In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884/1994), the author shows people allow superstition to rule their lives. An example is when Huck is trying to fall asleep in his room at the Widow Douglass’s and he flicks a spider into the candle, and goes through rituals to rid himself of the bad luck that he believes he has brought upon himself (Twain. 1884/1994, p. 4). Because Huck believes that flicking the spider into the flame will bring him bad luck, he does the rituals that he has been taught will revoke the bad luck. Huck must have learned these rituals from someone else. Whoever taught Huck these rituals obviously believes that an important skill to have is to be able to counteract the action that will bring bad luck. Generations
