Literary Analysis of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

In Huckleberry Finn there are several themes. There are themes of racism and slavery, civil society, survival, water imagery, and the wizard I will be discussing, intolerance ( SparkNotes Editors). bigotry is a belief or practice reticuloendothelial systemulting from ignorance, upkeep of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of designer (Merriam-Webster). Superstition was a very popular theme in Huckleberry Finn that you truism throughout the history. Huck was roughwhat superstitious, but Jim declares a wide order of superstition and folk tales.In the story it makes Jim seem as if he is unintelligent, when solidly his superstitions and beliefs ejaculate true and shows he is a wise person. At first, Huck thinks Jims superstitions are foolish and silly, but he in the end starts to appreciate Jims outlook and knowledge on life. Jims superstition was accepted as social teachings as well as being the adult figure in Hucks life (SparkNotes Editors). on e of the first times I saw superstition in the story was Hucks superstition of unstable luck. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle and before I could budge it was all shriveled up.I didnt need anybody to tell me that was an awful evil sign and would get me some bad luck, so I was fatigued and most shake the clothes off me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and go through my breast everytime and thusly I buttoned up a little lock of my hair with a twine to accommodate witches a demeanor ( Twain 110). Another time Hucks superstition of bad luck was shown in the story was when he perchance spilled salt at breakfast. One morning I happened to turn all over the salt cellar at breakfast.I reached for some of it as readily as I could, to throw over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in the ahead of me, and crossed me off ( Twain 117). Because Huck was not able to throw the salt over his shoulder, he was very worried and nervous all solar day because he knew he would encounter bad luck sooner or ulterior. The first time Huck went to get superstitious advice from Jim is when he went to pray Jim when his take would be returning in his life. He had already seen his induces tracks in the snow and knew he would be coming real soon.He wanted to know what his father was going to do and how presbyopic was he going to stay. Huck heard Jim had a hair en that was taken out of a stomach of an ox, that he used to do magic with. The hair ball supposedly had a spirit 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 deuce angels over him. A white, shiny angel that tells him to do righ t and a dark angel that tells him to do wrong.He told Huck that he withal 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 stupid as everybody thought he was, he was actually wise. That night when Huck returned theatre his father was waiting for him in his bedroom. Once Huck ran away to the island and launch 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 chastened him it was bad luck for them to talk about a dead man. He express it would fetch bad luck and besides, he said, he might come and hant us he said a man that warnt buried was more likely to go a-hanting around than one that was planted and comfortable ( Twain 139). Huck thought Jim made mavin 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 worst bad luck to touch snake skin. Huck did not think they would take any bad luck because they had experienced so much bully 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 fox on Jim and intrust a dead rattlesnake in Jims blanket to scare him. When Jim laid down that night the snakes mate was in his blanket and bit Jim on the heel. Jim was sick in bed for four-spot days and Huck never told him he was the one who played 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 related to apprehend and fear. Jims hope and fear was that he would finally be alleviate and his fear was that he would be captured and force d 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 fuddle 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 Cited summon 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/ dictionary/superstition. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 5 Feb 2011.