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Tom Sawyer

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Across the world and in the charming town of St. Petersburg, children in Sunday Schools and churches are customarily pressure into memorizing Bible verses through parental force and materialistic rewards. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, its classic Sunday School scene portrays such memorization’s futility because of its often failure to penetrate the heart and of its vain deceptiveness. Tom Sawyer, in that scene, fraudulated this esteemed memorization by lying, and despite knowing the lie, the teacher, attempting to impress a judge, disregards Tom’s dishonesty. Another boy, having memorized 3000 Bible verses, was regarded as an idiot. Nonetheless, Bible verse memorization is not Christianity’s depravity, but the true evil its reasons and ultimate …show more content…
How could a boy knowing only a scant of the Bible have a conscience? Truthfully, all humans are born with a slight conscience for “God created man in his own image.” Therefore, God’s morals and law over right and wrong are naturally instilled in all men and women. “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” Tom Sawyer needn’t the Bible to follow his morals, only the will to do so. When Muff Potter is unjustly imprisoned for murder, Tom Sawyer struggles to listen to that moral voice. To relieve his conscience, he smuggled gifts in prison to the drunkard, yet in the end, he let his holy conscience take over and exonerated Muff Potter. Lastly, as the runaway boys fell to sleep, Tom Sawyer felt sick—he was overcome with the act of stealing from the town and tormenting his Aunt with his disappearance. His conscience was partially satisfied when he promised to never steal again. He felt so sorry for messing with his Aunt that he wrote a simple note of his love. Although he never delivered the note, the act of writing the note demonstrated that he felt guilt’s burden. Tom Sawyer’s conscience, though somewhat muddied, is purified with the …show more content…
But, the basis of selflessness and self sacrifice is love. His love is acted upon as John says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” His self sacrifice is a testament to his willingness to “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things” His selflessness is seen in his love for Becky Thatcher. A first example of self sacrifice is when he took the blame of Becky’s wrongdoing and endures a school flogging. Becky had accidentally ripped a page in the teacher’s book, and, out of love, Tom sacrifices himself. He showed more love and disregard for his own safety; for, when trapped in the cave, he cared for and comforted Becky, providing water and agonizing over saving her. He could have left her; he could have put himself first; but, he let her interests dominate his. Now, he was not only loving and sacrificial to loved ones, but also to Muff Potter. Tom Sawyer exonerated Muff Potter, but, in turn, convicted Injun Joe, placing a warrant on Injun Joe and provoking Injun Joe’s murderous spirit. Tom endangered himself with that declaration, but he put his needs aside. Tom Sawyer sought others’ needs, not only his

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