SuperstitionsBy:

Lindsay BesheroKatelyn Epperson

What is Superstition? A belief, not based on human reason or

scientific knowledge, that future events may be influenced by one's behavior in some magical or mystical way

Mark Twain’s use of Superstition.

Throughout Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain expresses many forms of superstition.

Jim was extremely superstitious. This played a major role in the story.

By further researching Twain, he had a background of being superstitious.

He believed in Calvinism, which was a religion that was exceedingly superstitious.

Spiders The superstition of spiders is believed

that when one sees, or kills a spider, then that person will have bad luck.

Rattle Snakes It is believed that killing a snake is bad

luck, but the skin of the snake can heal bites or wounds efficiently.

Hair Balls In the days in which Huckleberry Finn

was in, it was believed that hairballs had a magic spirit.

This magic spirit answered the questions of whom ever had it.

Salt Salt is a common superstition. Whenever knocking over salt,

or just to keep bad luck away, salt is to be thrown over the left shoulder.

Birds It is believed that is if you catch or kill

a bird, then you would die.

Bees If a man had a bee hive and died, the

bees would need to be told before sundown or all the bees would die.

Bodily Superstitions If a man had a hairy chest and hairy

arms, he was said to become rich some day.

They also believed that a piece of bread that contains quicksilver, can point out a dead body.

Other Ways to View Superstition

People often use superstitions to explain things that they couldn’t explain otherwise.

If something good happens, it’s easily explainable by coming across good luck.

If something terrible happens, it’s more comforting to blame bad luck than oneself.

Jim’s Unrelated Superstitions

It is bad luck to count things before one cook dinner.

No one should shake the table cloth after sundown.

Reasoning's behind Jim’s Superstitions

Many of his superstitions are random and have very little evidence.

Jim could quite possibly create superstitions by his own personal experiences.

Witches Back in the time of Huckleberry Finn,

people didn’t have explanations for things happening.

This is why people began to blame witches, and create superstitions to keep them away.

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