Superstition in Huck Finn

Superstitious Times

Some say that superstition is an impractical way of looking at life but the characters in Mark Twain's, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn beg to differ. Examples of superstition are abundant throughout the novel. Allowing characters in a novel to have superstitions makes their lives more realistic and the reading more enjoyable. Huck and Jim's superstitions cause them grief, help them get through, and sometimes get them into trouble in their lengthy runaway journey. Although both of these characters tend to be quite rational, they quickly become irrational when anything remotely superstitious happens to them. Superstition plays a dual role: it shows that Huck and Jim are child-like in spite of their otherwise extremely mature characters. Second, it serves to foreshadow the plot at several key junctions. For example, spilling salt leads to Pa returning for Huck, and later Jim gets bitten by a rattlesnake after Huck touches a snakeskin with his hands. Superstitions let the reader feel more connected with the characters in the novel and give the characters more of a human persona that makes the novel incredibly pleasurable. "Critics argue that superstition is not based on reason, but instead springs from religious feelings that are misdirected or unenlightened, which leads in some cases to rigor in religious opinions or practice, and in other cases to belief in extraordinary events or in charms, omens, and prognostications. Many superstitions can be prompted by misunderstandings of causality or statistics" (Haun). Superstitions take the place of reason, where no other explanation is possible. The explanation that is ultimately accepted is one that's based on one's own experiences and travels. In the first chapter, Huck sees a spider crawling up his shoulder, so he flicks it off into the flame of a candle. Before he could get it out, it was already shriveled up. Huck needed no one to tell him that it was a bad sign and would give him bad luck. This whole event scared Huck so he shook his clothes off, and turned in his tracks three times. He then tied a lock of his hair with a thread to keep the witches away. "You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep of bad luck when you'd killed a spider"(5). This was all too much for Huck so he sat down, pulled out his pipe, and had a smoke to cool himself down. To make matters worse, as soon as he relaxed he heard something creaking around. He listened closely "me-yow! me-yow!"(6), this was, sure enough Tom's call to him. Huck jumps down to meet his friend. This superstition gives the reader a first insight to Huck. The superstition is somewhat childish and belief in the reality of witches shows that Huck has a long way to go before maturation.
In the fourth chapter Huck sees Pap's footprints in the snow. So Huck goes to Jim to ask him why Pap is there. Jim gets a hair-ball that is the size of a fist that he took from an ox's stomach. Jim asks the hair-ball; "Why is Pap here?" But the hair-ball won't answer. Jim says it needs money, so Huck gives Jim a counterfeit quarter. The counterfeit quarter allows the reader to ponder the thought that Jim and Huck are superstitious, yet they still cheat the superstition like it doesn't exist. Almost as if being superstitious is such a normal attribute that Huck and Jim don't know they're superstitious. Jim puts the quarter under the hair-ball. The hair-ball talks to Jim and Jim repeats it back to Huck. "Yo'ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do" (19). Jim tells Huck that he's going to have many troubles in his life, but also considerable joy. Also, that he's going to get sick, but always recover healthy and that he's going to marry first a poor woman, then a rich one. If a person knows, or think they know how their life is going to turn out life can go two ways: they could come to a greater understanding of themselves and grow from it, or be completely unhappy with their life and things will go downhill from their. Huck has to struggle with these options in his head and it doesn't help his troubles when he goes home and he gets up to his room that night: Pap is waiting for him. Also, in this chapter Huck tries to throw salt over his shoulder to keep off bad luck, but Miss Watson stops him, "…what a mess you are always making!"(16). Huck seems to be warding off bad luck at every turn, almost like he's expecting a rash punishment down the line. He could be worried about a wrong doing or be trying to keep his father away from him, someone who will always bring Huck bad luck in his mind.
In Chapter ten, Huck and Jim run into good luck that drastically turns around and becomes bad luck. Huck and Jim find eight dollars in the pocket of an overcoat. After dinner on Friday they are lying in the grass and Huck runs out of tobacco. He goes to the craven to get some and finds a rattlesnake. Huck kills it, curls it up and puts it on the foot of Jim's blanket because Jim said that holding a snakeskin in your hands brings bad luck. Jim had given Huck a hard time about holding it and said that it was creeping in on him. Night came and Jim threw himself onto the blanket. Right at his feet was the snake's mate, waiting for him. The snake bit Jim on the heel. Jim tells Huck to cut off the snake's head and then skin the body of the snake and roast a piece of it. He then takes the rattles off of the snake and ties them to Jim's wrist because Jim said it would help him. In response to all this Huck states, "I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it"(52). Eating the head of a poisonous snake to help cure you seems ridiculous because the snakes head is where the venom is, but a superstition is a superstition. Huck would never let Jim know that he had set the snake on Jim's bed in the first place out of the growing respect Huck had for Jim.
As the examples above have shown the characters in this novel rely on superstition to help them understand the world around them which would otherwise be inexplicable. Without these beliefs the characters would be lost in thought of the unknown and would be less able to function in the world. The superstitions that get them through life are not accepted by the established society and are consistent with their status as rebels. The absurdity of their belief system not only makes the characters more human, but also makes them more likeable and funny. In other words the superstition that plays throughout the novel serves multiple functions. It helps the characters negotiate their lives and allows the reader to thoroughly enjoy their adventures and relate to them in a realistic way.