Huck Finn Superstition Essay

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“Superstition is the poison of the mind” is a quote by John Lewis. This quote reflects the theme of the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn, a 14 year old boy with an abusive father, and Jim, a slave about to be sold for 800 dollars, run away from home. The episodes throughout the book are centered around their superstitious behaviors. Twain uses superstition in the characters Huck and Jim to depict the ignorance of their society in attributing bad or good luck to objects and actions that are meaningless, this affects them negatively. Huck and Jim engage in ritualistic actions, dangerous beliefs, and reliance on insignificant entities all due to superstition.
Huck feels compelled to do certain ritualistic actions to make himself feel satisfied. This part of the story is being told by the viewpoint of Huck, and he is explaining who he is and how …show more content…
Huck learns this after asking him about any good luck signs that Jim knows about. To which Jim responds, “‘Ef you’s got hairy arms en a hairy breas’ , it’ a sign dat you’s a-gwyne to be rich’”(45). This is not healthy either because he is still putting all that power into an insignificant thing, but for a different reason. In this case, the hairy arms and chest, he is relying on his features to bring him good fortune instead of actually working towards it. It shows his ignorance because there is no way that every person with hairy arms and chest is or will be rich, and how he is relying on that to bring him wealth.
In sum, Huck and Jim are superstitious people with unhealthy habits in their mythical beliefs. One being the ritualistic actions they feel compelled to do, Jim’s negative attitude about touching the snake skin, and Jim’s belief of wealth coming from his hairy arms and chest. All of these behaviors are negative and unhealthy because they do not think it out, they act on their ignorant
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