Adventures of Huckleberry and Jim

The Adventures of Huckleberry and Jim Huckleberry and Jim are two uneducated southerners whose lack of intelligence is displayed prominently throughout the novel. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huckleberry goes on an adventure down the Mississippi river with a escaped slave named Jim. Together they go through many hardships on their way down the river to help Jim escape from slavery. Throughout the novel, both Huckleberry and Jim reflect their superstition, their active imagination, and their belief in magic through their actions. Huckleberry and Jim both greatly fear the dangers that can be caused through everyday actions, and display this superstitious behavior often. For example, Huckleberry states, “Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder...I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep the witches away” (Twain 3). In this quote Huckleberry shows his superstition when he accidently swats a spider into a candle flame and kills it. He does what he has to to stay away from anything that may cause bad luck. Furthermore, Huckleberry narrates, “One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw it over my left shoulder to keep the bad luck away” (14). Huckleberry shows his superstitious behavior in this quote by throwing throwing salt over his shoulder. According to De Koster from the Greenhaven Press, Huckleberry is “full of superstitious beliefs”. Huckleberry and Jim are extremely superstitious even with every day things. Huckleberry shows a very active imagination throughout the novel with his lightning quick wit when he finds himself in a tough situation. For example, Huckleberry says “I reckoned I would slip...I put on some of them old things and dressed up like a girl” (48, 49). Huckleberry comes up with the idea to dress himself up as a girl to get into town without being spotted. Unfortunately for Huckleberry he does no make a convincing girl. Furthermore, Huckleberry narrates, “So I took the gun and went up a piece into the woods...till I got a good piece below the house and then dumped him into the river” (29). Huckleberry comes up with this idea so everyone will think he’s dead. His plan works perfectly and soon everyone is searching the river looking for his body. Huckleberry definitely shows that he has a praiseworthy imagination. Huckleberry and Jim both show their belief and fear of magic in this novel. For example, Huckleberry says, “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 it to do magic” (15). Huckleberry believes that Jim can do magic with the hair-ball. Jim says the hair-ball needs money which leads one to believe that Jim is scamming Huckleberry. Furthermore, Huckleberry says, “I fetched meal and bacon and coffee, and coffee-pot and frying-pan, and sugar and tin cups, and the nigger was set back considerable, because he reckoned it was all done with witchcraft” (38). Jim thinks all the things Huckleberry got was done with witchcraft. This frightens Jim because Jim believes in witches and magic. This shows that Huckleberry and Jim both believe in magic. Throughout this novel Huckleberry and Jim show their superstitious behavior, their active imagination, and their belief in magic. Huckleberry and Jim both demonstrate this behavior through their every action on their journey down the Mississippi river.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Amsco School Publications, Inc, 1972.

De Koster, Katie, ed. Readings on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998.

Cited: Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Amsco School Publications, Inc, 1972. De Koster, Katie, ed. Readings on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998.