Theme Of Deception In Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain creates a carnival of a tale driven by deception and deceit in his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. His novel is full of buffoons and tricksters. One character named Huckleberry Finn fabricates stories to either achieve freedom or for financial gain. Initially, Huck is ignorant to the value of slave, Jim, as a person. He incessantly mocks the runaway as well as prank him. With every trick he plays, the young boy learns a lesson. Huckleberry evolves over the course of the novel. The tricks he plays are integral to the plot; however, they are more significant because of what they reveal: his maturation from a prejudice youth to a more respectful young man.
Huckleberry’s tricks expose his disrespect for Jim and the superstitions characteristic of Jim’s culture. According to the
While grasping the skin of a snake and loot from a dead man’s overcoat in his hands, Huckleberry belittles Jim for holding this belief. In a case of verbal irony, Huck mocks Jim’s “ignorant superstition”: “Well, here’s your bad luck! We’ve raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides” (Twain 137). In Huck’s mind, he proves Jim’s ignorance by denigrating the superstition. Huck sees himself as triumphant and superior in comparison to his companion. In a turn of events, the snake does bring bad luck upon the pair. Unaware of the consequences, Huck finds it humorous to place a dead snake in the bed with Jim as he is sleeping. The dead snake attracts its mate which in turn bites Jim’s foot. This situation illuminates Huck’s immaturity and inability to anticipate the outcome of his actions: “I made up my mind I wouldn’t ever take aholt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it. Jim said he