Huck Finn Superstition

Through out this novel, Huck and Jim show there ways of superstition. They both have different beliefs. Huck only believes that when he uses his superstition it is only for a good reason. However, Jim's superstition is very strong and can't live without it. In chapter 1, Huck shows he is superstitious when he flicks the spider off his shoulder, it ends up falling in a candle and lighting it. Huck then stood up and went back in his tracks three times and crossed his breast every time. Huck then tied up a little piece of his hair with a thread to keep the witches away, “Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up”(3). This makes Huck’s view of superstition very visible. Huck tends to believe things out of fear when something awful is about to happen. Like for instance, in chapter 4, Huck wants to throw salt over his shoulder because he thinks that some of the "bad Luck" will stop following them. During this, Miss Watson, his owner, was there to stop him and tell him that it won't help him one bit, “One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast.

In Chapter ten, Jim and Huck are arguing and somehow Jim says that it is bad luck to touch a snakeskin with your hands. Huck didn’t believe Jim because they have found money in an overcoat they took, then Jim say that Huck is going to get it very soon. Jim knew that karma is coming towards pretty soon, then another snake comes up from behind and bites Jim right on the feet while sleeping. This gave reasons to believe in superstition, because of Huckleberry Finn touching the snakeskin that he got bit by a snake. Jim is a very superstitious human being and in the novel Jim predicts another superstition. Jim predicts that it will rain from seeing birds’ jumping what Huck says is that he will catch a small bird. Jim said it was death, he said that his father laid mighty sick one time, and some of them caught some birds, and his granny said his father would come to his death, which in the end he did.

In the fourth chapter Huck sees Pap's footprints in the snow. So Huck goes to Jim to ask him why Pap is there. Jim gets a hair-ball that is the size of a fist that he took from an ox's stomach. Jim asks the hair-ball; “Why is Pap here?” But the hair-ball won't answer. Jim says it needs money, so Huck gives Jim a counterfeit quarter. The counterfeit quarter allows the reader to ponder the thought that Jim and Huck are superstitious, yet they still cheat the superstition like it doesn’t exist. Almost as if being superstitious is such a normal attribute that Huck and Jim don’t know they’re superstitious. Jim puts the quarter under the hair-ball. The hair-ball talks to Jim and Jim repeats it back to Huck. "Yo'ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do" (19). Jim tells Huck that he’s going to have many troubles in his life, but also considerable joy. Also, that he’s going to get sick, but always recover healthy and that he’s going to marry first a poor woman, then a rich one. If a person knows, or think they know how their life is going to turn out life can go two ways: they could come to a

The character most inclined to use superstition is Jim, and his actions are often laughable. The author even provides a list of some of the ludicrous things he believes: “And Jim said you mustn’t count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck. The same if you shook the tablecloth after sundown. And he said if a man owned a beehive and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die” (Twain 40). Twain is mocking humanity and showing how absurd superstitions sound, especially when all of one’s actions are based on them. Jim appears less intelligent as a result of his use of them, and Twain is proposing the same for society. Jim is also seen as childish for his belief in ghosts: “Doan’ hurt me—don’t! I hain’t ever done no harm to a ghos’. I alwuz liked dead people, en done all I could for ‘em. You go en git in de river ag’in, whah you b’longs, en doan’ do nuffin to Ole Jim, ‘at ‘uz ‘awuz yo’ fren’” (Twain 37). Jim had heard that Huck was murdered, and being the superstitious person he is, his first assumption when he sees Huck alive is that he is a ghost. A logical person would certainly have been in disbelief, but would not have jumped to the conclusion that Huck had come back from the dead. By showing how foolish his fictional characters look by relying on

When Huck and Jim first meet on Jackson’s island, Jim’s lack of thought and self control is evident. Jim often relies on superstitions to guide his actions, as he is unable to properly think through events and how one may catalyze another. After Tom plays a trick on Jim “[He} was most ruined for a serpent, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches”(page). When Jim is unable to logically make sense of what happened to him, he assumes something supernatural is at play. The belief of being attacked

He is quick to trust what people are telling him because he figures they know more than he does so they must be right. Jim, the African-American slave Huck runs away with, believes good and bad luck; Huck tends to agree with him throughout their journey together. Towards the beginning of their trip, Huck touches a dead snake’s skin and is reprimanded by Jim because it will bring bad luck (48-49). Huck does not think to challenge this, and the two of them regret his mistake in the future when they have misfortune

Mark Twain's greatly acclaimed novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, invites a reader to climb aboard with Huck and Jim as they travel down the Mississippi River. Although the friendship formed between Huck, a young white teenager, and Jim, a runaway African American slave, is certainly unusual for the Pre-Civil War Era, also important is their use of superstition for interpreting the world and their need for finding freedom and happiness. Having found commonality in their enslavement before their journey, now both Huck and Jim desire freedom from their different oppressions, civilization and slavery, respectively. These combined circumstances drive them to plan their escape from captivity and travel away together. With hopes of happiness, this journey of growth down the Mississippi River provides not only an escape from their enslavements, but also widens their worldly experiences, seen through the usage of superstitious beliefs, bringing Huck and Jim newfound freedoms, which affect choices that ultimately decide their futures.

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn describes the unjust and nonsensical world that the main character Huckleberry lives in. The novel is rife with characters having ridiculous superstitions and religious beliefs that are either exploited or used to justify terrible institutions. The novel also features plenty of racist characters, as well as supporters of slavery. Additionally this story contains examples of unjustified and pointless violence and fighting. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story of Huckleberry escaping from the the nonsensical norms of society and becoming free.

Twain constantly satirizes religion and other social institutions throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He points out flaws and fallacies present in organized religion through the eyes of a young boy, Huckleberry Finn. Since Huck is an outsider and “uncivilized”, Twain can present an objective view of religion and religious practices as they are explained to Huck. This viewpoint is used to criticize the religion and religious people of the South through the use of satire and irony.

Mark Twain 's the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is more than just a condemnation of pre-civil war society and its justification of slavery. Twain also uses the novel to challenge the validity of superstition. The main characters, Huckleberry and Jim, are mere marionettes for Twain to express his censure through; he mocks them with their own fears and distortion of superstition. Twain’s representation of superstition throughout the book is indicative of his own thoughts towards the subject.

In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are many themes that are present throughout the novel. Some themes include, the defining of honor, religion/the mockery of religion, slavery and the racial division, etc. Although there are many themes in this novel only one is present throughout the entire book, and that is the theme of superstition. The theme of superstition in Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is common. Twain is showing that getting away from society, as symbolized by superstition in the novel, can protect Huck and Jim from the threat religion acquires.

In the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the characters Tom and Huck who have a tendency to believe in supernatural forces. This means they have many superstitions, these superstition have affected their lives. For instance, one of Tom’s superstitions kept him from doing a really fun activity. Superstitions, a big part of Tom and Huck’s lives, often makes them believe weird delusions such as when they bring a dead cat's corpse to a graveyard and use spunk water to cure their warts, putting quicksilver into a loaf of bread to find a drowned person and when Tom puts on a string of rattlesnake rattles on his ankle to protect him from cramps. One of the first superstitions introduced in the novel is when Huck sneaks into a graveyard with a dead cat where he thinks it will cure their warts.

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.

In technique and structure and characterization “Huckleberry Finn” is for ahead of ‘Tom Sawyer.’ Huck’s narration of the story in the vernacular is something that has rendered the book vital and significant. Unfortunately the book has been misunderstood. The Concord Library Committee felt that the book was rough and coarse. An American reviewer could not check his exasperation and regarded Huckleberry Finn as, “An incarnation of the better side of the ruffianism that is one result of the independence of American.”2 Even then, this novel has a compactness and unity, with a dominant central factor holding the different pieces together. One who peruses the novel feels that the Mississippi River is the central factor, the thread that ties the various parts of the novel holding it together, preventing it from falling to

Recalling words of wisdom from his mentor, Percy Jackson states, “It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality” (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief chapter 21). Lightheartedly criticizing humanity, Percy analizes how humans tend to distort reality in order to coincide with their own interpretation of the world. Both Percy and his mentor correctly identify humans’ behavior to comprehend the world in a way in which merely best suits their current principles. Likewise, in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain demonstrates how superstitions lead people to believe in delusions. He shows this through Tom Sawyer’s skewed perception of reality and Huckleberry Finn’s actions influenced by myths.