Tom Sawyer

After reading chapters three and four I found the discussion of religion very interesting. During chapter 4 especially, I felt that Twain was satirizing religion and the church. He uses satire to moke the Sunday school class. When Tom is able to trade his items for tickets to win the Bible, I felt as if Twain was trying to mock the church by understating that the Church couldn't tell a difference between work and bought favors. I also found it very interesting on page 350 when he is talking about all the children showing off and also Mr. Walters, the super-intendent, showing off. "Mr. Walters fel to "showing off," with all sorts of official bustlings and activities, giving orders, delivering judgments, disharging directions here, there, everywhere that he could find a target." (350) At the beginning of the chapter, Mary is helping Tom memorize his versus. Tom seems to respect Mary a lot and they have a bond of trust it seemed like. I saw Mary to be a saintly figure and don't think it is a coincidense that her name is Mary, as in "Virgin Mary." Page 341, the beginning of chapter 4, starts off with Aunt Polly saying a prayer after breakfast. Aunt Polly is very serious when it comes to religion and I feel as if Twain is finding humor of it, once again mocking religion. "Breakfast over, Aunt Polly had family worship: it began with a prayer built from the ground up of solid courses of Scriptural quotations, welded together with a thin mortar of originality; and from the summit of this she delivered a grim chapter of the Mosaic Law, as from Sinai." (page 341)