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Examples Of Superstition In Where The Red Corn Grows

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In the chapter 15 of the novel, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, Billy has a superstition that it is bad luck if he hears more than one screech owl at on the same night. This superstition seems odd to me because I have never heard of it before and I don’t have experience with screech owls. However, superstitions are a part of every culture. People are superstitious because we want to control and explain things that we don’t understand. When bad things happen people want to have an explanation so that they feel like they can prevent them from happening again. Life can be scary and out of control and people are desperate to grab on to anything that can make them feel safer. People sometimes mistakenly believe that when things …show more content…

However, there is one superstition that while I don’t really believe it deep down I like the idea and like to play along. There is a superstition that if you say the word “Hamlet” during the production of a play then the play will be cursed and bad luck will come to the show. Now, obviously, there is no scientific evidence for this. However, I was in a show last year where some of the kids were messing around backstage and they said the “H” word. Now, if nothing had happened maybe that would be proof that this is just a superstition. But, there I was on stage just minutes later and I heard the loudest crash ever. A huge set piece came crashing down right in the middle of the performance. The whole audience gasped! I thought my mother was going to lose it completely. Luckily no one was hurt and the show was able to continue. This maybe a perfect example of why people are superstitious. We wanted to explain how something so dangerous could happen in a way that made us feel like we had control over it so that we felt safe enough to go back on stage the next night. Plus, this may also be a perfect example of correlation not being causation. Saying the “H” word happened on the same night the set piece fell. Could it have been a coincidence? Did the set fall because of poor set building? Most likely. But, I personally am not taking any

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