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Samantha Reitsma
Prof. Klatt
Eng 221
7 May 2012
Can Lying be Justified?
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, has been heavily critiqued for its use
of racial slurs, but the ease and frequency with which the main character, Huck, lies, is often
overlooked. A question that the story raises is whether or not Huck’s lying can be justified. After
evaluating Huck’s motives for lying and the effect it had on his conscience, comparing his lies
with other characters’ lies, and considering what the Bible says about lying, I have concluded
that although sometimes it was necessary for Huck to lie, lying cannot be justified. Huck lied for
either protection or entertainment; his lying included false identities, lies told on the spot, and
childish lies.
One way that Huck lied was through assuming a false identity. Throughout the story, he
used eleven different aliases. With his first alias, Sarah Mary Williams, he pretended that he was
on his way to tell his uncle that his mom was sick. His second alias, George Peters, he formed on
the spot when he realized he was caught in a lie. Four different times Huck assumed the
nameless role of a boy in distress. When Huck boarded the raft to find out information, he
assumed the identity of Charles William Albright, a character in a ghost story he had just heard,
but later assumed the more believable identity of Alec James Hopkins to convince the raftsmen
that he just wanted a ride. Huck also used the alias of George Jackson to protect his own identity.
Sometimes, however, Huck had to use aliases to protect Jim, such as when Huck pretended that
his dad and little brother drowned and Jim was his property. In other instances Huck did not pick
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his alias; one time he was given an alias by the king, and another time he was thought to be Tom
Sawyer. Huck had to come up with most of these aliases on the spot to protect himself and his
friend Jim.
However, according to some critics, these aliases are not even lies. Pribek says that
“some critics suspect that his [Huck’s] tall tales, often morbid, betray fears of isolation and
death, and that, in a psychological sense, they are not quite lies” (Pribek 69). An example of one
of these critics is Jay Martin, author of Harvests of Change. He says that Huck demonstrated his
psychic fears through the roles he played and argues that Huck imagined isolation in all these
roles, because each story he fabricated involved family members dying or disappearing. Martin
says that “these guises are the spontaneous, unconscious expression of his essential being”
(Martin 192-193). I agree that these fake identities/stories reflect Huck’s fear of isolation, but
that does not excuse them from being lies. Dictionary.com defines a lie as “a false statement
made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.” It is quite clear that
Huck’s intent was to deceive; he purposely assumed the role of make-believe characters in order
to disguise his real identity. Huck’s psychological fears might emotionally persuade a reader to
feel sorry for him because he is a young boy on his own trying to protect a black man. However,
one cannot justify Huck’s lies solely on the basis of pity and emotional persuasion. Even though
Huck unconsciously portrayed his fears of death and isolation through his aliases, I believe they
are still lies.
Sometimes Huck had to lie when not under an alias to protect himself or Jim. One night
his father was very drunk and chased Huck, calling him the Angel of Death and trying to kill
him. Once his father settled down, Huck grabbed the gun and kept it near him for protection.
When his father woke up, he asked Huck, “What you doin’ with this gun?” (Twain 22) and Huck
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lied: “Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him” (Twain 23). In another instance two
men approached Huck and asked him, “What’s that, yonder?” (Twain 67). Huck was truthful and
told them it was a raft. He was also truthful when they asked him if any men were on it, and he
told them there was one man. But when they asked if the man was white or black, after
hesitating, Huck said “white” and had to come up with a story that would keep the men away
from the raft. Huck did not want to lie, but he realized in that instance that in order to protect Jim
he had to. These are just a couple of examples of when Huck must lie on the spot to protect
himself or Jim.
On the other hand, it was much easier for Huck to tell childish lies, which he told for the
sole purpose of having fun. There were only a few instances when Huck told a childish lie. One
example was when Huck exaggerated a show he saw. He said: "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" (Twain 112-113). Seventeen suits is quite clearly a lie, but
Huck was just so excited and wanted everyone to know how cool the show was. It is fairly
common for children to stretch the truth like this while telling stories. Huck also exaggerated his
aliases. Pribek says, “Huck’s imagination is somewhat invested in childish fancy and telling lies
for the simple pleasure of the deception; his masquerades are sometimes more elaborate than
necessary” (Pribek 69). An example of a childish lie that does not include exaggerating was
when Huck tricked Jim into thinking that the whole time they had been searching for each other
in the fog had been in Jim’s imagination. Huck’s motive for this lie was to simply have fun, but
Jim was very disappointed in Huck. Huck immediately regretted telling this lie and felt so guilty
that he “could almost kissed his [Jim’s] foot to get him to take it back,” (Twain 65) which proves
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that lying does bother his conscience somewhat. Huck told childish lies as a way to have fun, and
it was not his intent to harm anyone.
Despite these countless, seemingly effortless lies, Huck sometimes struggled to lie, and
he instinctively knew when to tell the truth. When the two men asked Huck if his man on the raft
was white or black, Huck described his internal battle: “I didn’t answer up prompt. I tried to, but
the words wouldn’t come. I tried, for a second or two, to brace up and out with it, but I warn’t
man enough … I see I was weakening, so I just give up trying, and up and says- ‘He’s white’”
(Twain 68). Huck had the intention of telling the truth but realized he could not because of the
danger it would put Jim in. Also, for Huck it was usually too risky to tell the truth, but he
instinctively knew to tell the truth to Mary Jane about her fake uncles. He said to himself, “and
yet here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better, and actuly safer,
than a lie” (Twain 141). Huck told Mary Jane the truth because he realized how the king and
duke’s scheme had hurt her. Sometimes it was difficult for Huck to lie, and if it were not so risky
for him to tell the truth, I think he would have been truthful more often.
After looking at the different ways Huck lied, his motives for lying, and how it affected
his conscience, one can begin to determine if his lies are justified. When Huck’s motive for lying
was protecting Jim or himself, then he should lie, according to one who holds a conflicting
absolutism view. Turner defines it this way: “The conflicting absolutist believes it is his
responsibility to do the "lesser evil." He will break what he considers to be the lesser law (viz.,
lying) to uphold the greater law (i.e., preserving life). Then, after doing so, he prays for mercy
and asks God to forgive him for breaking a lesser commandment that circumstantially conflicted
with the ‘greater good’” (Turner). I would probably consider myself a conflicting absolutist,
because conflicting absolutists still believe that lying is always a sin (Turner). Lying in order to
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protect Jim from slavery seems like a lesser evil than telling the truth and handing Jim over to the
captors. Whether Huck told the truth or lied, both options would produce consequences. It also
was necessary for Huck to lie to his dad about the gun, because Huck had to preserve what
potentially could have been his life. For Huck, lying to protect Jim and himself was a matter of
choosing the lesser of two evils, something that sometimes must and should be done, from a
conflicting absolutist’s view.
Another possible reason one could use to justify Huck’s lies is the comparison between
him and the king and duke. Compared to the king and duke, Huck looked like a very moral
character. The king and duke fashioned lies ahead of time for purely selfish reasons, while Huck
usually had to lie on the spot. They lied about their identity in order to receive special treatment
from Huck and Jim, and they tricked many people in order to acquire the people’s money. It is
quite evident that their lying was not justified because it harmed others, while Huck never
intended to harm anyone. Huck said that the king and duke’s deception “was enough to make a
body ashamed of the human race” (Twain 123) and that he had “never see anything so
disgusting” (Twain 124). Huck knew the difference between harmless lies and full-blown fraud.
Even though Huck tried to save lying for only the situations in which it was required,
most of his occasional, unnecessary “childish” lies were unjustified, in my opinion. When Huck
lied to Jim about their separation in the fog, Jim was emotionally and mentally hurt as a result.
Lying in this case was not necessary for anyone’s protection/survival. However, I think it was
okay for Huck to embellish/exaggerate his aliases; after all, if he was going to lie, he might as
well have fun with it. In this case, the exaggeration was not a lie itself, because the lie had
already been told (changing his identity). It was a way for him to come of age and establish his
identity in the world. However, exaggerating the truth is different, because this form of
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exaggerating turns a truth into a lie, rather than simply adding creativity to a lie that has already
been established. When Huck exaggerated the truth or told childish lies with the goal of tricking
someone, there is no way to justify/excuse these lies. There are other ways for children to have
fun that do not involve stretching the truth and playing tricks on friends.
Finally, one can use the Bible to reach a conclusion about Huck’s lying. God is
completely against lying and condemns liars, usually with very harsh punishments, but the Bible
also includes examples of lying to preserve the greater good. In God’s eyes, lying is not justified.
To lie is to break one of the Ten Commandments, as stated in Exodus 20:16. Proverbs 19:5
(NIV) says, “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will not escape.”
Ananias fell down dead after he told a lie, and according to Revelation 21:8, those who lie will
be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. However, there are examples in the Bible of lying for the
purpose of upholding the greater good, such as when Rahab had to lie in order to protect the
spies. A more modern example could be the following: if a person with a gun was chasing
someone and asked me where the person he was chasing went, I would lie without a doubt, as
would most people in this situation. I think in this situation, God would prefer a lie to a murder.
However, many times I have heard that all sin is equal in God’s eyes, but I was unable to find a
verse that supports this. I know it is true, though, that God hates all sin; He does not pick which
lies to justify and which to punish. As humans we can have opinions on what we think is
justified, but we will never be able to reach a universal conclusion as to whether lying can ever
be justified.
To reach a conclusion on Huck’s lying, I analyzed the causes and effects of his lies,
evaluated a critic’s view, compared his lies to the king and duke’s lies, and studied Bible verses
on lying. I concluded that lying is sometimes necessary and should be done to preserve the
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greater good, such as when Huck must lie to protect himself or Jim, but can never be justified
because it is a sin. It seems contradictory to say that something that is sometimes necessary is
always unjustified, but I think it is even more contradictory to believe that a sin can be justified.
God makes it clear in the Bible that he detests lies and that liars will not go unpunished. Mark
Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on the surface is a simple, enjoyable story, but on a
deeper level provokes questions about the necessity and justifiability of lying in the midst of
conflicting morals.