Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapter Five Summary

Alcoholic, abusive Pap does what all alcoholic, abusive fathers do: he drinks and abuses Huck. This time he is looking for money and trying to stop his son from gaining an education, life, civilized upbringing, culture, knowledge, and everything else that he himself doesn’t have.
As such, he demands that Huck stop going to school and stop learning about religion. He even tears up one of his schoolbooks.
When he demands money, Huck is all, "Money? What money?" Now we get it – this is why Huck handed his money over to the Judge.
Pap does manage to steal the last dollar Huck has, which he uses to get drunk in town.
The next day, still drunk, Pap harasses the judge about getting Huck’s money.
Judge Thatcher turns him down and tries to get the court to officially remove him from a position as Huck’s legal guardian.
Unfortunately, there’s a new judge in town who doesn’t know how bad this guy is, and he refuses.
Pap threatens to beat Huck senseless if he doesn’t get some money, so Huck scrapes together $3, which Pap promptly drinks. He then wanders around town causing trouble until he gets jailed.
This new judge in town for some unknown reason believes in such myths as the tooth fairy and man’s inherent goodness. He thinks Pap is just reaching out for help. Claiming he can reform the man, he takes him in and gives him a bed and a new jacket.
Pap promptly sells the jacket for liquor, after which the judge comments that maybe you could reform a man with a shotgun, but that’s about it.

Chapter Six

Chapter Four