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All the superstition and folklore in this book may seem pretty far-fetched—and worthy of a few eye rolls. But before you pass judgment, hear this: In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, superstition is a motif.

Video Transcription:

You may think that Jim’s superstitions are just one more way Twain added color to this book … not to mention plot twists. But if that’s what you think, you’re missing Twain’s whole point. In Huck Finn, superstition is a motif.

Chapter 10. It’s when Huck touches the snake-skin with his bare hands—and all sorts of bad luck follows. Just as Jim predicted it would.

Even Huck, who was definitely somewhat superstitious before he got to know Jim, scoffs at Jim’s snake-skin superstition at first. But after Jim gets bitten by a rattlesnake and is out of commission for four days, Huck decides that there may be something to Jim’s folklore and omens after all.

Sure enough, when they pop up again and again throughout the rest of the book, Huck is definitely more inclined to BEWARE.

So what’s Twain up to with this motif of superstition?

Think of it this way: Jim’s almost supernatural knowledge of the world around him offers Huck a different kind of education. And while you may not call folklore any kind of education, in Huck’s case, it opens him up to new ways of thinking about things—ways that don’t necessarily coincide with what society says is right or proper.

It’s not that Twain is advocating for superstition or anything, but I think he’s trying to show that there are many ways of understanding the world.