The Importance Of Superstitions

With these the early conception of disease, I still come across superstition with in my own Native American heritage. According to Sanchez, D. (2012), “As a fundamental belief in Navajo culture, one should not disturb the dead, meaning

“Beware the ides of March” The soothsayer tells Caesar to beware the ides of March, Caesar thinks nothing of it. This is a mistake made by Caesar to ignore the sign, his personality got in his way thinking nothing of this costed him his life.

One of the biggest misinterpretations within the play was in Act one, scene two when the soothsayer warned Caesar about the Ides of March. Caesar ignored the soothsayer’s warning and paid little regard to the seriousness of the situation. In another example, with the assistance of Decius, Caesar completely misinterprets Calpurnia’s bloody dream in which Romans bathe in Caesar’s blood. These events are crucial to the downfall of Caesar. In fact, if Caesar had heeded these warnings, then he could have possibly prevented his assassination.

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.

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.

Superstition is a belief based on past experiences and not facts. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the Puritans were living in Salem, Massachusetts but are very superstitious. Part of the reason why is because they are avid believers in two different worlds: the natural world and the invisible world. There are also strong believers in the idea that God gives signs, good or bad, to express how he feels about them during certain times. For example, a natural disaster may signify that the Puritans are doing something wrong. The Puritans were superstitious because they are paranoid people.

Joseph Conrad once said, “It is the mark of an inexperienced man not to believe in luck”. Nailer, the main character of Paolo Bacigalupi’s book Ship Breaker, wasn’t born lucky, he was born a ship breaker. Ship breakers are child and adult laborers who spend their days starving, poor, and working away to take the anything valuable off old ships for the big companies. Throughout Nailer’s life, he has suffered through various unfortunate events. However, with a strong belief of luck and having other superstitions, his life becomes more manageable. In Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi demonstrates that being superstitious and believing in various degrees of luck allows people to more easily feel in control of uncontrollable situations.

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

Superstitions were not taken so seriously by educated people as plain people did, but both types of people were thoughtful moon watchers. Farmers did each of their tasks based on the the phases of the moon. They had superstitions that if they work on the right tasks during their corresponding moon phase, then they will have successful

It is remarkably paradoxical that initially labeling African Americans as contraband – the epitome of dehumanization – paved the way to a future free from bondage. This curious circumstance demonstrates how emancipation was not the Union's ambition when the war began. In spite of this fact, the experiences of Harry Jarvis throughout the Civil War are symbolic of the conflict's changing nature. Jarvis was an escaped slave taken as contraband at Fort Monroe, where he requested to serve with the Union forces. General Butler rejected his appeal, as he believed that the conflict was not a “black man's war” – Jarvis, for his part, responded that it would be soon enough. Indeed, Jarvis was correct, as the Emancipation Proclamation plainly affirmed

In Twain’s time period, people were so reliant on superstition that they even used it to make their most important life decisions. When something out of the ordinary happened, people offered superstitious reasons instead of facing reality or coming up with a logical explanation. Twain satirizes how foolish his characters—who are representative of the rest of society—are when they use superstitions and constantly apply them to everything in their lives. Although Twain wrote this novel in the nineteenth century and there have been many major scientific, technological and cultural advancements since that time period, the practice of relying on superstitions to explain both good and bad occurrences is still ingrained in today’s

In Macbeth the theme of superstition appears right at the beginning with the witches’ predictions and carries through the play with more witch predictions. In the play it is seen that Macbeth starts believing in the witches’ predictions and his destined fate. He soon forms a reliance on the witches’ predictions and seeks them out for more prophesies. In today’s society we see that now more than ever do people want to know about their future, with the businesses of taro reading, psychics and astrology booming. There are also many television programs and movies like Charmed and Harry Potter, whose main theme is superstition. In the play the line “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until/Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him” (Act 4, Scene 1), shows us that this theme was one that Shakespeare wished to communicate with his audience. Therefore through the theme of superstition it can be seen that Shakespeare is still significant to people in modern day times.

Superstitions are a common theme throughout this story, what are some examples of superstition they believed? How did it affect the characters and what did they do to prevent “bad luck”?

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