Soldier Henry Dobbin Superstition

Superstitions are a mysterious part of any culture, and those mysteries greatly influence mysterious writers. Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most famous mysterious authors, use the many mysterious encounters he faced as an asset for his short stories. A major influence was his time in Charleston, South Carolina, where he learned of the many superstitions and rituals of both the blacks and the whites of the area. His interests in horrific rituals like premature burials and zombication (which mainly involves voodoo, familiar to the Lowcountry Gullah culture) helped him to write horrific short stories, like “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Poe’s gory and eerie setting of the house itself and the off-putting characteristics of the Usher siblings expressed Poe’s knowledge of paranoia and interest of the “living dead,” which comes in the weird rituals of the Gullah culture.

The Army in an extremely nostalgic organization with a copious amount traditions and has about a million different methods of conducting its business. Some are old and some are new, but possibly the oldest one that has been around since before the Army was officially established and still lives today is the Armys rules, regulations and policies on customs and courtesies. In this form of a remedial block of instruction given to me by my team leader, due to certain circumstances I am to explain the Armys customs and courtesies and the importance they have always and still do hold within the Army.

Although he believed it was ugly, he continued wearing the jacket since he has no choice. All the more he felt bad because wicked things happen continuously. He was unable to do his homework, he got C’s in most of his quizzes, and he even forgot the capitals and rivers of South America. The girls who were previously friendly to him blew away like loose flowers following boys in neat jackets (Soto, 474). Despite of the bad lucks it caused him, he still wore the jacket for three years and has tagged along with him wherever he went. And all those years he was unlucky

Superstition is considered a myth to most people, but for the ancient Romans, this was a historical belief. For the Romans, believing in superstition was a very ordinary thing. To them superstition explained the supernatural and strengthened their relationships with the gods (The Roman Empire). In the play Julius Caesar, the author William Shakespeare uses superstition repeatedly to affect the plot as well as the characters. Superstition in the play is used to foreshadow Caesar’s death, impact Brutus’ actions in the battlefield and to emphasize the Roman’s connection to superstition and fate.

This object is extremely symbolic since it brought good luck to Dobbins. Now people in Vietnam, war in general, and even people during their everyday lives believe in superstition and objects that hold certain supernatural powers. This is said when O’Brien says, “Like many of us in Vietnam, Dobbins felt the pull of superstition, and he believed firmly and absolutely in the protective power of the stockings.” (Pg. 112). It is shown when Dobbins goes through a series of unfortunate events that was surely kill a normal person, but since he was wearing the pantyhose he didn’t even get a scratch. “Never wounded, never a scratch. In August, he tripped a Bouncing Betty, which failed to detonate. And a week later he got caught in the open fierce firefight, no cover at all, but he just slipped the pantyhose over his nose and breathed deep and let the magic do its work.” (Pg. 112). In the story they say that the power of the pantyhose’s power came from the strength of the relationship between Dobbins and his girlfriend. So when his girlfriend broke up with him near the end of October, they said that the magic would go away. Dobbins had said otherwise, “‘No sweat,’ he said. ‘The magic doesn’t go away.” (Pg.

The Elizabethans were a very superstitious bunch. In fact most of our silly seeming superstitions come from them. All of our superstitions from knocking on wood for good luck to black cats crossing your path being a bad omen. They also believed in everything from ghosts, to magic, to fairies, to the influence of the stars and planets alignment.

would of in China. “ My mother had a superstition about certain dangers that can harm children,

In the story, “The Things They Carried”, author Tim O’Brien described specific items that each of his soldiers carried with them to the Vietnam War front. The items that the soldiers carried were for mental protection; they believed that the things they carried would take their minds off all the terror and violence that was going on around them. The protagonist, Lieutenant Jimmy cross, carries out letters from a girl named Martha, which leads to him losing his focus for the war and a lack of protection for his fellow soldiers. The death of Ted Lavender tested Lieutenant Cross’ loyalty to his men, his imagination of Martha, and the significance relating to each of the items the soldiers’ carry.

When reading we are given another insight into Perry’s background as we find out what his superstitions are, “Nuns, the number 15, red hair, white flowers, priests crossing a road and snakes appearing in a dream.” All of these seem incorrect and are not the ordinary superstitions that we are used to, for example, it is normally the number 13 that we fear. I think that all of these fears that Perry has are a result of bad experiences in his life. He did not have a stable

Since people think superstitions are imbued with magical powers, they usually rely on these ideas to give them good luck. This proves that many people have poor performances on their work, and then, will blame the superstitions for doing harm, making it bad luck. As these keep continuing, a person will be filled with “bad” thoughts that won’t do them good at all. On lines 265-270, in the short story Embrace the Supernatural, according to the text, the author states, “... increases anxiety and force you into situations where if it comes along, one will have to think whether or not you want to deal with it.” This text summarizes to us readers that if more harmful ideas are created, the more a person must deal with and avoid. Many of the superstitions that cause harm comes from the lack of

Life is full of superstition, whether you like it or not everybody has some sort of superstition in them. Some people don’t let some things go to their head like others do. Some people can get really stubborn if something suspicious happens. I am one of them people, it is really hard to get suspicion out of your head, it is one of them things that once you do it, it is hard to not have those thoughts in your head. And in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn you will see the cause and effects of the use of suspicion. The main character, Huck Finn, used superstition as a means to keep him going in search of his true self and find interesting ways to live life the only way he knew.

One common superstition that some people believed was that the weather was an expression of God’s feelings (The Religious History of America, page 56). If God was furious there might be a hurricane or an earthquake and if God was happy there might sunshine. A similar superstition suggested that God would express his feeling through people. If people were nice toward someone God was happy with them. If people were rude to one another, God was mad at someone. This superstition is different because instead of God showing feelings at a group of people, God would show his feelings to an individual. (Colonial Religion, page 12). Another popular superstition was that people had to act a certain way in order to receive good luck. For example someone made sure that they would never run into a black cat or else they would have bad luck (The Religious History of America, page 54). Superstitions have diminished in popularity over time but are still present

Duty is one of the values outlined the Army values. In my opinion it is one of the most important of all of them. It is very important but without the other values, Duty by itself cannot assist in accomplishing the mission. We still have the other values like leadership, respect, selfless service, honesty, integrity, and personal courage. These all set up the framework for us to be able to accomplish or duty as soldiers. All of them work hand in hand with each other. Duty is defined in Webster’s dictionary as, “obligatory tasks, conduct, service or functions that arise from ones position.” It is one of the primary values in the Army today. Duty is the reason while we get up every day and prepare to and defend the United States of America with

Dobbins explains that they are a good luck charm for him. He survives tripping over a landmine and a firefight. In Vietnam, the people are very superstitious in their culture. “More than anything, though, the stockings were a talisman for him. They kept him safe. They gave him access to a spiritual world, where things were soft and intimate…(118).” Dobbin’s girlfriend later breaks up with him, but he refuses to remove the pantyhose, claiming they still had magic still in them. The panyhose symbolize good luck and hope to survive the war.

What is superstition? According to The Little Oxford Dictionary, superstition is "belief in the existence or power of the supernatural; irrational fear of the unknown; a religion or practice based on such tendencies; widely held but wrong idea." Let us examine that definition in depth. First, there is "belief in the existence or power of the supernatural". This means that there is believed to be some force that can influence the events on the Earth. Second, there is "irrational fear of the unknown." This has been endemic to the human race since the early days when a cave man did not know if that cave was safe to enter or if he would be attacked by a bear. Third, "a religion or practice based on such tendencies." This is the belief