Superstition in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

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In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the theme of superstition is obviously portrayed in both views of Jim and Huck. Huck shows his beliefs in superstition throughout the entire novel, but especially in the beginning. Between Huck And Jim, Jim is by far the most superstitious. Huckleberry Finn is superstitious out of terror, while Jim is superstitious out of beliefs and his education. Huck and Jim have different point of views on how they see superstition.
Jim, is Huck’s best friend on the long journey down the Mississippi, who seems to be more superstitious. Though Huck seems to believe things out of horror, Jim is superstitious because of his beliefs and experiences over time. This may be because of his childhood background being a slave for most of his life. Jim has no control over his life so he needs something to believe in.
Jim expressed his beliefs in several situations in the novel. For instance, in chapter four, Jim believed a hair-ball could tell fortunes about Huck’s life, “Miss Watson's nigger, Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do magic with it. He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything“(17). This shows how far he would go to believe in something. Though it is very weird, many of his superstitions seem rational and true for the most part, like when the hair-ball said that Huck was going to have trouble in his life. This came true because his father Pap, later arrived, making his life miserable. Also in chapter ten, Jim believes by touching the snake skin, that they found, would make them very unlucky, "Now you think it's bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the snake-skin th...

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...r my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, and crossed me off”(15). Jim and Huck's superstition is very different from each other, and at some point there will come a time when the two different beliefs crash and cause a problem.
Overall, it’s obvious that these two main characters have a different standing on superstition. Huck was accepting the more obvious far fetched ideas and beliefs. Jim on the other hand, was brought up as a very superstitious person and specifically looked for strange explanations for the simplest happenings. Between logic and the supernatural, they found understanding and reason for everything they went through on their journey down the Mississippi to freedom. Although they both have a different level of belief in superstition, they shared the comfort of having a somewhat similar way of seeing things.

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