The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1274 Words3 Pages

Although in reality and illusion may be mistaken for one another and they both play a large part in the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” illusion and reality differ in how they impact the minds of characters. Near the beginning of the novel, Huck Finn fakes his own death to protect himself and escape from his father. He later meets the Grangerfords, who are locked in a blood feud with the Shepherdsons. One of their daughters, Charlotte, pretends to hate the Shepherdsons as much as any other member of the family, when in actuality she is in love with a Shepherdson and plans to run away with him. Huck and Jim also meet two frauds, the Duke and the King. As Huck and Jim travel, Jim assumes multiple guises as does Huck Finn. Although these are to protect Jim from being caught as a runaway, the deceptions used are a form of illusion used in the novel; and keep minor characters from seeing the reality of Jim and Huck’s situation. Illusions are more commonly seen in the novel. Huck tells lies and false stories, in some circumstances to help others and attempt to preserve his morality, whereas in other situations he uses fallacy to help himself, and Jim, move down the river.
Huckleberry Finn’s first encounter with deception in the first section of the novel is when he decides to escape his father and fakes his death. In this matter, Huck is able to use props and other commodities to cause people to believe that he was murdered when in actuality Huck was neither murdered nor attacked. The lack of evidence and severe implication of the scene that Huck created led people to believe that Huck had been murdered. He was able to use the presumptive nature of the scene and of people as well as their deductive reasoning to make them be...

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... the story. Huck deceives people when he fakes his own death and as he takes on multiple different personas as he moves down the Mississippi River. Jim plays different parts as they travel to protect himself from being captured and called out as a runaway slave. Charlotte Grangerford turns her back on her family to run away with a Shepherdson, a member of the opposing family in a blood feud. The duke and the dauphin begin their lies from the moment Huck and Jim meet them. Throughout the novel we are able to see lies and illusions manufactured by the characters propel them through the story. The deceptions of the characters apply to a recurring theme of illusion in comparison to reality seen in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 1989. Reprint. New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC., 1989. Print.

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