Superstition Essay, Research Paper
Superstistion, a word that is frequently used to explicate bad fortune, bad luck, the ace natural, and the universe that is
non known. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, superstion playe an of import function
that resurfaces several times throughout the book. A belief that a hair ball can state the hereafter, a loaf of staff of life
incorporating mercury can indicate out a dead carcase, and touching a serpent tegument with au naturel custodies will give you the
worst bad fortune, are all illustrations of some of the superstitons found in the book.
? Miss Watson’s nigga, Jim, had a hair ball every bit large as your fist, which had been took out of the 4th tummy of
an ox, and he used to make magic with it. He said there was a spirit interior of it and it knowed everything. ? This
quotation mark, taken from chapter four of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a great illustration of how superstitius the
people of the clip were. The hair ball’s signifigance to the novel is seen in both the characters of Jim and Huck.
Jim is an uneducated slave who does non hold much cognition. He is really nescient and is easy to beleive things
things. Not merely does his beleif that this hair ball has magic liquors, he is besides fooled by Huck many times during the
novel. You would believe because of him being an uneducated slave, and Huck being the white male child who has had
some schooling, that their beleifs in this superstitous hair ball would differ. This is non true as seen when Huck is
the 1 that comes to Jim for the powers of the Hairball. Huck wanted to cognize what his male parent, Pap, was traveling to
make. Huck had found out earlier that Pap was back in Town. Both Huck and Jim are really superstisoius as most of the
people were so. There was non a batch of the modern engineerings that we have today to turn out many superstitious notions
faithlessly. The hair ball truly does non tel
fifty Huck anything that he truly already did non cognize. It merely told him that his
father did non cognize what to make. It merely told him general things such as, you are traveling to acquire hurt, but so you will
acquire better. This episode with the hair ball shows that even though Huck has some kind of an instruction, he and Jim
may be more similar than either one would acknowledge.
Another superstitious notion that most all of the people so beleived had to make with a loaf of staff of life and some
mercury. ? I merely had a bite to eat. Well, so I happened to believe how they ever put quicksilver in loaves of
staff of life and drift them off, beacuse they ever go right to the drownded carcass. ? Luckkily for this superstitious notion a
loaf of staff of life happened to drift right by him, and he had breakfast. Since the staff of life did in dead float to him, mabey
the old belief had some truth in it. After all, he was truly supposed to be dead and the staff of life did seek him out. This
episode furth illustrated the point that most all of the people were superstitous. The whole town beleived the loaves
would happen the organic structure. Again, they had no manner of cognizing why it would work or why it would non. If you put plenty
loaves of staff of life out at that place, one of them is bound to happen a cracass someplace. Huck happening the staff of life truly helped
travel the novel along. If he had non been able to acquire the staff of life to eat, he might hold left the shore in seek of nutrient. If
this had happened at that place would ne’er hold been a seen where he sees all of town on the steambote seearching for
his dead organic structure. A fianl point to this episode it the widow and here parying. During most of the book, Huck did non
beleive praying did much of anyhting at all. After all, he had prayed for many things in the yesteryear and ne’er got
them. This clip he though mabey there accually wa soemthing to the praying of the widow. ? I says, now I reckon
the widow
