Literary Analysis of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

In huckabackleberry Finn there are several themes. There are themes of racialism and slavery, civilized society, survival, water imagery, and the one I will be discussing, credu light upy ( SparkNotes Editors). Superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unkn knowledge, swear in magic or chance, or a false macrocosm of causation (Merriam-Webster). Superstition was a very popular theme in huckleberry Finn that you saw throughout the story. huck was somewhat superstitious, nevertheless Jim speaks a liberal range of superstition and folk tales.In the story it makes Jim seem as if he is unintelligent, when re entirelyy his superstitions and beliefs dress true and shows he is a brisk person. At first, huck thinks Jims superstitions are foolish and silly, but he eventually starts to appreciate Jims outlook and knowledge on life storytime. Jims superstition was accepted as social teachings as well as being the adult figure in huckabacks life (SparkN otes Editors). One of the first times I saw superstition in the story was Hucks superstition of bad luck. Pretty before long a spider went crawling up my berm, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle and before I could budge it was all shrink up.I didnt need anybody to tell me that was an awful bad attribute and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and nigh shook the clothes off me. I got up and hu troops actioned about in my tracks three times and crossed my breast everytime and then I tied up a little lock of my sensory hair with a thread to keep witches a counselling ( Twain 110). A nonher time Hucks superstition of bad luck was shown in the story was when he accidentally spilled salt at breakfast. One morning I happened to turn over the salt cellar at breakfast.I reached for some of it as quick as I could, to jumble over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in the in advance of me, and crossed me off ( Twain 117). Because Huc k was not able to throw the salt over his shoulder, he was very worried and nervous all day because he knew he would encounter bad luck rather or later. The first time Huck went to invite superstitious advice from Jim is when he went to ask Jim when his catch would be returning in his life. He had already seen his comes tracks in the snow and knew he would be approaching real soon.He wanted to know what his father was going to do and how longwas he going to stay. Huck heard Jim had a hair ball that was taken out of a stomach of an ox, that he employ to do magic with. The hair ball supposedly had a olfaction in it that knew everything. The hair ball told Jim about Hucks father and Jim told Huck, Yo ole father doan know, yit, what hes a-gwyne to do.Sometimes he spec hell go way, en den agin he spec hell stay. De bes way is to res easy en let de ole man take his own way ( Twain 119). He then began to tell Huck his father had two angels over him. A white, shiny angel that tells him to do redress and a dark angel that tells him to do wrong.He told Huck that he also has two angels over him that does the same, and that nobody knows which one is going to get you in the end. This part of the story showed me Jim wasnt as foolish and monstrous as everybody thought he was, he was actually wise. That night when Huck returned home his father was waiting for him in his assroom. Once Huck ran remote to the island and found Jim ran away too and they discovered the dead man, who happened to be Hucks father, Huck wanted to discuss the dead man but Jim warned him it was bad luck for them to talk about a dead man. He said it would fetch bad luck and besides, he said, he capability come and hant us he said a man that warnt buried was more likely to go a-hanting round than one that was planted and comfortable ( Twain 139). Huck thought Jim make sense and respected him enough not to bring it up again. Huck then brought up to Jim, when he found the snake-skin the other day, Jim said it was the beat out bad luck to touch snake skin. Huck did not weigh they would experience any bad luck because they had experienced so frequently good luck with finding the house with all the goods and money they came across.Jim told him not to speak of it and he said the bad luck would still come, and it did come later that week. Huck decided to play a trick on Jim and put a dead rattlesnake in Jims top to scare him. When Jim laid down that night the snakes chap was in his blanket and bit Jim on the heel. Jim was sick in bed for four days and Huck never told him he was the one who vie the trick on him. He swore to himself he would never pick up a snake skin again, and Jim said to Huck maybe he would believe him next time and there might still be some bad luck to come.The theme of superstition in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is connect to commit and fear. Jims hope and fear was that he would finally be free and his fear was that he would be captured and forced back into slavery. Hucks hope was that he would be able to live his life without having to be in fear of his father and also that he would not have to live a sivilized lifestyle with the widow and Miss Watson. Everybody has hope and fear about something, and deals with it differently.Jim and Huck dealed with it by believing in superstition. work on Cited Page Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Norton Anthology American Literature. Seventh Ed. Vol. C. Nina Baym. New York W. W. Norton & Comapny, Inc. , 2007. Print. SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. SparkNotes. com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 5 Feb. 2011. www. merriam-webster. com/ lexicon/superstition. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 5 Feb 2011.