Innumerable variations in the mental complexities of human individuals produce a vast spectrum of human perspectives on the world. Though many views are similar, few, if any, are exactly alike, as many factors, including social status, upbringing, childhood environment, and education, can influence a person’s outlook on life. Through the five central characters of his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain suggests that the experience of literature can also alter a human’s perception of the world.

First of all, Jim, the illiterate runaway slave, sees the world as others present it to him. When he and Huck encounter two men claiming noble descent, Jim takes it for granted that they are speaking truthfully, and Huck determines that “it ain’t no use to tell Jim” (137) otherwise. The ignorant escapee has little reason to believe that the men’s claims could be anything other than the truth, a misconception that most likely stems in part from a naivety towards such fabri-cation. Because of his limited exposure to fiction, his ability to recognize falsehood is somewhat underdeveloped, causing him to believe most of what others say is the truth and thus obscuring his view of reality. Huck sees no sense in enlightening Jim to the imposters’ deception as such contradiction may only serve to confuse his friend. Jim is not without logic though, as he “[can]’t see no sense” (262) in Tom Sawyer’s ludicrously elaborate scheme to liberate him from the Phelps’ farm where he is imprisoned after his recapture. He follows along, however, because Tom and Huck “[are] white folk and [know] better than him” (262). Jim finds Tom’s plan, which can be attributed to literature, incomprehensible because he is unaccustomed to its fictional sources. Although the purposes of most aspects of Tom’s scheme remain unclear, he feels the tasks outlined for him are necessary because the well-read and seemingly well-informed Tom Sawyer tells him so. White people, in his eyes, represent the ultimate authorities on worldly matters because they, unlike slaves, are seldom forcibly kept illiterate and have the opportunity to absorb the greater knowledge that books provide. This belief is also partly responsible for why he remains unsuspicious of the men who accompany him and Huck for a time.

Having taken Jim’s perception into account, these two men, the king and duke, see their sketchy literary knowledge as a means of exploiting the illiterate and uniformed, such as Jim, and as proof of their superiority to the rest of the world. When they first meet up with Huck and Jim, they assume the identities of “the rightful Duke of Bridgewater” (134) and the “disappeared Looy the Seventeen” (136) in a combined attempt to outdo each other and impress their traveling companions. By impersonating nobility, they establish a fallaci