James 1 Supersitions in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn People by their own nature are superstitious and terrified of things, objects, and events they do not understand. The South, more prodominately evident in supersition than anyplace in the United States. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn identifiable elements of supersition gives this novel its flavor as they serve complex purposes (Cohen 854).
Samuel Clemmings, better known as Mark Twain, which he grew up in the South was able to draw conclusions and familiarty with supersitions in writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain uses his great knowledge of folklore, supersition, and myth through two main characters, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, and their roles with the supersition of the South. Supersitions, by, definition are the supernatural beliefs that some disdain but other’s accept (Cohen 854).
Mark Twain charmed audiences all over the world because he knew from his memories of folklife that the way the tale is told is as important as the tale itself (Cohen 853).
Twain expressed these features of supersition excellently in Hucklebery Finn and Jim. Mark Twain does not view supersition with disdain, and he uses supersitions to develop Huck and Jim and the story throughout his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. To understand how Twain uses the supersition, the person must understand Twain’s childhood as how he was brought up Hannibal, Missouri, a small town on the Mississippi River is where Twain’s family moved when he was only four years old. Growing up on the Mississippi River, Mark James 2 Twain experienced many things, and became exposed to supersition. Mark Twain built on folklore and consciously intergated Southern supersitions, language, customs, and folklore in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Ferris 456).
The Essay on Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
There are many different instances of evidence of satire present throughout the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. One form of satire evidence is when Huck realizes how he always has mixed feelings about Christianity. When the book first begins, Huck works on his manners and is improving at a decent pace. However, as the book continues on, Huck goes back to his old ways and ...
Folk customs and some rituals helped to structure living in the South (Ferris 456).
Twain was surrounded by these myths, supersitions, and folklore which gave him the the structure for such a great novel, with high knowledge abouth the surroundings and its was of life. Folklore in literature is not folklore in the raw. Certainly a folktale told in its natural habbiat is art of its own kind, but literacy art is another kind of preformance (Cohen 853).
Twain belived in signs and portents. He was born in 1835 when Halley’s Comet was making one of its 75-year apperances and once said he would go out with its return- he died on April 21, 1910, one day after it had reached its perihelion (Kaplan 386).
Twain belived in his dreams and that they will come true. Twain also belived in fortune tellers and faith healing through God. The supersitions that made Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn tremble and exult never died in Mark Twain (Wood 83).
Jim played the biggest part in supersition, which effected the mood swings of the characters. Jim believed in witches, ghost, weather signs, omens, and dreams (Cohen 854).
On the river with Huckleberry Finn, Jim becomes a free living man, and when he puts his supersitions to work, they become effectual. This natural world has a place for the supernatural, and Jim’s supersitions saved his own life and Huckleberry Finns’, ultimately make possible Huck’s spritual salvation as well (Cohen 854).
In the second chapter of the book, Huckleberry Finn describes Jim’s five center piece he wears round his neck, given to him by the devil, with which he can call witches to cure anybody (Twain 6).
The Essay on The Adventures Of Huck Finn
Huckleberry Finn is the son of St. Petersburg, Missouri's town drunk. He takes care of himself for a period of time until he and his friend Tom Sawyer discover a large sum of money. The Widow Douglas, who lived with her sister Mrs. Watson, then took in Huck and tried to civilize him. This is how Mark Twain's, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huckleberry ...
Cohen writes by the end of the novel Jim becomes not simply a rounded character, but the spiritual center of the book (854).
James 3 Another example of Jim’s supersitious nature is when he tells Huckleberry Finn: “Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you up da on Jackson islan’? I tole you I got a hair breas’, en whats de sign unt it, en I tole ya I been rich wunst, en gwineter be rich agin, en its come true; eh heah she is! Dah, now! doan’ talk to me – signs is signs, mine I tell you, en I knowed jis’ ‘s well at I’uz gwizenter be rich agin as I’s a stannin’ heah did minute!” Throughout the novel Jim displays a dazzling powers over signs. Jim finds signification everywhere, from the hair on his breast to the figments in his dreams, and his ability to “read” these signs give him a sense of control over his own fate (Kearns 109).
Huckleberry Finn was the other main character affected with supersistion in the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. During Huckleberry Finn and Jim’s traveling down the Mississippi River, Huckleberry Finn gets taught a lot of things about supersitions. Jim had a big influence on Huckleberry Finn’s actions towards the supersitions. Kearns believes Huckleberry Finn is troubled in a way Jim is not by the implications of determinism, or a lack of free will, that comes with the belief in supersitions. Huckleberry Finn recoginzes that both he and Jim are far more implicated in the making of the codes they pretended merely to “read” than his partner would seem to admit even though this recognition leaves him in an uncomfortable position of During Huckleberry Finn and Jim’s trip down the Mississippi River, Jim takes advantage of Hucklebery Finn by not telling him that he had seen Pap’s body dead in the river. Jim was really just trying to protect Huckleberry Finn from getting hurt with his
The Term Paper on Huckleberry Fin Huck Finn Jim
America land of the free and home of the brave; the utopian society which every European citizen desired to be a part of in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The revolutionary ideas of The Age of Enlightenment such as democracy and universal male suffrage were finally becoming a reality to the philosophers and scholars that so elegantly dreamt of them. America was a playground for the ideas of these ...
James 4 emontions. Jim tries to keep Hucklebery Finn safe the whole trip, Jim sorta treated him
like is own son. trying to keep him out of trouble and danger. This natural world has a place for the supernatural, and Jim’s supersitions saved his own life and Huck’s and ultimately make possible Huckleberry Finn’s spritiual salvation as well (Cohen 854).
Jim’s love for children might have caused him to want to protect Huck from what he felt Huckleberry Finn learns from Jim’s supersition. Huckleberry Finn does not in the snakeskin, until the snakeskin does work. Jim tells Huckleberry Finn that you are not spouse to touch a snakeskin with bare hands. Snake functions in African and New World Negro folklore only as a minor character, except in the case of the well- known story of animals gratitude of human aid, where in some areas this creature is a protagonist (Krappe 1029).In the end, the reader is fully aware of how the supersitions can mold a person’s beliefs and control his or her actions. Many people become controlled by supersitions. When people walk under ladders, black cats, Friday the 13th, broken glass, umbrella inside, and lucky charms they get reminded by these supersitions. Are they true or just a myth? People still ask themselves these questions. Mark Twain uses such great supersitions in the The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain puts together the beliefs in signs and supersition to true friendship. To truly know and understand Huckleberry Finn and Jim is to understand their realtionship and friendship to one another, and how Twain uses Jim as the character that combines Jim and Huckleberry Finn together.
Bibliography:
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Work Cited Cohen, Hennig. “Folklore in Literature.” Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Eds. Charles Reagon Wilson and William Ferris. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. Ferris, William. “Folklife.” Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Eds. Charles Reagon Wilson and William Ferris. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. Kearns, Cleo McNelly. “The Limits Of Semiotics.” Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Krappe, Alexander H. “Snake” Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore Mythology and Legend. volume 2: J-Z. Ed. Maria Leach. New York: A Division of Reader’s Digest Books Inc., 1950. Roberts, James L. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Notes. Ed. Gary Carey.
The Research paper on Huckleberry Finn Huck Jim Ain
Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Essay, Research Paper The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Throughout the Mark Twain novel, The Adventures of HuckleBerry Finn, the author shows a simple view. His point of view is that of a cynic; he looks at society? s flaws and makes fun of them It is when they stop off at various towns along the river that various human character ...
Lincoln, Nebraska: Clif Notes, 1971. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Macmillan, 1962. Wood, James Playstead. Spunkwater, Spunkwater! A Life of Mark Twain. New York: Pantheon Books, 1968.
