Why is religion come up so much in the book Huckleberry Finn?

Answer 1

Basically, to show the hypocrisy of many so-called "Christians." Religion is one of the most constant targets of Twain's satirical pen. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain portrays contemporary religion as shallow and hypocritical. He criticizes the hypocrisy of conventional religion by comparing it with the true religion of Huck.
Most of the characters in Huckleberry Finn, while ostensibly devout Christians, in reality behave in anything but a Christian way. Some use religion as a tool to obtain wealth. The king, who twice poses as a preacher, is the epitome of the greedy evangelist. His actions are, in Huck's words, "enough to make a body ashamed of the human race". Many do not exploit religion, but most are hypocritical. For example, the Grangerfords go to church, own religious books, and say that the sermon about brotherly love is very lovely. However, they kill their neighbors and bring their guns to church.

"Early in the story, Huck investigates Christianity and finds that is comes up short.
"I set down one time back in the woods, and had a long think about it. I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can't the widow get back her silver snuffbox that was stole? Why can't Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to my self, there ain't nothing in it. I went and told the widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for it was "spiritual gifts." This was too many for me, but she told me what she meant -- I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it. I went out in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no advantage about it -- except for the other people; so at last I reckoned I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go."
This rejection is justified again and again as Huck's adventures unfold. Although the Widow and Miss Watson "fetch the ******* in for prayers," her piety does not prevent Miss Watson from giving thought to selling Jim down the river. The Shephersons and Grangerfords attend church and praise the sermon about brotherly love, all the time with their guns at their sides.

On the other hand, all that Huck observes seems to confirm the truth of the beliefs he shares with Jim.

Huck Finn's adventures begin with the death of a spider. Feeling lonesome and cheerless, he sits at his window listening to the supernatural world around him. An owl, a whippoorwill, and a dog are all talking of the dead and the dying, the wind is whispering incoherently; a ghost is thwarted in an attempt to communicate. Suddenly a spider appears on Huck's shoulder, and he inadvertently send him into the candle's flame. Huck tells us, "I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck;" his fear is so intense that it "most shook the clothes off me" (HF, 4.)

His bad luck continues with the spilling of the salt, "I reached for some of it as quick as I could, to throw over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, and crossed me off" (HF, 18.) Huck is right to feel "worried and shaky" because immediately upon leaving the house, he finds evidence that Pap has returned.

When Huck touches the snake-skin during the flood, Jim reads it as a sign of bad luck to come. Because right afterward they find the house floating down the river and collect such an amount of bounty, Huck doubts Jim's prediction of bad luck, "You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin with my hands. Well here's your bad luck! We've raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides. I wish we could have bad luck like this every day, Jim." (HF,63) We and Huck find out later that the house also contained his father's body. And more misfortune will follow.

The next event is Jim's snake-bite. Huck has killed a rattlesnake and, as a joke, laid it on Jim's blanket. When they return to the cave, the dead snake's mate is there and bites Jim. Huck kills the mate and tells us he "throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it." (HF,65) But putting the dead snake on Jim's blanket is minor compared with the first sin committed in touching that snake-skin.

Their trials continue, through the separation in the fog, the close call with the search party, learning they've missed Cairo, and finally losing the canoe, at which Huck says, "we both knowed well enough it was some more work of the rattle-snake skin."

"In Chapter 3, the practical Huck again struggles to understand religion. When Miss Watson tells Huck he can receive anything he wants through prayer, the literal Huck believes he can receive fishing gear. He contemplates the concept of prayer and wonders why, if someone can get anything, he cannot get any fish-hooks, the widow cannot reclaim her stolen silver snuff-box, and Miss Watson cannot “fat up”? The humorous moment is another example of Huck’s literal approach to his surroundings. Because Huck takes everything at face value, he cannot understand the concept of prayer or “spiritual gifts.” He does not reject religion, but his literal mindset has difficulty with beliefs that, on the surface, appear to be impractical or untrue.

More important, Huck’s struggle compares and contrasts the religions of the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson as he begins to see that religion is practiced differently by his guardians. Through Huck, Twain is exploring his own reservations about religion and its ties to the institution of slavery. It is not incidental that it is Miss Watson who owns Jim and not the Widow Douglas, and Huck continues to question religion and the rules of his society. Huck eventually decides that there are two kinds of Providence, and he would like to avoid Miss Watson’s and go to the one the Widow Douglas describes.


Chapter 3 continues to establish Tom and Huck as contrasting characters. Whereas Huck takes a literal approach to everything he sees and hears, Tom’s knowledge comes solely from the books he reads. At the same time Huck questions religion, he begins to see Tom’s “magicians and A-rabs” as fabrication. For Huck, Tom’s imagination has the same quality as Miss Watson’s religion, and he distrusts the superficial nature of both. This approach serves Huck well throughout the novel. Although he does not completely understand prayer, he does understand the widow’s explanation that he “must help other people el and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself.” By applying his own conscience and beliefs, Huck grows as a character and is able to form his own opinions and not blindly accept society’s values and the status quo.."

Answer 2

because in those days when the book was written religion was very popular it was very rare to hear of a non beleiver in those days too bad it's changed for the worse these days

Answer 3

I'd say because of the setting of the story, its in the "Bible Belt" of America.