Huck Finn Superstition

During the book, Huck hasn’t really experienced what life really was and what you might encounter during times that just come out of anything. Jim is someone that you might call strange and unexpected. When Huck

Jim, who becomes Huck's friend as he travels down the Mississippi river, is a man of intelligence and consideration. "An understanding of Jim's character is by no means a simple matter; he is a highly complex and original creation, although he appears at first sight very simple" (Hansen, 388). Jim has one of the few well functioning families in the novel. Although he has been estranged from his wife and children, he misses them dreadfully, and it is only the thought of a lasting separation from them that motivates his unlawful act of running away from Miss Watson. Jim is rational about his situation and must find ways of accomplishing his goals without provoking the fury of those who could turn him in. Regardless of the restrictions and constant fear Jim possesses he consistently acts as a gracious human being and a devoted friend. In fact, Jim could be described as the only existent adult in the novel, and the only one who provides an encouraging, decent example for Huck to follow. The people that surround Huck who are supposed to be teaching him of morals, and not to fall into the down falls of society are the exact people who need to be taught the lessons of life by Jim. Jim conveys an honesty that makes the dissimilarity between him and the characters around him evident.

Huck, who is a child in a book, has a lot of room for development. In the beginning, he was taught to follow the rules of society like practicing Catholicism and refusing to associate with slaves. However, during Huck’s journey with Jim, he learns a valuable lesson about respecting people based on their character, despite what he was taught by Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and Tom Sawyer. During the first few days of his journey, he pulls pranks on Jim, like attempting to trick him into thinking that getting lost in the fog was all a dream. However, later on in his journey, he refuses to follow the rules of society in order to save Jim. He even says “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” when he chooses not to tell Miss Watson Jim’s whereabouts (Twain 214). Jim in turn sees Huck as a great friend as well, thus showing how Huck is now seen as a

In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, there is a lot of superstition. Some examples of superstition in the novel are Huck killing a spider which is bad luck, the hair-ball used to tell fortunes, and the rattle-snake skin Huck touches that brings Huck and Jim good and bad luck. Superstition plays an important role in the novel Huck Finn.

In Huckleberry Finn there are several themes. There are themes of racism and slavery, civilized society, survival, water imagery, and the one I will be discussing, superstition ( SparkNotes Editors). Superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation (“Merriam-Webster”). Superstition was a very popular theme in Huckleberry Finn that you saw throughout the story. Huck was somewhat superstitious, but Jim speaks a wide range of superstition and folk tales. In the story it makes Jim seem as if he is unintelligent, when really his superstitions and beliefs come true and shows he

It turns that Huck was not alone. Just the fact to somebody that they have bad luck can very well get in their head. And in the story it is also very clear that Huck’s slave, Jim, is also very superstitious. Of course, he was not near as bad as Huck, yet he still had a dose of it also. A prime example of this is when Jim was apparently bewitched and put in a trance and rode all over the state and country (Twain 6). However Jim was never really bewitched, it was just a joke played all along by Huck. Another great example of superstition is when Jim began asking the hairball questions about Pap, Huck’s Father, and at first it was not answering. Jim told Huck that in order to get an answer he needed to give it money, therefore Huck gave Jim a quarter and then Jim starts telling Huck all the answers he’s been asking (Twain 18). The importance of this shows a little of Jim’s superstition, and it also shows the way Jim sees things different than Huck. It is clear that Jim and Huck both have the same idea about superstition, but they process it in different ways. Huck more or less takes it to heart, rather than Jim, takes it more as if it

Many times that Huck could’ve told the authorities about Jim, but he didn’t. On the other hand, Jim could’ve done the same thing to Huck. Both men, did what they think was right. Jim protected Huck from seeing his dead father. He didn’t let Huck see his father’s dead body because he didn’t want Huck to get hurt. For example, when Huck wanted to talk about the dead man and wanted to know how he was killed, but Jim didn’t want him to know all that. “It would fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha’nt us; he said a man that warn’t buried was more likely to go a-ha’nting around than one that was planted and comfortable” (Twain 137).

When Huck would play tricks on Jim he did them with a mentality that he was inferior and weak but throughout the story he was able to see himself as equal to him.

Some say that superstition is an impractical way of looking at life but the characters in Mark Twain’s, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn beg to differ. Examples of superstition are abundant throughout the novel. Allowing characters in a novel to have superstitions makes their lives more realistic and the reading more enjoyable. Huck and Jim’s superstitions cause them grief, help them get through, and sometimes get them into trouble in their lengthy runaway journey. Although both of these characters tend to be quite rational, they quickly become irrational when anything remotely superstitious happens to them. Superstition plays a dual role: it shows that Huck and Jim are child-like in spite of their otherwise

In Huckleberry Finn multiple instances of superstitions arise and seem to be engraved in the culture, even the most utmost examples being rarely questioned and continually passed on from generation to generation like a hand-me-down. In modern society, superstition is one big mind game. Eventually, enough people are affected by these notions that they become evidence for others. In both modern day and in the late 1800s when the story of Huck Finn took place, superstition has been used as a cloak to explain events or occurrences that humans cannot or simply choose not to explain in a logical manner, oftentimes showing the illogical thinking and gullibility of a certain society.

We see this become an example when they help each other out by doing what they can do while the other can not, and one for such is Huck dressing as a girl to hear what is happening in their former town. Huck is the one doing this because he is white, not because he is more skilled in remembering or any of the sorts. Though Jim is someone for Huck to look for guidance, and deciding what they should do. He uses Jim’s superstitions many times. One for instance was when they decided where to stash their canoe and supplies. “Jim says if we had the canoe hid in a good place, and had all the traps in the cavern, we could rush there is anybody was to come to the island, and they would never find us without dogs. And besides, he said them little birds had said it was going to rain, and I didn’t want the things to get wet?” (50). This became a turning point, as Huck seeks advice from Jim. This common goal of not getting caught helped this change undergo, as they see that hiding the canoe would make the searchers believe the place was

Throughout all these situations that Huck goes through, Jim has supported him, even when Jim was not with Huck at every time. Jim first met up with Huck on the island. Jim escaped Widow Douglas’s home because he was to be sold down south, which would separate Jim from his family forever. Jim is hands down the most important person to Huck throughout the novel, putting himself in a category as one of Huck’s new family members. Jim has been associated as Huck’s father figure. During their time together, Jim and Huck make up a sort of alternative family in an alternative place, apart from society. Huck escaped from society for adventure and a new life, while Jim has escaped from society so that he wouldn’t be separated from his family by being sold down south. Jim is based off of his love, whether it’s for his family or his growing love for Huck. Jim was thought of by Huck as a stupid, ignorant slave in the beginning of the novel, but as Huck spends more time with Jim, Huck realizes that Jim has a different kind of knowledge based off of his years as well as his experiences with love. In the incidents of the floating house and Jim’s snakebite, Jim uses his knowledge to benefit both of them but also seeks to protect Huck. Jim is less imprisoned by conventional wisdom than Huck,

Jim is also a relatively flat character. He goes through the novel with very little change in his character. He is always superstitious, but also is very accepting of people. One example of his superstitions is, “And [Jim] said that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn’t got to the end of it yet.” (Twain, 64.) Jim always adheres to his superstitions, and in a way they govern his life. Even when Tom and Huck are attempting to set Jim free near the end of the book, Jim goes along with all their crazy machinations. This is similar to his superstitions, because he is willing to do silly things, since he believes they are essential to gaining freedom.

As evidenced in the introductory instances regarding death, Huck’s morality is defective and his sympathy is missing. Perhaps, Huck’s flaws are due to his close contact with the iconic delinquent Tom Sawyer, who is likely corroding Huck’s ethics. Consequently, when Huck bonds with his new partner-in-crime, Jim, a stark juxtaposition is evidenced between the ideals of Tom and Jim. However, luckily “youth is a time of greater potential for change than any other stage of life”, and Jim’s positive influence proves beneficial (Trites 53) . Specifically, Jim is extraordinarily superstitious and attaches a copious amount of meaning to just about everything, even a measly snake skin (Twain 162). Of course, this means that Jim does not completely disregard the significance of death and importance of sympathy, as Tom and his mischievous mates do. Consequently, Jim “has proven himself as a morally admirable figure” (Bollinger). As a result, after prolonged exposure to Jim, Huck starts to exude more concern for the life of others, as evidenced in quite a few scenarios that take place on his and Jim’s journey.

Huck maintains individual thoughts and does not conform to commonly accepted social opinions, thus adhering to Emerson’s definition of self-reliance. Emerson writes, “To believe our own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, -- that is genius.” (p.1) Emerson stresses the importance of forming unique opinions, rather than conforming to society’s notions. Furthermore, Emerson emphasizes that independent thoughts are a crucial aspect of self-reliance. Huck demonstrates his ability to form opinions separate from those of society, thus personifying self-reliance according to the qualities Emerson describes. Huck grows up in a society in which black people are slaves and are not viewed as human beings. Despite this negative view of black people, Huck comes to realize that Jim, who is black, is no different than a white man. Huck observes Jim, and notices that Jim appears to be homesick and misses his family. Huck concludes, “...I do believe he [Jim] cared just as much for