Religion In Huckleberry Finn

Rivaling Against Religion

When religion comes to mind, people often correlate it with faith, goodness, worship, and many more hopeful, powerful, or inspiring concepts. However, from Huckleberry Finn’s perspective, that is nowhere near the case. In the day and 1800s age of the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, this set of beliefs, known as religion, meant whites were superior to blacks and any interaction besides ownership was taboo, and a single snake could determine one’s future. Although these values are practiced by many, that doesn’t mean they are always helpful. In fact, everything that this standard religion comprises of turns out to be an enemy against Huck on his adventure, making it a significant role in the

For example, in chapter seven, when he fakes his death. He lies to everyone by convincing them he is dead, but he felt it was the only way to be free from his drunk father and the uptight widow. Later on, when Huck fabricates another story, he thinks to himself, “...I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn’t no use for me to try to learn to do right; a body that don’t get started right when he’s little ain’t got no show…”(124). Huck realizes that lying isn’t moral, but doesn’t see the point in changing. He would rather live however he pleases, even if that means going against the normal religious beliefs. When Jim is taken by the Phelps family and Huck goes to save him, Mrs. Phelps runs up to Huck and asks, “‘It’s you, at last!-ain’t it?’”(286), with a smile on her face. Before he even thought, he let out a yes. Although Huck impersonating Tom Sawyer was sinful, he did it to help his friend. Religion’s standpoint on lying doesn’t stop Huck from doing it because it is necessary in order to save himself and

The first superstition introduced is the spider. A spider crawls up Huck’s shoulder, and he accidentally flicks it into the burning candle. Huck explains, “I didn’t need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck…”(13), and attempts to perform a ritual to keep the bad luck away. This isn’t the only sign that gives him bad luck. When Huck messes with a rattlesnake skin and Jim gets bit, Jim claims, “...handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn’t got the end of it yet,”(75) and he was right. They faced terrible storms and fog so thick that they missed their next landing town. Clearly, these superstitions are only making their expedition more