Huck Finn As A Trickster 

By satirizing civilization, education, superiority of white, intelligence and logicality of adults, Mark Twain in his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn prevents the protagonist as coming-of-the-age, highly reactive or circumstantial yet realist and practical by showing him as a trickster. The whole novel revolved around the tricks of Huck. Actually, the novel becomes adventurous because of Huck's tricks. Tom's slipping away from room to join Tom Sawyer's gang. His taking oath of secrecy by bribing one of friends, his selling of fortune to refrain his father away from it, his staging own death and running away from the cabin, his disguising as a girl and collecting information that Jim was being searched, his stealing away the boats of robbers, saving Jim from slave catchers by telling that his father was sick with smallpox his pretending to be Tom at Phelps are the few examples of Huck’s trickiness.

At the opening of the novel, Huck, finding difficult to adjust to the new environment, one night, when Tom signals him with Cat’s mew-yaw sound, he slips away from the room to join Tom Sawyer’s gang. His trick lies in being able to trick so called civilized people. Likewise, at the time of taking oat of secrecy amongst his friends in the came he bribes one of his friends and takes oath. Here, also he is over smart than friends of the same age. Most importantly, he sells his fortune or 1 dollar to Judge Thatcher who agrees to safeguard his money instead of buying it. His trickiness lies in refraining his father away from the money and making Thatcher keep it safely. The most ideal trick he does is his staging of his own death to slip away from the cabin at Illinois shore and to get rid of tortures of his drunkard father. He is able to make people believe that he was dead. Even Tom, the idea master, is convinced that Huck is dead. After this trick he moves to a totally free world.

When he was on Jackson’s Island, he disguises himself as a girl and goes to a village nearby where he tricks a woman and acquires information of Jim’s search. His trick is evident as he is able to trick a woman. On their course to Ohio, Huck steals a robbers’ boat. Robbers are themselves very cunning but Huck is found to be smarter than them. He saves Jim from slave catchers by telling a lie that it was not Jim on the raft, rather it was his ill father with smallpox. And toward the ending of the novel, he pretends to be tom when he reaches at the house of Tom’s uncle and aunt.

            In this way, Huck is able to outwit adult, educated, or so called civilized people. In a sense he is in the state of coming-of-the-age. That’s why, all his cunning actions are seen as tricks. If these actions were done by a professional, they wouldn’t be called tricks. But since a boy of 13 is doing all these, they are tricks. Likewise, Huck’s trickiness lies in his instant, swift, spontaneous and right reactions to the circumstances. He reacts to them rightly without any pre-plan, practice, intension, knowledge, experience, purpose etc. Because of all these Huck is called a trickster.