Taylor McNeal
Mrs. Rogers
English 3
15 April 2014
Distractions to Religion
Huck Finn, the main character of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, faces an
ongoing struggle to understand religion through Twain’s novel. Many ideas from people around him
confuse Huck and mislead him, further fueling his misunderstanding of religion. Diverse with culture,
there are many different religious beliefs and practices that Huck encounters throughout the novel.
Huck tries to form a moral compass in the midst of his attempts to understand the religious world and
he has to sift through the illegitimate practices along the Mississippi River. Mark Twain uses religious
hypocrisy and religious practices to argue that religious and societal practices cloud the important
morals that religion aims to teach.
Mark Twain purposefully creates an incongruity between religious values and the actions of
religious followers to show his audience that when practiced as formalities, religious practices work
against the purpose of religion. Caught in a senseless duel, the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons are
convinced that the only conceivable ending to their quarrel lies in the irradiation of the other family.
Despite their murderous tendencies, both families are considered to be wholesome Christians because
they actively practice their religion. In an attempt to maintain their reputation as good Christians, on
every “Sunday [they] all went to church,” and each of “the men took their guns along” (Twain, 110).
Bringing guns into a religious place of worship completely contradicts all values that religion stand for.
These men honor none of the core values to religion; tolerance, peace, moral righteousness. The
amount of religious beliefs that these men disobey far outnumbers any beliefs they may actually uphold.
The futile bloodshed of their feud directly contrasts with the biblical idea that people “shall not kill” one
another, and yet the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons are able to continue calling themselves sound
Christians because of a religious practice devoid of any real religious value (Exodus 20:13). Similarly,
Uncle Silas practices a comparable sort of religion lacking legitimate religious merit. Equality of man is an
intrinsic teaching of the bible including the idea that “there is neither slave nor free” because people are
“all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). To spiritually compensate for owning slaves, Uncle Silas would
“come in every day or two to pray with him” (Twain, 249). Although a seemingly sincere gesture, Uncle
Silas is simply praying with Jim for the appearance of the act. Uncle Silas does not actually view Jim
equally or else he would not force him to live as a captive. Jim is property to Uncle Silas and praying with
he sees prayer as a way to maintain religious validity without having to do anything of religious worth.
As is the case multiple times throughout the novel, religion practices are used as a means of maintaining
a religious identity, and yet, the characters seen practicing religion are never people who actively
practice the teachings of religion.
Another way in which Twain shows that religious practices interfere with the actual teachings of
religion is through his use of superstition. Superstition is not a part of any widely spread, organized
religion, and therefore, when practiced in excess it often drives those who believe in it away from
traditional religions. People are more susceptible to believing superstition over religion because
superstition is more of a tangible practice than the ideological nature of religion. When something as
trivial as Huck moving Jim’s “hat on a limb” of a tree happens, Jim turns to superstition to explain that
“witches bewitched him and put him in a trance” (Twain, 6). Instead of reasoning to find a viable cause
to his problems, Jim uses superstition as a crutch to explain his problems. The convenience of
superstition is the driving factor for its popularity. It is easy to fall into the misunderstanding that is
superstition when it is approached in the manner Jim and many other characters approach superstition
in the novel. Every time superstition predicts that something will “fetch bad luck,” the recipient of the
bad luck simply waits until the next misfortune falls upon them and then blames its occurrence on
superstition (Twain, 52). In these cases, the original event never has any connection to the misfortunate
event, yet in order to try and explain the unknown, the superstitious connect unrelated instances to
falsely explain the happenings of the world. As Jim discusses his superstitious ideas, he explained to
Huck that he knows one day he will be rich because he has “hairy arms en a hairy breas’” (Twain, 46).
Weeks later, at the conclusion of their excursion, after receiving money from Huck, Jim believes that he
has become a rich man just like his hairy chest predicted. The many people that have helped him on the
way, including Huck, are disregarded in his appreciation towards superstition. Convenient explanations
for the world, like superstition, distract Jim from real religious teachings and replace them with
illegitimate connections that he uses to guide his life.
In addition to superstition and religious hypocrisy, social influence detracts from the moral
teachings of religion. Otherwise morally sound characters of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn are led astray by
the pressure of society. Uncle Silas and Aunt Sally exemplify this idea in that they are one of the few
people introduced in the novel that are not liars or conmen. Their appearance as respectable people is
combated, however, by the fact their racial intolerance. As was the norm in the South during Twain’s
time period, these two are the owners of slaves and they take Jim into custody when they realized he is
a runaway slave. Not only are they the owners of slaves, but their racial intolerance is visible when
discussing Huck’s fake steam boat explosion. When Aunt Sally hears that a black man died she exclaims,
“Well, it’s lucky” (Twain, 222). The two are the most progressive slave owners encountered in the book
because they treat Jim extraordinarily well in comparison to some of the gruesome conditions forced
upon slaves in some cases; however, it becomes clear through their discussions with Huck that even
they view blacks an inferior to the white race. This is most likely a direct effect of their environment.
Confederate ideas were present in excess in South during post-Civil War America. The effects of this
environment can also be seen affecting the moral compass of Huck as well. The audience sees Huck
helping Jim escape as a morally justified act and yet Huck comes to the conclusion that he will help Jim
even though he knows it means he will “go to hell” (Twain, 215). In opposition to Huck’s beliefs, many
religious people of today would consider Huck’s actions religiously and morally correct while Huck sees
the exact opposite. It is the view of blacks that has been imprinted on him that causes him to think in
the manner he is. Huck has come to know Jim throughout the novel and even accepts him as a sort of
father figure during their adventure together. Even though Huck has become very close friends with Jim,
he still views him as the property of someone else. This shows the extent to which society has an effect
on the moral views of someone. Religious teachings move to prove that people are equal and Southern
teachings have outcast these ideas and replaced them with ones of racial inequality. The societal
attitude towards race directly opposes what religion expects of humanity.
Religious hypocrisy, social pressure, and invalid reasoning are all opponents to receiving the
moral teachings of religion. The actions of Twain’s characters help his audience better understand how
to live a morally and religiously just life. To understand religious teachings, people need to avoid the
many distractions present in everyday life. Some of these distractions are even part of the lives of
religiously devote people. Religious practices should only be practiced if they have a real religious
purpose. Additionally, people should examine social attitude before they conform to it to ensure that
the beliefs upheld by the general public match theirs, otherwise, they are absorbing and representing
ideas they themselves do not believe in.
Works Cited
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Print.
Exodus. The Holy Bible. Cambridge: Printed by John Field, 1668. Print.