Tom Sawyer Ch. 4-8

Tom was presented with a Bible because he was able to obtain ten tickets of each color provided, earned when reciting two thousand bible verses, after reciting the verses the reward is a Bible. I don’t think Tom deserved it because he didn’t quite have the required amount, and he also kept paying for tickets and trading things for them with anything he had instead of reciting verses the way he was supposed to.
Judge Thatcher is especially important to Tom because the Judge is the father of the girl Tom had seen in the garden and fallen in love with. So Tom wanted to make sure that her father got an impression on him and for the father to know that Tom was important.
Twain was able to satirize the young clerks in the church by saying that they were showing off in ridiculous ways of behavior and Twain was also ridiculing the way of human nature of trying to stand out, but since everyone tries to, they all end up looking alike and trying to show off. The librarian would make a fuss, the teachers would show authority, boys would fight, girls would do various things. Even in the end the judge started showing off too by acting in control and the most important.
Tom’s pinch bug livens up the church service because the pinch bug escaped Tom by pinching Tom, then a stray poodle walks in the church and sees the beetle and tries snatching at it. The beetle attracted the congregation and the poodle gave up, but ended up sitting on the pinch bug which eventually cling’s to the poodles behind. The poodle yelped and ran around the church yelping until the beetle finally flung out the window. All of this caught everyone’s attention and everyone attending service were laughing interrupting sermon being read.
All the boys in town envy Huck Finn because Huck could do anything he wanted and anything that pleased him. Boys were jealous that Huckleberry was in outcast condition and that Huck avoided school and punishment.
One method discussed by Tom and Huck about ridding warts is spunk water, someone goes by themselves to the middle of the woods at midnight where there is a spunk water stump. The person jams their hand in and say “Barley corn, barley corn, Injun-meal shorts, Spunk water, Spunk water, swaller these warts. The second way is to take a bean and to split it then cut the wart to get blood to put on one side of the bean , after that you bury it in al hole, burn the rest of the bean. The piece with blood on will try and find the other part of the bean then the wart comes out. The third way is to take a dead cat at midnight when somebody wicked has been buried and when the devil comes leave the cat there and say “Devil corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I’m done with ye.”
Tom purposely invites punishment for his tardiness to school because he saw the seat next to Becky Thatcher open and he knew if he got in trouble the teacher would make him got and sit with the girls as a form of punishment.
Tom’s wooing of Becky employs certain rituals typical of their era because of what he tries to do to get her attention. He tries offering her a peach and then hides a picture he is drawing on his slate from her so that she will want to know what it is.