Literary Analysis of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Example for Free

Literary Analysis of Adventures of huckleberry Finn EssayIn hucka buttleberry Finn there argon several themes. There are themes of racism and slavery, civilized society, survival, water imagery, and the mavin I will be discussing, superstition ( SparkNotes Editors). Superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in incantation or chance, or a false conception of causation (Merriam-Webster). Superstition was a very fashionable theme in huckabackleberry Finn that you saw throughout the story. huckaback was somewhat superstitious, but Jim speaks a wide appreciation of superstition and folk tales. In the story it makes Jim seem as if he is unintelligent, when re bothy his superstitions and beliefs come received and shows he is a wise person. At first, huckaback thinks Jims superstitions are foolish and silly, but he eventually 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). One of the first sequences I saw superstition in the story was Hucks superstition of bad 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 bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off me. I got up and turned well-nigh in my tracks three terms and crossed my breast everytime and thence I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to bread and butter witches away ( Twain 110). Another time Hucks superstition of bad luck was shown in the story was when he accidentally spilled brininess at breakfast. 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 over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in the ahead of me, and cross ed me off ( Twain 117). Because Huck was not able to throw the salt over his shoulder, he was very worried and nervous all day because he knew he would encounter bad luck sooner or later. The first time Huck went to get superstitious advice from Jim is when he went to ask Jim when his father would be returning in his life. He had already seen his fathers 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 longwas he going to stay. Huck perceive Jim had a hair ball 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 active 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 two angels over him. A whit e, shiny angel that tells him to do right and a patrician angel that tells him to do wrong.He told Huck that he also 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 home his father was waiting for him in his bedroom. Once Huck ran away to the island and found 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 warned him it was bad luck for them to run out about a dead man. He express it would fetch bad luck and besides, he verbalise, 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 sense and respected him enough not to bring it up again. Huck then brought up to Jim, when he fo und the glide-skin the other day, Jim said it was the worst bad luck to touch snake skin. Huck did not believe they would experience any bad luck because they had experienced so a lot good 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 humbug on Jim and put 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 disconsolate in bed for four days and Huck never told him he was the one who played the frolic 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 entrust and fear. Jims hope and fear was that he would finally be free and his fear was that he would be captured and forced 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 have to live a sivilized lifestyle with the leave behind 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 foliate 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.