and all that kind of rot and slush, till it was just sickening; and then he blubbers out a pious goody-goody Amen, and turns himself loose and goes crying to fit to bust" (213). Now, as Emiko pointed out, Huck generally lies and manipulates people to help himself and Jim. But when Huck lies, it's not a bad thing; it's just something that has to be done; it's something that will, in the end, help them. Just something to think about when you're reading I guess...
ReplyDeleteHistorically, lies have been presented to us as a question of morals (the moral to tell the truth is a common message at the end of children’s stories). The deception and trickery that is part of Huck’s persona arises when he is confronted with obstacles or individuals that stand in his way. We can then define the lies encountered in the book as the means to an end, not the meaning itself. Taken at face value, lies destroy trust, perpetuate falsehoods, and damage your character. In the case of Huck Finn, Mark Twain created his character to stand opposite the grownups and the swindlers who claim to piously uphold truth and conscience while using such trust others have in their motives to get away with despicable acts of selfishness, which lie at the heart of their character. To describe the morals of his protagonist, Twain made the assertion that "a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience," a statement that falls along the same lines as my favorite quote from Blake, “A truth that’s told with bad intent / beats all the lies you can invent.”
ReplyDeleteAs Emiko and Hero pointed out, the reason for the swindlers telling lies are different with why Huck tells his lies, and thus Huck is revolted by their actions and turns them in. Such actions prove that Huck’s lies serve not only to help others but also preserve his independence. In the circumstances which he finds himself, lying and pretence are simply unavoidable. His various alter egos, aren’t play-acting whims, but strategies on which his life depends.
I think Huck is a very accomplished liar, but only for good reason. He uses it to get him out of many a sticky situation. He also uses it to protect his and Jim's identities when needed, as stated by most commenters above.
ReplyDeleteI wish to comment on the style of Huck's storytelling. I have noticed throughout the book, Huck tends to tell the most important facts, like dialog and the way people looked, then he generalizes long periods of time into one or two sentences, sometimes even not mentioning the passing days at all. He will include when he meets new people, and the specifics of a scene if it's important, but doesn't drag the book along by telling every thing they did over and over. Instead, he generalizes how they operate into a couple of sentences, and tells you that this is how it worked for these times. I think this is due to his more childish way of thinking, and how most children only tell what they think is important. In Huck's case, the things he thinks are important are the things we need to know to continue understanding the story. This is important, because if we were viewing the story from the point of view of someone else, then we might see the same story with a different perspective. I think we should be glad that Huck is the kind of person that tells the important things, because if we were seeing through someone who thought running away, riding on a raft, ect. was boring, we would have a negative view of the whole story. I have also noticed that when Huck is describing pretty things, like nature, or something like that, he starts to get slightly poetic. "...then the nice breeze springs up, and comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh, and sweet to smell, on account of the woods and the flowers; but sometimes not that way, because they've left dead fish laying around, gars, and such' and they do get pretty rank; and next you've got the full day, and everything smiling in the sun, and the songbirds just going it!"(157) Huck is pretty much un-biased, and can take almost anything in stride, and will tell us what he sees, and how he sees it, without changing it so he thinks we'll like it. He is very honest, and ready to go along with most things, but can usually see through scams like the Duke and the King.
I think that lying shapes Huck as a character and makes the story, strangely enough, more realistic. When you think about it Huck lies throughout the entire story, that's just part of his character and a lot of young kids are like that. I'm guessing that Mark Twain also wrote Huck's voice with heavy exaggeration. The whole story is a little far fetched I think but some things are just not possible. The most obvious one I can think of is this:
ReplyDelete"He just stood up there, a-sailing around as easy and comfortable as if he warn't ever drunk in his life—and then he begun to pull off his clothes and fling them. He shed them so thick they kind of clogged up the air, and altogether he shed seventeen suits." (194)
Seventeen? Really? The man would not have been able to even MOVE in that many suits let alone keep balanced on a horse. Huck says this because he wants to show how cool he thought the show was and he wants the reader to think it was really cool and interesting to. (Hate to go all Dr. Drew here or whatever but maybe he does this because he wants the reader to like him and think he's interesting because he never got that from his father, who, though Huck hates to admit it, is a huge part of who Huck is and his life.) But I like that Huck speaks with embellishments, I think it makes the story much more real. When a child is telling you a story they stretch the truth to make it more interesting and amazing and Huck's doing the same thing. It shows that he is still a child and that though he's grown throughout the novel, (though, quite honestly, it takes a while and you don't notice it instantly) but still keeps the fun kid quality that makes Huck, Huck. In that way lying almost shapes the novel as it shapes its narrator.
-Charlotte
As I have been reading I have found countless untruths and stories. Some of these come in the form of “tall tales”, a popular story form of the time, while others are outright lies. This does not come as much of a surprise to me, however, because we could tell from the very beginning that Huck was on his own most of the time and had to resort to lying often to get by. Some of it is for self-protection, but some seems to be for his own self-entertainment - the product of a clever mind. He lies for Jim’s safety as well, which shows that he considers Jim such a good friend that he would lie to protect him, when before he was the only one he ever lied on behalf of. The lies in this book often give us glimpse into the characters’ true personality through the nature of what they lie about and how they go about it. When the King and the Duke lie about their identities, it is just because they are probably insecure with their true selves and want to be treated like royalty for once. They lie to each other although they seem to be friends, in kind of a game of one-upsmanship, although each probably knows the other is not who he says he is. Huck is shocked when others lie, as Hero pointed out. He seems to find it repugnant. As Hero said, lying is only acceptable when Huck is doing it because then it can be justified in his mind. He feels as though when he is lying it is for his own survival and that of Jim whereas with anybody else he assumes that they are doing it for a less pure purpose, just because they are morally unsound. Huck, however, often gets carried away with his untrue stories and sometimes this brings his own demise.
ReplyDeleteOften, lies are used to purposely misinform for one’s personal gain. In Twain’s novel, the lies given by the King and the Duke do just that. Neither have a real reason to lie; they simply stumble across two unsuspecting strangers (who happen to be in a similar position as they are), and both determine that they can make Huck and Jim pamper them, by declaring, “By rights I am a duke!” (161) and proclaiming, “you see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin’, exiled, trampled-on and sufferin’ rightful King of France” (163), respectively. With these lies active, the Duke and the King are treated far better than Huck and Jim treat themselves. However, these are both lies that are fairly easy to see through, much like many of the other lies in the text. With prior and outside knowledge, the reader can determine that neither of these men are what they claim to be. This same knowledge can also be applied to the lies that Huck makes.
ReplyDeleteHuck’s lies are not as ‘bad’ as those of the King and Duke; instead, they are oriented more towards storytelling. Many of Huck’s lies have him fabricating a background so that others don’t realize his idea. So far (chapter XXX or so), Huck’s lies have done no wrong. Now, just because Huck lies, does not make him an unreliable narrator. Yes, he does exaggerate, but then Huck often goes to great lengths to explain himself after/before he lies, as well. The fact that he frequently admits to it means that he wants the reader to know when he is lying. Also, he, like Mark Twain, is telling a story; it occasionally will contain “stretchers,” it is still “mostly true” (1). The ‘stretchers’ that Huck tells, as well as the backgrounds he fabricates, are once again seen through with prior and outside knowledge (Huckleberry Finn is not George Jackson).
I also agree that Huck lies throughout the novel to protect Jim and himself. His lies consist of long stories about his past to make his current state more believable. Huck lies about his family, his name, age, gender and most importantly, Jim. Many times after lying, Huck feels guilty. He says, “I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how or no way. It was troubling me so I couldn’t rest, I couldn’t stay still on one place. It hadn’t ever come home to me before what this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it staid with me, and scorched me more and more” (123). Huck feels guilty because he is evidently helping Miss Watsons slave free. He later asks himself if Miss Watson deserves to be treated this way, despise the fact that she cared and helped Huck in so many ways. The factor that Huck does feel guilty about his lying makes it easier to differentiate between the lies and the truth. This factor also gives the reader more sympathy for Huck and changes are general perception about whether lying is good or bad. I would say that in his situation he should lie, especially because he is doing it to protect Jim and himself.
ReplyDeleteHuck, even though he criticizes the use of "stretchers" on the very first page of the book, uses lies to mask his identity almost pathologically. Whenever he meets someone he doesn't know, almost without fail, he will make up a lie on the spot explaining who he is and why he is where he is. He gets so used to lying, and does it so often, that every once in a while he will forget what lie he is telling. A good example of this is when he dresses up as a girl and goes to the house he and Jim see from the river in Chapter X. He enters the house and introduces himself as Sarah Williams to the woman in the house. After a while, the woman, already suspicious that Huck is lying about his identity, pretends she has forgotten "Sarah's" name and asks what "her" name is again; Huck, momentarily forgetting his lie, replies "Mary Williams". The woman calls him out, and Huck immediately says that his full name is Sarah Mary Williams. This scene shows both how Huck is used to thinking up lies on the spot, and also how he tells so many lies that he can't always keep them straight.
ReplyDeleteHuck has a very strong morals about things such as stealing and killing but he doesn't have any problem with lying. He is forced lie constantly in order to save himself and Jim from harm. For example, on page 126 there are two men looking for runaway slaves; Huck is forced to lie in order to protect Jim from captivity. He claims that his dad is on the raft and that he has small pox. So the two man leave, fearing they will catch small pox if they help, but they give Huck twenty dollars a piece out of pity. Huck has obviously been lying all his life in order to stay out of trouble.
ReplyDeleteAs a result of Huck's constant lying some readers question the validity of the story he is telling. I believe that we can trust the basics of Huck's overall story because it is different then the yarns he tells. Most of his yarns have a few recurring aspects. Such as, a family in trouble, a death in a family, a kind father he is with, and a sense of emergency. Where as the overall story he is telling The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin doesn't have much references to Huck's family at all other than his terrible father. It is also not told with a sense or emergency but in a calm almost lazy way.
a. As many people have already said, Huck often lies to protect himself and Jim. But that isn’t the only time he lies. He very often lies for fun, to play a trick on others. In Chapter XV, Huck and Jim are separated on the river. When they finally reconnect, Huck plays a trick on Jim, telling him that he dreamed the whole event and that he had been on the raft the entire time. Jim believes him until he sees leaves and trash on the raft and he realizes that Huck has played a trick. Jim is angry with Huck for breaking his trust and he says, “Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed” (105). Huck feels so guilty for lying to Jim that he “could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back” (105).
ReplyDeleteThis scene also tells a lot about Huck’s views about differences between races. I don’t think that Huck disliked Jim because he was black or that he felt negatively toward him because of his race. However, as did everyone during this time period, Huck held the belief that there was a difference between white and black people. It was just the way everyone believed and the way everyone thought. Huck had to think very hard to “humble [himself] to a nigger” (105) and apologize for his lying, but he did it because it was worth it because their friendship was so important to Huck.
Lying and storytelling go hand in hand. Almost no good story can be top notch without a bit of embellishment. An experienced and talented storyteller will subtlety bend the original truths of stories to create something more pleasing to the audience. In fact, after telling enough stories, it's irresistible to make them better after every telling, and plain truth rarely makes a good story. This sort of lying is socially acceptable, it only makes for a better story. Throughout the book we see many examples of this sort of lying when the characters tell stories. For example, Jim's story of being separated from Huck in the fog on the river is an excellent example of this tendency. "... Jim went to work and told me the whole thing right through just as it happened, only he painted it up considerable"(104). Jim maybe telling what happened, but in the process he adds to the facts. These sort of lies are easily accepted in the book, they have no consequences, they harm no one and only serve to entertain.
ReplyDeleteLies that seek to harm undeserving individuals however, are often rejected and backfire. The King and the Duke, masters at lying for their own advantage doom themselves when they try to steal over six thousand dollars from the two sisters. This lie hurts others to their own advantage so it backfires and sees the brothers run out of town without a penny. Huck, who's lies when harmless, or for the benefit of those who deserve it are always believed. Lies, if harmless cause no problems for their tellers, but lies that harm others for the tellers benefit will always turn on the teller.
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ReplyDeleteThroughout the course of the novel we see that different characters have different views and uses for lying. Huck believes that lying and storytelling are powerful tools in shaping interactions and relationships, and as such, uses them with discretion. Huck’s primary use of lies and elaborately concocted stories is to mask his identity, for fear of Jim’s capture or his Pa’s return. When Huck is separated from Jim, and Huck finds the Grangerford family to live with, he hides his true identity by assuming a different name and place of origin, regardless of his trust and security with them. Huck’s story is rather elaborate, and filled with sorrow, perhaps reflecting the overall tone of his journey thus far. Huck tells the Grangerfords; “(P)ap and me and all the family was living on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw. . . and then there warn’t nobody but just me and Pap left and he was just trimmed down to nothing on account of his troubles; so when he died I took what there was left, because the farm didn’t belong to us, and started up the river deck passage, and fell overboard and that was how I come to be (at the Grangerfords)”(135) Earlier on in the novel, when Huck goes ashore to find out more about what is known of Jim’s and his flight, he dresses up like a girl, and attempts to give himself a different name and identity. Huck gives his name as “Sarah Williams” (68) and tells Judith Loftus that “(His) mother’s down sick and out of money and everything, and I come to tell my uncle .....” (68) Huck’s lie is in this case harmless to everybody, unless he is caught. If Huck is caught then, he is potentially endangering himself and shaking other people’s trust in him. This is because Huck’s lies have no impact on people’s futures, he is just using a false identity to gain information and get out. Huck’s lie is of self-preservation and therefore excusable. Huck does get caught in this lie, but builds a stronger lie to cover it, and escapes unscathed.
ReplyDeleteHuck’s lies are often directed towards people who seem inherently “good”, if sometimes a little misguided. While the Grangerfords are caught up in a senselessly violent feud with another family, they do take the time out to help a stranger, Huck. Huck knows, however, that his situation with Jim is incomprehensible to most white Americans of the time, and as such, almost exclusively hides it. Interestingly enough, the two con-men he travels with are the only people thus far to which he has revealed Jim’s and his circumstances. Huck’s lies are not “wrong” because they are not lies of selfishness, unlike the lies of the “duke” and the “king.” Huck lies not only for his own sake, but for the sake of Jim, making his lies an excusable act.
Through the course of Mr. Twain’s work we see Huck develop into a prodigious liar of skill and finesse. For example, with the lie he constructs to make a boat’s captain rescue the two rapscallions on the dying steamboat, he quickly uses all the information he can gather from the captain to lend credibility and relevance to his story. Even though Huck’s lie wasn’t absolutely necessary for his own sake, he is still proud of what the result will be, and wishes to share it with the people he views as morally upright.. “I was feeling ruther comfortable, on accounts of talking all this trouble for that gang, for not many would a done it. I wished the widow knowed about it. I judged she would be proud of me for helping these rapscallions , because rapscallions and dead beats withe kind the widow and good people takes the most interest in.”(91) Huck’s lie in this case is not for self-preservation, and it is not for preservation of the rapscallions, but it is in fact a slightly more selfish lie. Huck is lying as to make himself feel like he has done good in the world, where in reality he has really just shuttled rapscallions from one death to another This act has value for religious or superstitious people, but in a practical view of the situation is irrelevant. Huck is feeling guilty for running away after the widow tried so hard to take care of him, so he acted as he felt she would have as to repay her for her care.
ReplyDeleteHuck is surrounded by a culture of lying, and his ability to grow as a liar stems both from his personal experience as well as the advice and observation of others. Huck has a few lies that only barely pass or fail completely, such as his lie of pretending to be a girl, or when he forgets his false name with the grangerfords. To this end Huck realizes he has to be more mentally dedicated to his falsehoods, and his succeeding lies are presented more believably.
Huck disapproves of what he sees as “unnecessary” lies but knows that to act on his disapproval will not ultimately further any of his goals, so he keeps quiet. For example, when he meets the “Duke of Bridgewater” and the “King of France” Huck is aware that Jim is convinced by these two men, but does not feel the need to enlighten him to their falsehood. Huck is content to see if things will have a truly negative impact before acting against them. Twain shows us that Huck is troubled by unnecessary lies, but not to the extent that he will expose them without evidence of harm. In this way, Twain also shows us that we as the readers can trust Huck not to lie to us except in cases of necessity.
Tom and Huck’s personalities are very different. While Tom is imaginative and passionate, Huck sees reality. Tom has an idea to start a “band of robbers” with all their friends. Tom believes stories that he has read, but Huck doubts them and feels the need to test them. For example, he tests Tom’s story about a genie coming out of an oil lamp and comes to the conclusion “That all that stuff was only just one of
ReplyDeleteTom’s Saywer’s lies.”(17) He also goes with the “band of robbers” on Tom’s mission to find camels, diamonds, and “A-rabs” even though he does not really believe that that is what they will find. When Huck questions Tom he says, “If I warn’t so ignorant, but had read a book called ‘Don Quixote,’ I would know without asking.” (15) What Huck is struggling to believe, Tom does not question, and Tom always has
a way to back his story up by saying things happen by magic or enchantment. Huck’s past with his Pap has been so harsh that maybe it is harder for Huck to believe in stories like Tom’s , but he still has hope that they are true. Huck wants to escape his life somehow and doing so through his imagination would be easier than doing so physically.
As already said Huck has a tendency of lying to people to protect his and Jim's identities. Huck realizes that he lies are his getaway from trouble. As much as he likes to lie, he understands that there is a chance of getting caught because he doesn't plan to lie, he just lies when he has to but at the same time get stuck the second round that he is asked what his name is. One thing that surprises me is that he gets out of every trouble he is in with those lame lies even he if has trouble convincing the people what he is telling them about. Now in my experience if you get caught in a suspicious matter then you are considered a lair, but in his case he gets and gets what he wants done at the end of the day whether he lied or not.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Huck being influenced by Tom to lie is not true in my opinion because Tom really didn't talk about lying as part of their robbing activity but i think that Huck was a liar from the first place. The reason I said that is because Miss Watson( the widow) had trouble teaching him how to be a gentlemen, be a good person, wear nice clothes and etc. My point in this topic is that he was born a liar, he was born at a place where lying was a part of surviving and happily his life was saved by Miss Watson and her husband. Finally I say that Huck is good liar for a boy that age and I like that fact that he wouldn't lie on Jim because he is a runaway.
As many have already said, Huck lies to protect Jim and himself. Though his lies are to protect him and Jim, Huck despises those who lie to trick innocent people such as the King and Duke.Before the King and Duke enter the novel, Huck doesnt seem to have a problem with lying but after they start traveling with the King and Duke, you see more and more the good conscience of Huck, and how much it bothers him when others lie to trick people. When the King and Duke pretend to be the brothers of the deceased Peter Wilks, they are doing it just to take money that isnt even necessary to them and they are taking it from helpless, innocent, people. Huck feels so terrible about it that he decides to tell Peter Wilks daughter Miss Mary Jane. He thinks, "It made my eyes water a little, to remember her crying there by herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own roof, shaming her and robbing her" (243). He should be happy that they are going to get a large amount of money but Huck has a very good conscience and only feels horrible about it. By calling the Duke and KIng `devils` Huck shows how deeply bothered he is by their lying.
ReplyDeletelying and story telling in huckleberry Finn are related topics for sure. the best lies can be commonly found in old stories and legends. For a very large and rather mean lie is the one to be found produced by the king and the duke when they are impersonating the 2 brothers of Peter Wilks to make money. The lies that they came up with were both mean and cruel but they created stories that will last for centuries because of the shear creativity and execution that were involved with them. While true Huck was already a liar. His pap was surely also a reason as to why Huck was a liar.
ReplyDeletehowever this trait and tendency to lie to get himself out of trouble also adds some very interesting subplots to our story. looking back at it, if it were not for lies the story of Huckleberry Finn would be both considerable shorter and less interesting of a novel.
An amusing point made by many other folks on this blog is that the lies are both what make Huckleberry Finn himself but also it makes the stories around him so memorable. If it were not for the lies and story telling this book would be incredibly shorter and less interesting.
Many of Huck's lies have connections to what happens to him earlier in the story, like when Huck dresses up as a girl and is talking to a woman in a town near his father's home. Like all of Huck's lies, this one is very ridiculous and full of his imagination, but at the same time, it is very true: "The law had bound me out to a mean old farmer in the country thirty mile back from the river and he treated me so bad... [I] cleared out" (73). This lie is very similar to what actually happened to Huck, the "mean old farmer" represents his father, and his father took Huck far away from everyone, like how the farmer lives in the country, which feels far away to Huck, who grew up in a town. This lie has the biggest connection to his past then all of the others, but many contain pieces of this story inside them, often some form of Huck running away from his father.
ReplyDeleteAs many people have previously stated, many or all of Huck's lies are made to protect Jim and himself, and while they do just that, they are also very long and imaginative. Huck takes every opportunity to create new and slightly believable lies to each new person he meets, finding their shock very funny, until he finds out how scared or sad he has made them feel. The two greatest times this has happened was after he came out of the fog nearly loosing Jim, and finding Mary Jane crying next to Peter Wilks coffin. In the end, it is only funny until someone gets hurt.
Hey I'm Ari, this is my first year and I'm kind of new to this. I think that one thing that lying is used for is a means of simple survival. Essentially Huck and Jim are both on an adventure for one thing... freedom. Along this journey, Huck and Jim have developed a sort of loose back to back relationship, they are a team. Huck, being a white male, is more flexible in getting out of tight situations. Basically he is not as suspecious as a black slave, which gives him the choice of lying as a predominent resource for overcoming obsticals and gathering information and materials. Jim is evidently wise and gives good advice. I think that Mark Twain purposefully depects Jim as this way because of the fact that he is a slave, which is often considered clueless in the eyes of most slave owners. In fact, as we know the book has been banned in alot of places, and alot of racist whites actually don't like it because Jim is seen as a mentor for Huck. I find this ironic because of the way Jim speaks. The manner in which he speaks to me as the reader makes it very hard to understand. I can understand Huck more easily although his grammer is also really horrible. The feelings of Jims words are what Mark Twain is trying to get you to hear. Kind of like onomatopoeia. It's something more to make Jim SEEM inferior yet when you dig deep into his words he's actually really wise. The fact that Jim is black and Huck is white, and Jim talks funny and Huck (and just about everyone) has simple grammer problems, makes it seem like Huck is continuously trying to protect Jim from preditors(white citizens)and himself, through prodominantly lying. Lying lying lying. However at one point Huck does have second thoughts in helping a "nigger". Although he soon gets over it.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Huck generally does not want to lie but he has grown up with lying being safer then telling the truth so he does this even if it is not completely necessary. When Huck is confessing to Mary he shows this and finds that sometimes is it is better to tell the truth“ I reckon a body that ups tells the truth when he is in a tight place, is taking considerable many resks but it looks so to me, anyway; and yet here’s a case where I’m blest if it don’t look to me like the truth is better, and actually safer , than a lie.”(288). This quote shows how that when Huck was forced to lie for the King and the Duke he couldn’t keep up the lie. When he lies to protect himself or Jim he can do it. You know this because it is the most common reason Huck lies in the book.
ReplyDeleteHowever to Huck lying is exactly the same as storytelling. While Huck does not like lying he like to tell stories so he weaves complicated stories for his lies because enjoys it. This can be seen when Huck tries to get the steam boatmen to save the robbers from the sinking wreck (144).
I just remembered that I’m reading a Puffin Classic edition because I lost my other one. Quote pages are going to be different.
I agree with what other people are saying and to continue on about the King and the Duke with Huck, of course. When the King and the Duke were competing with the Wilks brothers to get Peter Wilks’ inheritance, they lied to get their way and get rich off of someone else. The King and Huck were talking in front of the town about where the money was and Huck was speaking about the slaves when the lawyer, Levi Bell, says on page 253, “Set down, my boy I wouldn’t strain myself, if I was you . I reckon you ain’t used to lying, it don’t seem to come handy; what you want is practice. You do it awkward.” In this book, many of the characters mimic other people’s lives to create stories that seem true or that are based on truth. Huck lies for several reasons. He lies to get information, he lies to protect himself and Jim, and he lies to save things he thinks are right or to bring justice (like the men on the steamboat).
ReplyDeleteTo respond to Michael's examination, if only to launch into another idea, yes, Huck is absolutely "polytropos", as is Mark Twain, as any good storyteller should be, and must be. Huckleberry Finn is a story full of "stretchers", or bendings of the truth. Lying and storytelling are proved inseparable in the novel: the stories Huck tells to strangers are more often lies than the truth in order to protect himself, the narrative even calls itself into question. However, in lying, he brings out certain truths that would otherwise not be realized; as does Mark Twain in writing a book that forewarns its readers of intentional inaccuracies and unreliable narration. Mark Twain once wrote that the interview "is perhaps the poorest of all ways of getting at what is in a man", and has indeed proven that the novel is a much more suitable method of doing so. Perhaps he wrote that because of the instinct is to inflate or protect your self image, which is often built upon lies, and that we might learn more going into a story recognizing the untruth of it. Of course storytelling (inherently twinned with lying) is an aspect of an interview, but much more so in a novel, which Twain acknowledges. On the first page of the book, he writes (regarding himself): "he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but but mainly he told the truth" (1). Immediately we are presented with the assertion that stories, and the possibility that this story in particular, are fundamentally based in a realm of untruth, or at least one in which lying is not simply vilified. If we view stories as having merit because of the truths they offer, then we must also view lying as a method of truth-telling, because, as is shown in Huck Finn, there cannot be one without the other.
ReplyDeleteDa art of story telling in Huck's life is anther way for him to escape from what he does not agree with. When Huck is talking to the number of characters that he passes in the novel he tends to either hide what has happen to him or he will expands the truth to tell a story the he is proud of. It starts off with him hiding his past and his background information. The lies that come form Huck are not really bad or good they are just part of him. He has told so many lies that they have become part of his character, the young boy that is a liar. The lies that come from never seem to go anywhere. Meaning that they just go in and out of the ears of the people. The people never invest much of their time into Huck's lies so they don't really have an affect in changing the plot. We are able to see the events in the novel so we the reader can tell where the story changes in Huck's mouth. The lies that come from other characters are unlike Huck's lie because they take into a more dramatic form. Like that lies that come from the duke and king take ahold of the plot and shape the future.
ReplyDeleteI find Michael’s very early comment quite interesting. Huck does very much seem to have similarities to Odysseus. Both are on an epic journey, Both’s journeys take place on the water, and both tell elaborate lies about how they got there, why they're there, and etc. Like for example, when Huck tells the lie to the ferry driver (pg. 89) to help save the criminals on the sinking ship. Or like where he lies about being a girl named Sarah Williams (pg. 68) so that he could gather information. There is although, one major difference between Huck and Odysseuse’s journey, that Odysseus was trying to get back home, whereas Huck is trying to escape home, to find a new one. Mark Twain has taken the opposite of Odysseuse’s end goal for Hucks. In answer to Michael’s questions, I think he also resembles a hero for a few more reasons. First, he is helping a slave find freedom. Second, he is very considerate and kind like most typical heroes, like apologizing after his trick against Jim (pg. 105). Third, he does all the morally right things, like trying to help the criminals on the sinking ship live (pg. 89), like most good heroes would.
ReplyDeleteSome of the characters who lie in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are young kids and some are adults. Whether their lies are "good" or "bad", or justified or unjustified? Let's examine the issue. Huck's friend, Tom, lies once to his friends in his gang when he notices they're not as interested in the gang as they used to be. He tells them an entire unrealistic lie of "two hundred elephants, six hundred camels" and other animals in exaggerated portions (15). His compulsion to lie comes from wanting to be popular among his friends. Besides, it's natural for children to lie. It's only later, when people grow up that they know lying is works or doesn't. On the other hand, Huck's pap, as an adult, lies to get money to buy booze. After finding out about Huck's "death", pap goes "boo-hooing to Judge Thatcher to get money to hunt for [Jim] all over Illinois with. The judge gave him some, and that evening he got drunk" (69). He's already a grown up, and supposed to know if lying is moral or not; he doesn't lie out of innocence.
ReplyDeleteHuck, however, is in a situation where he has to lie so he's able to stay away from his irresponsible, drunk dad. Huck is forced to be anonymous in order to remain "out of the woods". A good example is the time when Huck and pap are at the shanty and pap goes delusional-drunk and thinks that Huck is the devil and tries to kill him. After a while of pap chasing Huck with a knife inside the shanty, pap finally goes to sleep. Huck doesn't think twice and takes pap's gun in case pap tries to kill him again. Huck falls asleep and is woken up by pap in the morning and says " 'What you doin' with this gun?' " and Huck answers "I judged he didn't know nothing about what he had been doing, so I says: 'Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him' " (35).
How is lying similar to or different from storytelling in the novel? When a body lies they're conscious they're not telling the truth. When another body, like the storyteller Jim, tells a story, he doesn't know what he says isn't true. Like one time when Tom puts Jim's hat on a twig as he and Huck take off from the widow's. Jim wakes up and thinks "witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the state, and then set him under the trees again and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it" (7). Jim tells the story to unknown various people differently every time, but to him it's the same point, and he thinks it's true, so he isn't lying, only spreading the wrong word.
The role of lying in the novel... is to add a load of humor into the story. Twain knew that humor is important to grab the reader's attention and have a best-seller with his name on it on the shelf.
Lying has been and will always be one of the world’s most important and widely utilized activities. Espionage, gambling games, and even storytelling would not be possible without the use of a lie. When asked the relation between storytelling and lying, one would be forced to logically deduce that the two are almost completely the same. For example, if you were to ask someone if something they had said were true, a perfectly reasonable response would be for them to say “No, it is only a story.” We can then deduce that a story can be the truth, but that things that are not the truth are stories. This makes lies stories, and lie telling storytelling. In the case of Huck Finn, lying is used in an attempt to exaggerate dramatic situations within the novel. Lying is also used, however, as its own entity without being applied for the purpose of storytelling. Some examples of this are when Huck tells Jim that he was dreaming when Huck had disappeared, and when Huck put on a dress and bonnet and pretended to be a girl, lying about his name multiple times before admitting that he was a boy. Without lying, the novel would have been completely different.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that in the novel almost all of the people Huck is around for an long time each are shown to lie or deceive in their own way. Huck mainly tells more innocent and childish lies, for the purpose of getting himself out of trouble, or are exaggerations or obvious lies as part of his storytelling, like when he lies to Jim on the raft about being gone or when him and Tom pretend that they spent 38 years digging Jim out of the house. These lies do not usually hurt anyone, although they are a little cruel to Jim who believes Huck for a little while. Some of the other liars, like the King and the Duke, are really not just people who lie but are con-artists who make a profession of being good at it and do any amount of harm they feel necessary to people, mostly robbing people of there money and posing as people they are not. Huck finds this kind of lying terrible and does his best to destroy their con when they go too far. This shows how Huck is actually a fairly morale person and only lies when he thinks it won't hurt anyone. Despite the fact that Huck lies quite blatantly on a regular basis and few people he encounters actually know his true identity or even that he has another one, he never does any damage to them, financially or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteHuck mainly, as was stated above, lies to protect himself and Jim. One notable moment comes on p. 125-127, when he comes across two men on the River. At the present time, Huck has been debating whether or not he has made a good choice in aiding Jim with his escape to freedom. However, instead of turning Jim in to these two men, Huck lies to them and ends up driving them away with a story of smallpox.
ReplyDeleteHuck just has a quick enough wit to come up with stories on the spot--that's the basic idea. His lies often benefit him in some way, though usually it is just to protect himself and Jim.
Tom, on the other hand, is just a wild storyteller with a vivid imagination. He is very theatrical, as shown in the latter half of the novel, when he theatrically designs Jim’s escape in such a way that is utterly overkill, just to rival what he’s read in books. He lies and tells stories to Huck because he knows that Huck is less educated than he is, and so gains the upper hand through these crazy fantasies.
-Mari
A lot of storytelling and lying is done throughout the course of Huckleberry Finn. I found that whether the lying is good or bad really depends on the person telling the lies and stories. I think that in the context of the novel, storytelling is a more innocent, exciting and less blatant form of lying. Some characters, like Tom and Huck, tell stories innocently, either to save themselves and others, or for amusement. However others, like the King and the Duke, lie to gain material things for themselves. I think, although he does a lot of lying throughout the novel, Huck mostly means well with his lies in the long run. “”He makes up and tells people false identities and situations, but whether he calls himself Charles, George, Sarah or Tom, his lies always seem to reflect Huck’s sense of morality. He always tells them in order to save himself, and later Jim, from potentially harmful situations. He can spot out when lying is bad, especially in the King and Duke’s scams, proving that doesn’t tell harmful lies, but rather necessary ones.
ReplyDeleteTom Sawyer is another avid storyteller—literally. He often retells stories he has read and relates real life situations to these stories, attempting to make his own life more adventurous and exciting through make-believe. This is especially shown when he and Huck are trying to free Jim. He puts Jim and Huck through a series of unnecessary tasks, often claiming that all prisoners and heroes did these tasks in order to escape. When things get dull, Tom resorts to make-believe: “What I recommend is this: that we really dig right in, as quick as we can, and after that, we can let on, to ourselves, that we was at it thirty-seven years,”(305). Later, we find out that upon her death, Miss Watson set Jim free, which Tom knew. He wanted the sense danger and excitement he had always read about, and therefore played up the escape for his own enjoyment. This was innocent enough, but very unnecessary, and was taken a bit too far. In Huckleberry Finn, I found that there is no general goodness or badness to the lies being told, but that it varies from person to person, depending on their intentions.
I felt that Huck’s lying exhibits how he matures as a person through the course of the book. At the beginning he lies compulsively in situations where it doesn’t call for such actions. Huck lies for any reason at this point in time, whether it is good or bad, showing that he does not yet have the maturity to selectively stretch the truth in situations where it is necessary. He simply throws petty lies around for no particular reason. As the book goes on, Huck still lies about things that he doesn’t have to, but he starts to be more selective as he begins to see that he has no reason to lie all the time. Midway through the book, Huck and Jim run into trouble with the fog and lose each other. When Huck finally finds Jim he is asleep, and Huck decides to play a trick on him. When Jim wakes up he is very happy to be reunited with Huck, but Huck tells him that he was always there and that he must have been dreaming. Jim is surprised that he had such a vivid dream, but realizes that it did actually happen when he sees that they are missing a paddle. Jim is very hurt at this point because he thought Huck was lost forever and Huck decided to mess with him. When Huck sees Jim so hurt by his unnecessary lie, he realizes that his lying for fun can hurt the people around him. From this point on he begins to only lie to help people and when it’s necessary. This shows that he has grown in maturity and can understand the effects of his actions on others
ReplyDeleteIn Huckleberry Finn lying, the lies that Huck told are incredible, he has the skill to come up with a new persona with a new background, along with family members and friends. On page 88-89 Huck tells a brilliant lie to the Watchmen when he tried to save the two men on the wreck. In this lie he creates six different people giving two elaborate stories of a Miss Hooker and himself. He gives the watchman a last name which he acquired from what the watchmen had said early in the conversation.
ReplyDeleteOne of Huck's flaws in his lying is the names he gives himself. He doesn’t keep the same last name or first, nor vise a verse. All his names are different. On page 122 he gives the name “Aleck Hopkins”, but on page 132 he gives the name George Jackson. After giving the name George Jackson you can see on page 136. When he wakes up the next morning he can’t recall what name he had given the previous night. With his quick wit he tricks his new friend “Buck” into spelling it. This example shows that Huck's’ fake names are picked randomly, which makes it harder for him to remember.
The difference of Story telling in the novel and the lies that Huck tells throughout are quite close. Both of them are filled with great details and descriptions. When encountering any questions about their story or fibs, both the story teller and Huck have no problem answering these questions without hesitation. Though at first Huck's lying isn’t up to par, but as the novel evolves so does his lies. On page 68 he begins a lie about being a Girl named Sarah Williams, but on page 71 he makes a mistake with the name and says the name is “M-Mary Williams.” This is an example of his bad lying in the beginning of the novel. His lies become more solid, more story like on page 135, where he makes no mistake when answering questions.
Huck is a chronic liar, at almost every opportunity he lies. Huck’s lies are usually very elaborate he never is seen using the same person or story more than once. The main reason Huck lies is usually just to conceal who he truly is, but Huck’s lies are part of his escape and since no one knows him on the river he is whoever he tells them he is.
ReplyDeleteHuck’s lies incredibly elaborate depending on his situation. When on the river he tells people that his father has sent him somewhere or that his father is up father on the river and he just went ahead. But he doesn’t stop their he will explain where his mother is or talk about other random family members that really don’t matter. When he meets the Grangerford he has an elaborate story that he makes up on the spot, Huck says “pap and me and all the family was living on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw”. The story is a complete lie and has no truth to it at all, he even makes up family members that don’t exist. Another lie where Huck went above and beyond is when he was getting the ferryman to sail up to the wreck. Huck gives the man the entire background about why he was on the river and who he was with when all he really needed to say was that there was a wreck on the river.
When Huck explains his fake family history to the Grangerfords he creates an almost ideal story that he would want. All of his family was relatively happy his mother and father and everyone just died and he was left with nothing. Unlike the real truth that Huck hated his father and just wanted to get away so he did , he ran away. Would the Grangerfords act the same way they did towards Huck if they knew he was really just running away, we don’t actually know but we can accept that it would be a little harder to accept a run away child then an orphaned boy.
Huck’s lies are different every time even when Huck doesn’t need to lie we find him telling the most elaborate lies, he chooses stories to fit the situation that are ideal for himself that give him in that moment a fake life.
Lying is how Huck decides to makes his way around in his adventures seeing that he is now 'dead' and the man that 'killed' him is traveling with him with the label as a runaway. Huck reaches the Phelps' plantation and has to lie to get away with his plan to steal back Jim, "She was smiling all over so shecould harly stand-and says: 'It's you, at last!-ain't it?' I out with a 'Yes'm' before I thought... 'Children, it's your cousin Tom!-tell him howdy.'" (277-278) Huck lies to get onto the Phelps' plantation with the alias of his friend Tom Sawyer. Huck uses the trick of lying to survive from dangerous situations so that people will not be let on to know that he his actually himself.
ReplyDeleteIn the world of Huckleberry Finn, Lying and Storytelling are sometimes one and the same. There are many stories told throughout the book that can seem to be a bit of a lie and a bit of the truth. My favorite story was the raftsmen’s tale of a mysterious barrel with a baby in it. The story (to summarize) was about a barrel that was following a large group of raftsmen. They got caught in a storm that killed two men and assumed it must have been the barrel that brought such disaster to them. They bring the barrel aboard and find a dead baby boy inside it. One of the men confesses that it is his son, who he killed and placed in a barrel, and the barrel had been haunting him ever since. (114-119) It was a interesting story, but I think that parts of it may have been exaggerating bit. Perhaps they had found a barrel with a dead baby boy in it, and one of the raftsmen was his father, but whether or not the barrel was haunting them and had killed two men with lightning is uncertain. Even if it is not the truth, that doesn’t mean that the man is lying. He is just adding his own twist to the story. Huck tells stories with his own twist as well, the twist being that they are outright lies. Whenever Huck gets caught by people who would turn in Jim, he comes up with a story on the spot about himself. These outright lies can make Huck seem dishonest, even though they are done with the best of intentions. In contrast, I can see cases of outright lies throughout the book that are done for no honorable reason. The infamous duo King and Duke lie like crazy: The old man says he is a king: “Yes my friend, it is too true- your eyes is lookin at ths very moment on the pore disappeared Daauphrin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the Sixteen and Mary Antonette.” (163) He only says he is king so that Huck and Jim will treat him better. The Duke has a similar story, so Huck and Jim find themselves catering to so-called “royalty”. These sort of lies, done for personal gain, really keep it all in perspective when it comes to Huck’s assorted back-stories.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about lies and storytelling is that they are closely related. Often times when a writer is telling a story they are basing it off of reality and pure imagination. Lies are born from the combination of imagination and storytelling. The whole point of lies is to convince whoever is being lied to that your “story” is real. Good storytellers write stories that are meant to be seen or conveyed as “real.” Good liars make up “stories” that are meant to do the exact same thing “come across as real.” In this story Lying, superstition, and Storytelling are major factor to the success or fail of the story. Along Huck’s adventures he encounters many people and in these encounters he would have been or put himself in a lot of trouble for “telling the truth.” Therefore he protected himself and Jim in the form of “telling stories” but in his case the stories are lies. In this situation we begin to question if lying is really bad or if it is just a necessity for survival. In this story many of the characters have issues that lying can help cover up, which in their mind is making their situation a little or in their case a lot “better.”
ReplyDeleteIn the world of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a person’s skill as a storyteller or a “liar” is a sign of status. Like Damiano wrote: “Good storytellers write stories that are meant to be seen or conveyed as ‘real,’” and the more believable and imaginative the story or lie is, the more respect the storyteller earns. For instance, the stories about witches and magic that Jim told when he lived with Miss Watson earned him notoriety and respect among other slaves. As Huck recounts: “whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, ‘Hm! What you know ‘bout witches?’—and that n—was corked up and had to take a back seat”.
ReplyDeleteBoth Huck and Tom Sawyer are very aware of the status that a good storyteller can earn for himself. However, each boy’s priorities regarding storytelling are very different.
Despite what Jordan and Ami have said, I don’t believe that the lies that Huck tells are always purely out of an innocent need to survive. Huck also lies to show off and gain respect. There was no need for Huck to tell Jim that they had never been separated and lost in the fog (103), but he lied anyway to show off his skill. However, in general, Huck lies as a means to survive.
Tom is the opposite. Instead of using lies to allow himself to carry out actions, Tom sees actions as means to tell a story and gain respect and fame. When Tom volunteers to help rescue Jim, it is not because he cares about Jim’s freedom. Tom doesn’t care if Jim stays imprisoned for a lifetime or loses a leg on the way out, as long as the attempted rescue makes a good story.
I think the lies that are told in the story are both good and bad. For example, the “king” and the “duke” lie in horrible ways to take advantage of people for their personal gain. A perfect example of this is when the two of them try to take advantage of the Wilks family to make lots of money. The way that Huck tells lies is less harmful. Although he lies a lot to strangers, he does it in a way that doesn’t hurt that person, and he lies so that he can help Jim get to freedom. In the beginning of the book Huck addresses the reader and talks about lying. He talks about Tom’s adventures and how his stories were mostly the truth but he also fabricates the truth. From that, one can assume that “The Adventures of Huckleberrry Finn” also contains some amount of lies in the storytelling. Lying plays an important role in the novel, it shows the reader how lying can hurt people and get you into trouble, but Huck shows that sometimes you have to lie to make some things right.
ReplyDeleteIn the first paragraph of Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn brings up the subject of truth versus “stretchers” in the telling of this story, and these “stretchers”, or lies, play a prominent roll throughout the novel. These lies are sometimes ill intentioned and morally wrong such as when Huckleberry deceives the orphan girls in order to assist the King and Duke in their mission to swindle them. But because of his deep rooted sense of right and wrong Huck’s lies generally have a positive intention and result. When Huck is asked whether his raft-mate is “white, or black” by two men hunting for runaway slaves, his loyalty to his friend, despite his social class, forces him to lie. By this example I trust Huckleberry Finn to tell the truth or a righteous lie. Lying and storytelling are in some instances one in the same, such as when the king, who we can assume is not really a king, tell a story to the crowd at a camp meeting in the middle of an intense religious function. Huck Finn reports:
ReplyDeleteHe told him he was a pirate- been a pirate for thirty years . . . [and] he’d been robbed last night and put off a steamboat without a cent, and [that] he was glad of it . . . because he was a changed man now. (172)
Here the king is telling an amazing story which is completely a lie, and is manufactured especially for his audience. Making it both a good story and a good lie. We see in this example of a fictitious story that lying and storytelling can be the same thing, and might be throughout this novel.
I find this topic to be the most interesting for me. Throughout reading the book I noticed that Huck's lying and storytelling helped him escape himself and other people. Huck's lying seemed to be his survival skill for his own sanity. I also think Huck used his lying to relate to people or whoever he is narrating this to. His hyperboles are his way of communicating his excitement and his desire for acceptance of his excitement.
ReplyDeleteHuck used his lying to feel better about his situation. When he would say that his family died or his father had smallpox he knew that wasn't the case so he could feel a little better. When the housewife caught Huck in his lie he just dug deeper into that lie showing that he is uncomfortable with himself. He knew it wouldn't do much harm to tell the truth but he didn't because he preferred his fantasy to reality.
Within the very first pages of the novel, Huck makes a valid point about lying –“I never seen anybody but lied one time or another.” This is a sympathetic statement, and perhaps a statement Huck is making to justify many of his own tales. Many have pointed out that Huck lies at nearly every turn in the book, making up new identities for every town he enters. However, when one contrasts the lies told by the two frauds, the duke and the king, to the lies told by Huck the difference between “good lies” and “bad lies” becomes apparent. To Huck, the lies he tells are comparable to the food he “borrows.” It is a necessity to him and it’s not overly harmful to others in his eyes. Representative of “bad lies” are the lies told by the duke and king in order to swindle people out of their money. The two frauds play on the grief, trust and desires of others and then cut out as soon as they have their money. The difference between the lies of the frauds and the lies told by Huck becomes most apparent when be begins to have moral conflicts with the frauds. “Them poor things was glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them getting fooled and lied to so.” When he sees the grief of the family who have lost their loved one, Huck resolves to make things right. Near the end of that chapter Huck admits he is a sinner as well, although he does not group himself with the frauds. “Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she’d take a job that was more nearer her size. But I bet she done it, just the same”.
ReplyDeleteHuck’s view of lying vs. storytelling changes depending on the morality of the situation; for example, when he lies about his family being in the wreck to get the murderers out of trouble, he thinks to himself how proud the widow would be of him for helping those people, “I wished the widow knowed about it. I judged she would be proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest in.” (91) He completely overlooks the fact that he made up en entire story and tricked a man in order to do so. However, when he dresses up as Sarah Williams, he feels bad about lying to the woman who helps him. He talks about feeling uncomfortable, feeling so uneasy he couldn’t sit still, and not being able to look the woman in her eyes. All of these are signs that Huck feels guilty about lying to her. In a way, the whole story starts with him telling a lie; his “death” is all a plan that he makes to fool everyone and give them a false impression. Isn’t that pretty much the definition of lying? Its not true…
ReplyDeleteLies are told, both to facilitate Jim's liberation (and Huck's), and to manipulate third parties for their resources, oftentimes simultaneously. Huck tells his story to countless strangers and has infinitely many aliases, so many he sometimes forgets them. This is because all of the stories he tells are similar: His family has died or is sick, and he is on his way to a friend or relative's house. Sometimes he is seeking money or resources, but sometimes he is simply throwing people off his path and concealing Jim's and his identities. Their adventure, then, can continue, and Jim can continue towards his liberation.
ReplyDeleteLying becomes most malicious when executed by the "king", and the "duke" (nearly certainly false identities). Their money making schemes are never well intended, but become the most emotionally damaging when they impersonate the long-lost brothers of the deceased Peter Wilks, a wealthy man with three orphaned nieces. After receiving the necessary information from an unsuspecting stranger at the edge of town, the two scoundrels manipulate the family for "their" share of the will. The nieces, none of whom have met their real uncles, are unsuspecting and defensive of the liars, even when others doubt them. This is not unintentional: The king and duke are deliberate in their offer to give the money to the girls in order to build trust. The girls of course say no, that their uncle would have wanted them (his "brothers"), to have it.
Huck steals the money, lying to the king and the duke, who he quickly tires of, but this lie well-intentioned. Huck tells one of the nieces the truth, and where the money is, and then when the real brothers arrive, the king and duke's plan sours in the face of truth. They are sneaky, and escape punishment with an ambiguous lie (about a tattoo on the dead man), but do not get their money. They get back onto Huck and Jim's raft, but not for long. When the king sells Jim for forty dollars, Huck's outrage is irreparable and the two parties split.
Huck and Tom both at least conceal the truth near the end of the book when devising their elaborate plan to free Jim. Though it may be drawn out and at times not appear to directly result in his freedom, the end result is just that. Since Tom knows the truth about Jim already being free at home we have to wonder about his intentions: why draw it out so long? Why not tell him immediately? The answer, however, is pretty simple. He likes mystery, and adventure. He wanted a good story.
The intensity of Huck's lies seem to arc throughout the duration of his story. They are most present during the middle of the novel when he is on the raft with Jim. Since he himself is supposed to be dead, and traveling with an escaped slave, he sees, and we can see as well, the necessity for lying. To gain information, food, and lodging, Huck is quick to create a false life, entailing that his "father and mother was dead, and the law had bound me to a mean old farmer" ( 73).
ReplyDeleteThere is no harm in Huck's lies, they are merely for necessity's sake, and while Huck does seem to enjoy the thrill of a good disguise and lie, it is clear that he also cares very much about the feelings of others. This contrasts with the lies and stories created by the Duke, King, and in some cases Tom Sawyer. The Duke and King lie simply to gain a profit, and at the expense of others. Moreover they do so without regard to their subjects feelings. Huck can see the wrong in this, and I believe it clearly turns him off of lying, as evidenced by his declaration: "Well, if ever I struck anything like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race" (210). This quote serves multiple purposes. It foremost shows us the disgust Huck has obtained for the Duke and the King because of their sympathy-inducing, deceitful lies, yet we're also faced with Hucks comment, "if ever I struck anything like it, I'm a nigger." Huck's comparison is slightly jarring, for as we do hear him make a few racist comments, in general he is much more subdued in his racism. In this moment, he states that if he were ever to come upon or cause a situation like the one he was witnessing, he is "a nigger." In Huck's mind, only a slave or African American would lie as such. An interesting point of view that we don't see too often from him.
In Twain’s novel, the lies that Huck tells are presented as not very bad lies. They are usually in order to protect others or to prevent discovery. A good example of these is when Huck lies to the men on the river to keep them away from the raft where Jim is (page 126). After this lie is finished and the men gone, Huck shares his opinion and philosophy with the reader: “I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever comes handiest at the time”.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side of this is the lies that are told because of greed, anger, and a desire to better oneself at the cost of others. These lies are told by the Duke and the King, and inevitably cause more trouble than they were supposed to. For example, when the Duke and the King pretend to be Mr. Wilks and his servant, they continue the ruse for too long and are thus trapped when the real Mr. Wilks shows up. These lies attract a kind of karma and come back to haunt the liar.
There is, however, a third type of lie in the story: the storytelling lie. This lie is unmotivated by either necessity or greed, and instead exists on its own. If someone told a made up story, this is the kind of lie it would be. This lie is rather rare in the book. It is best exemplified by when Huck finds Jim after getting lost in the fog and pretends that nothing happened. This lie was nonessential to the journey and was for fun instead. Tom Sawyer also is a frequent storytelling liar. When his band of thieves raid the church picnic for example, he tells Huck that it was all an illusion in order to make it more exciting. And when Huck and Tom plot to free Jim, Tom makes it appear as though Jim were the center of an elaborate conspiracy. In this way is lying split between the good, the bad, and the just-for-fun.
Lying is considered a skill that is necessary for survival and on some level, security. Huck only lies once for fun, and then is reprimanded and feels bad about it, so lying for Huck is not merely novelty or mockery. He also suggests that an aptitude for lying is embedded in a persons nature, while others are naturally meant to be truthful when he informs Mary Jane of why she is inherently unable to lie by saying “Why, it’s because you ain’t one of those leather-face people. I don’t want no better book than what your face is.”(200). Lying is also appealing for a young boy like Huck because it can seem challenging, daring, and therefore more adventuresome. Lying does not go among the axis of “good” or “bad” because he does not think of it along the lines of deceiving or hurting another, he is thinking of it as something that is helping himself succeed. I also would completely trust Huck's story because he only lies when necessary.
ReplyDeleteThis is Steve (Sung Ho) by the way
ReplyDeleteSome may mistakenly conceive that, in his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain presents the protagonist Huck as paradoxical character, because Mark Twain emphasizes both Huck’s usage of deceptive tales and Huck’s abhorrence for lies. Nonetheless, Mark Twain’s utilization of such seemingly self-contradictory character serves to educate the readers on the two contrasting methods of how lies can be put to use. Huck’s lies on the river usually serve to guarantee the safety and independence of himself as well as his companion, Jim. Huck’s aspiration to protect his identity along with Jim’s and his yearning to safely reach the free states compel him to devise lies in order to gain hospitality through sympathy. Such is the case on page 126 when Huck successfully creates a tale that tricks the two scouting men by arousing their pathos through the mentioning of his hardship and his made-up father’s small pox. By doing so, Huck not only saves Jim from the brink of getting lynched for being a run-away slave, but also gains a couple of coins that will help him through his journey. Furthermore, Huck’s lies have a light and joking tone. Such is shown on page 121 when Huck introduces himself as Charles William Allbright, a dead baby mentioned in one of the men’s story, clearly in order to make a joke and lighten the atmosphere of the disturbed men who were surprised to see a naked stranger on their raft. This is also shown when Huck dresses up as a girl on page 68 and briefly entertains himself with the idea of fooling a lady into making him a snack. Overall, Huck’s lies are not intended to cause harm but instead are used as tools for his and his companion, Jim’s survival. However, unlike Huck’s white lies, the fabrications of charlatans, rogues, and other reprobates, who ignore their consciences, serve only to deceive or frame others, and to excuse themselves from the nefarious acts that they committed.
On a side note I would like to comment on how Huck’s lies being told to others are like stories to the characters in the novel because his lies usually seem like plausible life stories with believable names, places, and incidents
and also "ninjaattackyahh"
ReplyDeleteis also me. i heard that i have to let the teachers know
In the novel two very different types of lying are distinguished. The first type that we see is the one that Huck uses time and time again to get out of things and help others. He uses it to escape an unhappy life with an abusive father and to keep Jim safe. The second is the type The King and The Duke use to trick people for money and personal gain. Although Huck does not fully understand the difference between the two he still makes the right decisions even if he feels right it wrong. For example, after Huck has tricked two men searching for run-a-way slaves into thinking Jim was a sick white man he feels guilty:
ReplyDelete“They went off, and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well, I had done wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right… Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on, -- s’pose you’d done right and give up Jim up; would you feel better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad – I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right, when its troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and wages is just the same?... I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever comes handiest at the time” (127).
Huck is confused about what is right and wrong and good and bad, but despite that he manages to make the decisions that benefit others and don’t hurt anyone. In the back of his mind and his conscience he knows right and wrong but because of what people in power such as the King and the Duke and even his father have demonstrated and how he was brought up he feels bad for doing the right thing.
Lying and Story-telling are two themes that are very present in the novel. Although Huck manages to lie and twist the truth a few times during the novel, such as when he dresses as a girl or meets the men on the river; the two themes are truly evident when the two main characters come across the King and the Duke. Although Huck plays along with the entire scheme of stealing the money at first, I believe he realizes the wrong in the situations when he says: "I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place, is taking considerable many resks; though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better, and actually safer, than a lie." (Page 239) However, when Jim is captured and Huck pretends he is Tom Sawyer in order to set him free; I believe Huck uses his skill of lying and story-telling in a new sense.
ReplyDeleteWhen in a difficult situation, there’s an option to either tell the truth or tell a lie. Young kids usually tell whatever would protect them, in the hopes of getting out of their situation; and the same applies to Huckleberry Finn. He carefully considers the scenario first, and then chooses to either tell the truth or a lie. The scenario Huckleberry Finn is in determines whether he lies or not.
ReplyDeleteHuck demonstrates his intelligence through his analysis and response of the many different situations of which he is presented with. When Huck decides to leave his father and go down the river, he cleverly devises a plan that covers his track as he goes down the river:
“I says to myself, they’ll follow the track of that sackful of rocks to the shore and then drag the river for me. And they’ll follow that meal track to the lake and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers that killed me and took the things. They won’t ever hunt the river for anything but my dead carcass. They’ll soon get tired of that, and won’t bother no more about me” (41).
Huck takes the time to set up a plan as to protect himself. Because he does not want his father and others to search for him, he creates a crime scene to deceive them. The situation presented, the lie he makes here and the careful details behind it show Huck’s ability in creating an effective lie, and show his thoughts as to lie or not.
Huck analyzes his cases and examines the results of lying or not. From that, he makes a decision and presents his choice. Whether Huck tells the truth or not, the decision he makes is based on the scenario he is in.
Huck’s feelings surrounding lying and morality change throughout the novel In the beginning, he takes stories very seriously. When talking about Tom Sawyer's gang, Huck gets frustrated because they have to "pretend" to rob and kill, and he would rather do the real thing. When he steals, he calls it "borrowing" like his father does and therefore justifies it to himself. However, as the novel goes on, Huck continuously lies to everyone he meets except for Jim. These lies are out of necessity, but they are still very easy for Huck to tell, and he makes it clear that these lies are not the first he has told. As the novel progresses, it becomes harder for Huck to lie to the characters that help him out. It is particularly hard for him to lie to women, especially young and beautiful ones. When he meets the Duke and the King, he begins to see lying as a bad or amoral thing. This is an important part of the novel, because he finally realizes that the lies he tells affect others. Huck is able to see firsthand the consequences of the King and Duke's lies, first with the women they attempt to steal from, then with Jim when they sell him back into slavery for money, and even with themselves when they are caught and tarred and feathered. It's interesting because throughout the novel Huck seems to see lying as a bad thing when others do it, but when he lies he is able to justify it as necessary. Huck has a defined sense of morality, but it does not stop him from lying when he believes he has no other options.
ReplyDeleteWho can lie effectively in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a constant issue. Huck, although he lies a lot and with much gusto, is not actually very convincing or good at lying. The reason for his lack of skill is that he keeps forgetting his own lies. Huck says after being busted about a particular lie, “Well, I was gone up again. I forgot I was the old man’s servant. But next minute I whirled in on a kind of an explanation… But I didn’t do it pretty good, and when I got done I see she warn’t satisfied” (159). Another of Huck’s flaws when attempting to lie is that he makes his lies much too elaborate simply for the joy of the telling. Huck isn’t the only person who can’t lie in the novel however. Women also can’t lie well in the story because they are moral beings. Huck believes what women tell him to be true because he knows they wouldn’t lie. Huck tells Jim, “‘Well, but he was the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told me so, her own self’” (73). Huck trusts what the widow tells him because he believes she will only tell him the truth. Thus, both Huck and women can’t lie well.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons for Huck's lies morph and evolve just as he does in the novel. Towards the beginning of the book his lies are for purely selfish reasons, but as he moves down river and creates relationships with new people that he comes to care about he begins to lie on their behalf as well as his, trying to protect not just himself but them. We see this when Huck protects Jim multiple times even before they ship off down the river, and though he continues to lie in order to protect Jim we can see that his conscience is bothering him but his feelings for Jim and his safety out weigh the moral dilemma he is faced with. “s'pose you'd a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad – I'd feel just the same way I do now"(Twain, 127).The guilt Huck would have felt for giving up a friend and condemning him to a life of slavery without his family outweighs the guilt of doing something that is heavily frowned upon in his culture and could lead to his death. From Huck's point of view lying is necessary and in a lot of the situations he comes by it is in order to save the ones he loves. Lying proves Huck's feelings for other people.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons for Huck's lies morph and evolve just as he does in the novel. Towards the beginning of the book his lies are for purely selfish reasons, but as he moves down river and creates relationships with new people that he comes to care about he begins to lie on their behalf as well as his, trying to protect not just himself but them. We see this when Huck protects Jim multiple times even before they ship off down the river, and though he continues to lie in order to protect Jim we can see that his conscience is bothering him but his feelings for Jim and his safety out weigh the moral dilemma he is faced with. “s'pose you'd a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad – I'd feel just the same way I do now"(Twain, 127).The guilt Huck would have felt for giving up a friend and condemning him to a life of slavery without his family outweighs the guilt of doing something that is heavily frowned upon in his culture and could lead to his death. From Huck's point of view lying is necessary and in a lot of the situations he comes by it is in order to save the ones he loves. Lying proves Huck's feelings for other people.
ReplyDeleteLying has a special role in the novel where it, superstition, and religion are all dominant forces competing for legitimacy. While some people are religious (the Widow, Aunt Sally, Uncle Silas) and some people are superstitious (Jim, Ed, Huck) everyone lies. Even those who buy heavily into one of the two other camps lie; Jim constantly hides or dresses up and Aunt Sally lies about the letter. This isn’t to say lying is bad; when Aunt Sally lies about the letter it’s to save Tom and Huck’s necks and Huck convinces Tom to lie about the prison escape in order to more effectively save Jim. There are those who lie constantly and only for their own gain, such as the Duke and King. When they con the girls out of their money Huck says, “I never see anything so disgusting” (pg 213.) But try as he might, Huck still trucks with the pair which puts him in their boat at least a little. And that is the role of lying: no matter how religious, superstitious, or greedy you are we all lie because we are all human beings. You can still lie for good or evil, but you will lie.
ReplyDeleteIn Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there is a thin line of whether lying is good or bad. For Huckleberry Finn, lying is necessary his and Jim’s survival. For Huckleberry Finn and Jim to not get caught and live, it is essential to mask their identities. For example, Huck goes back into town to get information about his and Jim’s disappearance but has to disguise himself as a girl, Although Huck is not very skilled at lying and fumbles with his story, “Honey, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?” “Oh, yes’m I did. Sarah Mary Williams. Sarah’s my first name. Some calls me Sarah, some calls me Mary(55).” As for the Duke and King they use lying for their greed. They manipulate people and make them vulnerable. By doing this they lie to Sarah Mary. “Here is my answer.” She hove up the bags of money and put in the king’s hands, and says,” Take this six thousand dollars, and invest for me and my sisters any way you want to, and don’t give us no receipt for it (152)” Unlike Huck Finn, the Duke and King do not have a reason to lie, but use it for their own luxuries.
ReplyDeleteLying plays such a essential part of this book that I feel it should be viewed less as an action and more as a game or currency. Each lie holds a set value with each character trying to keep their total value low in order to make their stories believable. It acts as a currency in the sense that the characters exchange lies as people exchange money. Both are systems of bartering based on a range of values that differ from area to area, but with the common intent of facilitating negotiation. In this regard, lying is neither good nor bad, but neutral, and to a certain degree expected. In terms of discovering the lies of others, characters rely on a basic psychological principle: It takes one to know one. As stated previously, because lying here is represented as game with certain rules and conditions, lairs are able to detect other liars though examining and cross referencing a persons lies with their own.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, it could be argued that what occurs in the novel in not lying, but adapting. Huck for instance, does not pretend to be George Jaxon or an English servant, he becomes them. Though adaptation of both role & manners, Huck is able to manifest his presence in a form that befits his circumstances, though some may be easier than others. This is demonstrated when Huck finds out his latest identity is Tom Sawyer, while rescuing Jim from slavery. He states “It was like being born again, I was so glad to find out who I was” (237). The usage of “who I was” asserts the notion that Huck is less of a liar and more of an actor or ambiguous presence, who constantly adapts to meet the circumstances at hand. The notion of being “born again” also furthers this assertion. Due to the high level of both skill and need, lying seems to be less of a moral sin and more of a trade profession, with all the secrets & techniques that come along with it.
@Michael-Yes! the similarities between Odysseus and Huck (as well as Tom Sawyer) are compelling. Both of their schemes are simple yet masterfully brilliant. Both characters never use their silver tongue for wealth or purely personal reasons, and are guided by a deep, if unsure moral code. The trickster is an eternal character of many literary backgrounds, Huckleberry Finn happens to be one of the latest incarnations and is no less heroic (or sharp)then such tricksters as Odysseus, Coyote, and Loki.
ReplyDelete@Steve-"Fabrications of Charlatans, rogues, and other reprobates" is very articulately articulated.
I think that the nature of lying varies greatly from character to character. The King and the Duke rely on lying in a much harsher way then Tom and Huck. The two con artists utilize their lying as a way to make a continuous profit. This inherently is a moral quandary, not because they are lying to make a profit (unless you find stand up comedians or fiction writers detestable) but because they harm the lives of others through their acts of deception. This is a completely different usage of lying compared to light hearted tomfoolery of Tom and the survival tactics of Huck. Tom is more of an embellisher then a cheat or a fraud, he does not let a lie get in the way of a good story. Huck however learned his lying as a way to avoid being beaten by pap, his alcoholic father as well as hanging around tom which makes his tales into elaborate situations as a self defense mechanism. One instance in particular that stands out is when Huck tries to explain his appearance on Judith’s door step. "No'm, I ain't hungry. I was so hungry I had to stop two miles below here at a farm; so I ain't hungry no more. It's what makes me so late. My mother's down sick, and out of money and everything, and I come to tell my uncle Abner Moore. He lives at the upper end of the town, she says. I hain't ever been here before. Do you know him?” (Twain 68) Huck makes an extravagant story in order to fool her as well as pull the conversation away from who Huck might actually be (besides not actually being a woman).
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that Huck makes up a new story every time he needs to tell one. It seems it would be much easier and safer for him just to remember one, or maybe two and alternate between them to make sure that no one near his current location knows this story. There are a lot of times when he needs to tell a lie specific to the situation, but lots of other times where an old one could fit in just as well. Maybe it’s just like how he always wants to be moving on to a new place, and gets bored with the old ones, and wants to be doing new things, he gets bored with the old stories and wants his stories to keep moving on, and him to have new ones. It says something about Huck’s adventurous side. Or maybe he keeps coming up with new ones to get better, which is explained by his intense longing to be as good as Tom Sawyer at this kind of stuff. Anyways Lying and storytelling is very important in this book, and comes up a lot. It’s also interesting how many irrelevant stories come up in this book, like about Jim’s investment, or the haunted barrel. With the haunted barrel story, you never meet those characters again so the story didn’t really matter at all. Maybe Mark Twain knew that people would be reading this book for a long time, long after this culture and stories were lost, so it might be nice to add some(though irrelevant to the book), stories about what it was like back then, or what people would be talking about back then. This book, with all of its stories, ends up being a nice account of what life on the Missippi back then would be like.
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