Twain and Lying

Twain and Lying The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, starts out talking about lying. Finn says “This book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth”.(1) Finn then goes on to say “I never seen anybody but lied one time or another”.(1) Twain is letting the reader know upfront that this book is going to be about lying. Throughout the book Twain gives examples of different types of lies. The lies are broken into four different types: childish lies, innocent lies, vicious lies, and noble lies. Twain is trying to show that all lies are not equal. One type of lies that Twain uses in his storytelling is childish lies. Childish lies are harmless fibs that do not harm anyone. They are told for amusement purposes. Both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn tell childish lies throughout the story. Tom tells childish lies to in order to entice his friends to join in on his adventures. For example Tom tells the innocent fib “…he got secret news from his spies”(14) as way to get his friends to help him crash a Sunday school picnic. Finn use a childish lie to trick Jim into thinking he only dreamt that he and Finn spent a night searching for each other in the fog. Twain is showing that there is nothing wrong with telling childish lies, they do not hurt anyone and they are amusing. Twain also uses innocent lies in this story. Finn uses innocent lies as a way to keep himself from being found out. They do not harm anyone and they are a way for Finn to protect himself. Finn is constantly telling innocent lies. According to Finn “…a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place, is taking considerable many risks.”(204) In other words, only a fool would tell the truth in certain circumstances. The reader gets the impression that Twain does not feel there is anything wrong with telling innocent lies, as long as they are not hurting anyone. The next