The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain contains symbolism associatedwith superstition.
This is demonstrated by both the actions and beliefs of thecharacters and the events which occur in the story. The way in which friendshipsupersedes superstition and popular beliefs plays a major role throughout. Huckin particular is forced to mature and forget superstition when he is faced withthe internal dilemma of his best friend, Jim, being a runaway slave. In Chapterone, Huck sees a spider crawling up his shoulder, so he flicks it into the flameof a candle, where it shrivles up before he could retrieve it. Huck realizesthat it is a bad omen, which will bring bad luck. He becomes scared and shakesoff his clothes, then proceeds to turn in his tracks three times.
He then ties alock of his hair with a thread to keep the witches away. “You do that whenyou’ve lost a horseshoe that you’ve found, instead of nailing it up over thedoor, but I hadn’t ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep of bad luckwhen you’d killed a spider. “(Twain 5). In chapter four, Huck sees Pap’sfootprints in the snow. He then goes to Jim to ask him why Pap is here.
Jim goesand gets a fist sized hairball, which was taken from an ox’s stomach. Jim asksthe hairball, “Why is Pap here?” But the hairball won’t answer. Jim says itneeds money, so Huck gives Jim a counterfeit quarter that Huck had been braggingabout earlier in the novel. Jim puts the quarter under the hairball.
Thehairball talks to Jim and Jim tells Huck that it says: “Yo’ole father doan’know yit what he’s a-gwyne to do. Sometimes he spec he’ll go ?way, en denag’in he spec he’ll stay. De bes’ way is tores’ easy en let de ole mantake his own way. Dey’s two angles hoverin’ roun’ ?bout him.
One uv’emis white en shiny, en t’other one is black. De white one gits him to go righta little while, den de black one sil in en gust it all up. A body can’t tell yitwhich one gwyne to fetch him at de las’. But you is all right. You gwyne tohave considable trouble in yo’ life, en considable joy.
Sometimes you gwyne togit hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you’s gwyne togit well ag’in. Dey’s two gals flyin’ ?bout yo’ in yo’ life. One uv?em’s light en t’other one is dark. One is rich en t’other is po’. You’s gwyne to marry de po’ one fust en de rich one by en by.
You wants tokeep ?way fum de water as much as you kin, en don’t run no resk, ?kaseit’s down in de bills dat you’s gwyne to git hung. ” (Twain 19). When Huckgoes home and finds Pa there, it re-enforces his belief in the occult and alsohis trust in his friend Jim. In Chapter ten, Huck and Jim run into some “goodluck and some bad luck”. The mere concept of “good luck and bad luck” maybe in itself considered superstition, but more interesting events begin tounfold. While snooping around in an overcoat, Huck and Jim find eight dollars inone of the pockets.
Then, after they eat some dinner on the Friday, they arelying in the grass, when Huck runs out of tobacco. He decides to go to thecavern to get some, and finds a rattlesnake. In southern culture it is “badluck” to touch the skin of a rattlesnake, however Huck kills it anyway, androlls it up to its original shape and puts it on the foot of Jim’s blanket as adecoration. Later, when night comes, Jim sits down on the blanket and thesnake’s mate is there.
It lunges out, and it bites Jim on the heel. Jim tellsHuck to chop off the snake’s head, and to then skin the body of the snake. Theythen decide to cook part of it, and eat it. Huck decides that he will be nice toJim, and try and make him feel better about the snakebite, so he takes therattles off and ties them to Jim wrist as a bracelet. Jim said it would helphim, and to this Huck narrates to the readers, “I made up my mind I wouldn’tever take a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what hadcome of it. ” (Twain 52).
Throughout the novel we see Huck struggling toresolve his mixed feelings and emotions with regard to Jim and to the world inwhich he is growing up. On the one hand, he has become engrained with veryprimitive ideas or superstitions, which tend to persist even alongside thereligious beliefs of the community around him. Also, although not directlymentioned in the book, Huck seems to constantly struggle with the issue ofwhether or not to return Jim to the widow. He seems to feel instinctively thatslavery is wrong ? this is implied by the very fact of his running away withJim. However, he constantly questions whether or not it would be better for bothof them to return home ? home to normal life but not to end his friendshipwith Jim. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is filled with symbolism associatedwith the superstitious beliefs of the South at the time of slavery.
The spiderepisode, the hairball, and the rattlesnake were given as justifiable examples ofwhy the escapade was doomed to failure by bad luck ? all of this played outwithout a direct reference to the “badness” or evil of slavery itself.
