Huckleberry Finn Themes

3 Pages 748 Words

Mark Twain tells us of the adventures young Huckleberry Finn experiences in his book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Throughout Huck’s adventures, he learns to tell the moral people from the dishonest and finds where he stands on the issues of superstition, religion, slavery, and freedom. Even though several themes are sporadically mentioned, the themes of superstitions and immorality seem to be more frequently apparent in Huck’s life.
Superstitions are brought up many times throughout the book, and were never taken lightly. For example, Huck was sleeping one night when he saw a spider crawling and said, “ I didn’t need nobody to tell me that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck (Twain 4).” True, spiders are disgusting and terrifying, but since when are they a cause of bad luck? Usually creepy crawly arachnids would fascinate a young boy, but Huck was fearful due to a mere superstition. Also, Huck tells us about Jim’s good-luck charm. He says, “...a hairball as big as a fist... used to do magic with, and knowed everything (Twain 23).” Sometimes people will look to anything to help them with troubles they may be having, some even resort to an ox’s hairball. This ball of regurgitated hair has some mystical powers and can help the boys when they seek answers, what else could you ask for? Finally, Huck reminds Jim what he had told him. He says,” You said it was the worst luck in the world to touch a snake skin with my hand (Twain 68).” Touching a snake skin and getting bad luck seems similar to the spider incident, maybe creepy-crawly creatures are more than just gross. Possibly snakeskin can affect the mind in a horrible manner, or somehow make you ill, only one way to find out. Due to the frequent mention of superstitions, we can conclude they played a rather large role in the life of Huck.
Throughout Huck’s life, he is surrounded by role models that often have a negative i...