Superstition in Huck Finn Essay examples -- essays research papers

Superstitious Times 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 extremely mature characters. Second, it serves to foreshadow the plot at several key junctions. For example, spilling salt leads to Pa returning for Huck, and later Jim gets bitten by a rattlesnake after Huck touches a snakeskin with his hands. Superstitions let t he reader feel more connected with the characters in the novel and give the characters more of a human persona that makes the novel incredibly pleasurable. â€Å"Critics argue that superstition is not based on reason, but instead springs from religious feelings that are misdirected or unenlightened, which leads in some cases to rigor in religious opinions or practice, and in other cases to belief in extraordinary events or in charms, omens, and prognostications. Many superstitions can be prompted by misunderstandings of causality or statistics† (Haun). Superstitions take the place of reason, where no other explanation is possible. The explanation that is ultimately accepted is one that’s based on one’s own experiences and travels. In the first chapter, Huck sees a spider crawling up his shoulder, so he flicks it off into the flame of a candle. Before he could get it out, it was already shriveled up. Huck needed no one to tell him that it was a bad sign and would give him bad luck. This whole event scared Huck so he shook his clothes off, and turned in his tracks three times. He then tied a lock of his hair with a thread to keep the witches away. "You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep of bad luck when you'd killed a spider"(5). This was all too much... ...de up my mind I wouldn’t ever take a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it†(52). Eating the head of a poisonous snake to help cure you seems ridiculous because the snakes head is where the venom is, but a superstition is a superstition. Huck would never let Jim know that he had set the snake on Jim’s bed in the first place out of the growing respect Huck had for Jim. As the examples above have shown the characters in this novel rely on superstition to help them understand the world around them which would otherwise be inexplicable. Without these beliefs the characters would be lost in thought of the unknown and would be less able to function in the world. The superstitions that get them through life are not accepted by the established society and are consistent with their status as rebels. The absurdity of their belief system not only makes the characters more human, but also makes them more likeable and funny. In other words the superstition that plays throughout the novel serves multiple functions. It helps the characters negotiate their lives and allows the reader to thoroughly enjoy their adventures and relate to them in a realistic way.