Amulets: Myth or Truth?

Many people are very superstitious and they put their faith in different objects. These tend to be called good luck omens and vary from one cent coins to four leaf clovers. When reading about the good luck root given to Douglass in the Mr. Covey's plantation, I pondered on a mandrake root used in the movie Pan's Labyrinth, which was meant for good fortune too. This kept me thinking on why do people place their faith in objects such as roots? 

Though it is never explicitly told what kind of root it is given to Douglass, I kept wondering if it could have been a Mandrake root. I did some research and found out the mandrake root is commonly used "As a talisman or amulet; aphrodisiac, warding off of evil spirits or spells, invincible against any kind of weapons, flying ointment" (Link) It might a causality if it was the same root, however we don't know. Nevertheless, indispensable information isn't the what, but the why people place their faith in other things so they don't have to carry that weight. I wonder if that is the reason we people believe God, or in talismans such as roots. 

Douglass is faced with a situation as such in Mr. Covey's plantation, in which he is offered a magical root that will impede him from receiving any damage from any white man. Douglass at first is hesitant, just like anyone else, as it is unbelievable "that the simple carrying of a root in my pocket would have any such effect as he had said, and was not disposed to take it" (Pg. 76) His perspective changed because maybe due to chance nothing bad happened to him. Consequently it made him "begin to think that there was something in the root... I could have attributed the [nice] conduct [his master] to no other cause than the influence of that root; and as it was, I was half inclined to think the root to be something more than I at first had taken it to be."  (Pg. 77) This gave me the idea that only because it worked, Douglass believed in it. Therefore, it might not be true or give us good luck, but if others believe it that gives us almost enough reasons to believe them too. 

We trust each other, and when we see things happen that makes us believe them. That's how talismans work. People see one case in many and attribute the outcome to the amulet rather than to chance. We tend to believe in what we see, even if it is only once.