Supernatural Beings in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Fin

Not only does the novel show Jim as compassionate but, it also portrays him as superstitious. For instance, he believes the reasoning behind the bad luck relates to Huck touching a snakeskin. "You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snakeskin with my hands." Equally important Jim believes hairy arms and chests leads to wealth. "Ef you's got hairy arms en a hairy breas', it's a sign dat you's a gwyne to be rich." Furthermore, the sight of birds flying overhead produces rain. "Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and lightning. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain." Another situation where Jim shows superstition includes, "And Jim said you musn't count the things you have for dinner because that would bring you bad luck. The same if you shook the tablecloth after sundown." These superstitions prove just how crazy Jim acts.

In Chapter 8 when Huck finds Jim, who escaped from Miss Watson because she was going to sell him down the river. That evening Jim exposes Huck to his knowledge of superstition. Some young birds flew by, and Jim said that it was a sign that it was going to rain. Huck wanted to go catch some of them, but Jim said that if he did that then it would mean death. Jim also said that you mustn’t count that things you are going to have for dinner, or it would bring bad luck, it was also bad luck if you shook the tablecloth after sundown. And if a man had a beehive and that man died the bees must be told about it before sun-up the next morning, or they would die. “Jim said bees won’t sting idiots; but I didn’t believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me”.

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

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn emphasizes the strategies of ethos, logos, pathos to satirize religion in the mid nineteenth century. It is arguable that Huckleberry Finn is obviously centered around the degree of racism during the given time period, but other topics are apparent when audited. Throughout Huckleberry Finn, religion is cultivated in a humorous way such that Huck’s views, a warring family’s morals, and the teachings of the time period are prime examples of religious satire in Huckleberry Finn and utilize ethos, logos, and pathos.

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

In multiple studies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, many critics have closely examined Huck Finn’s struggles to conform to society’s expectation because he becomes conflicted between his true ideals and the ideals society has forced upon him. According to Johnson, "Huck has his own flaws: He rarely tells the truth, he steals, and he is gullible, particularly when it comes to superstition. But when faced with a dire situation, Huck usually does the right thing” (75). Although Huck repeatedly finds himself to be conflicted with Southern ideals at the end of the novel, Huck finally decides to follow his own beliefs. Davis states that, “Through Huck 's innocent descriptions of white misbehavior, Huckleberry Finn implicitly condemns not only individual white characters but also the culture that they represent. Huck rarely fully

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

    In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a main target of satire is the romantic view of life. Though the characters and symbols, it is evident that the idyllic views are being disparaged. Some of the people in this book are simply deluded, while others cause major tribulations during their lives. Literary romanticism can be pleasant, but it is not real and can confuse those not sage enough to distinguish the difference between a writer's fantasy and their reality. For a person who sees the delusions that humans allow themselves, this can be aggravating. The annoyance caused is not the problem, however. It is the harm caused. The romantic problems brought to light in The

One of the key themes of these adventures is superstition, as it intertwines with religion with the story’s progression From the very beginning of the story superstition is an enormous part though Huck and Jim have different views on it. Huck, being the practical character he is, does not believe in such things or anything he cannot see for that matter. This belief only is confirmed later when they are going through the things they got from the floating house and he says “what did you say when I fetched that snake skin? You said it was the worst bad luck to touch a snake skin.

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 the classic novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain we see a lot of moral development with the main character Huckleberry Finn. Throughout the story Huck’s friendships greatly influence his moral identity. Throughout the series of events that unfold upon our main character, Huck Finn, we see huge moral leaps in the way he thinks that are influenced by that friendships he makes on his journey. He starts the book as a young minded individual with no sense morals other than what has been impressed onto him and ends up as a self empowering individual. Through the friendships he makes with Tom Sawyer, Jim, and the Duke and King we see big moral leaps with 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.

Religion is defined as “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods” or as a “cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith”, while the term mysticism deals with a “vague or ill-defined spiritual belief, especially associated with a belief in the occult, a practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance.” Considering these two definitions, we can state that Huckleberry Finn’s character is rather mystical and that he tends to believe in the power of superstitions. But, throughout the novel, we also discover a religious side of Huck, consolidated on the moral education that Widow Douglas and Miss Watson taught him. In this essay I will emphasize

An issue of central importance to Huckleberry Finn is the issue of race. The story takes place in a time of slavery, when blacks were considered inferior to whites, sometimes to the point of being considered less than fully human. But Huckleberry Finn challenges the traditional notions of the time, through its narrator and main character, Huckleberry Finn. While in the beginning, Huck is as unaware of the incorrectness of society’s attitudes as the rest of society is, he undergoes many experiences which help him to form his own perspective of racial issues. Through the adventures and misadventures of Huck Finn and the slave Jim, Twain challenges the traditional societal views of race and

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has a great deal to do with many stereotypes, of what society at that time believed people to be. The character of Huckleberry Finn had a great deal of turmoil, and conflict while trying to understand if he should trust what he was taught to believe, or rather if he should instead go with what his heart was telling him to do. This moral conflict that he kept having with himself continues throughout the entirety of the story.