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SUMMARY
Huck reaches home to find his father waiting for him Pap is described as a grubby and repulsive old man. He doesn't approve of the fact that his son has become more literate and is learning the ways of the world that he doesn't belong to. He admonishes his son for having succumbed to the widow's pressure of attending school because neither he nor his wife could read or write, "neither, before she died. "He feels apprehensive of having a well-read son who might not regard his father. Paps treatment of Huck is extremely coarse. He throws his books to the ground and tears off the "little blue and yellow picture."
Having heard of Huck's newly acquired wealth, Pap comes to the point. He wants to know more about the money that Huck owns. Huck denies having any money and says that his father can confirm this fact from Judge Thatcher. Pap, then, exhorts the dollar that Huck has in his pocket, to buy himself a drink.
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| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Chapter 5 |
After getting terribly drunk, he goes to Judge Thatcher's house to Extract the truth about the remaining money. On getting no positive and Concrete answers, he creates a scene there and threatens the Judge with dire consequences. Judge Thatcher and widow Douglas decide to take the matter to court and make an appeal so that either of them can be given Huck's custody and ameliorate his social position. But, since the judge is new to town, he is also new to the case. He doesn't give his consent for such an endeavour, to break a family, if he can help it.
Pap feels elated at his victory and promises the new judge that he would make an effort to improve. Feeling remorse over his ways and the life he has led so far, he vows to reform himself. Both the judge and his wife fully empathize with him. They are gullible enough to believe him and all of them shed tears together. Convinced by Pap's sincerity, the judge goes to his room and sleeps. At midnight, Pap climbs out of the window and, getting drunk silly, breaks his arm in a couple of places The infuriated judge is convinced that the only way to reform an incorrigible man, like him, is by gunshot.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The chapter is an attempt to highlight one of Twain's primary themes - that of mocking Christian morality. The new judge, who champions the ideal of reformation, feels that he can reform Pap too, but when reality dawns, he realizes that such people are almost irredeemable. Another ideal, that the new judge upholds, is the belief that family should be kept together and that reform is better than punishment. Jim is more rational in his approach. His pragmatic and commonsense view of the world is commendable. However it is ironic that proper society' thinks that Huck should be forced to live with a totally corrupt and evil person just because he is a blood relative. Huck feels, and rightly so, that it is not possible to bring about a complete metamorphosis in one's personality - a fact that he himself embodies. Though he manages to bring about a marginal change in his own ways, by learning to read and write, he ultimately remains the same crude and unpolished Huck that he always has been.