Being a single parent is a demanding job. Raising someone else’s child would be even more arduous challenge because the unfamiliar parent wouldn’t want to let anyone down and the child is often left puzzled without their biological parents. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Aunt Polly is faced with raising Sid, a goody-two-shoes, and Tom, a rebellious kid looking for adventure, after her sister, their mother, dies. Aunt Polly is an imperfect yet fascinating role model for how passionately she takes on the mother role for Tom, her strong moral/christian values, along with her pure heart. However, she has a naive, gullible side as she falls for tom’s hoax and is perplexed on how to raise him; be stern and feel dreadful or let it go and have her morals compromised. Aunt Polly often finds herself being tricked by deceitful Tom. It starts off from the very beginning when she is yelling at him for eating jam after clearly telling him not to! She proceeds to get the switch as punishment when he says, “My! Look behind you, aunt!” Then, she whirls around, and Tom escapes from her. She is very self aware when she says,” Ain’t he played me tricks enough like that for me to be …show more content…
Throughout the novel she quotes scriptures and often brings up the lord. In the fourth and fifth chapter, Aunt Polly starts off with family worship and then takes her family to Sunday school. Mary, her real daughter, and Sid are always prepared, want to be there, and even stay during the sermon voluntarily. However, Tom doesn’t enjoy church, is never prepared, and is forced to stay during the sermon by Aunt Polly. Another example of this is when Tom and Huck go missing, she turns straight to the lord; she ‘knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly.’ Even after they believe the boys are dead she quotes “The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away… God’ll take care of