THIS REVIEW COVERS CHAPTERS ONE THROUGH FORTY-ONE OF THE NOVEL. SEE SEPARATE POST PART II FOR CHAPTERS FORTY-TWO TO THE END OF NOVEL.
Part II here:
INTRODUCTION: Suppose your book club, your literature club, your literary society, your artistic guild has just selected the novel (the work) Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, as the next book, and you are panicked because you are not ready for the discussion (perhaps you spent the last month on the toilet with C-Diff, as I did last fall!), and you need a quick, OK not too quick (still a long summary, as you will see) way to prepare. Or suppose you are in tenth grade or eleventh grade or twelfth grade in high school somewhere in the United States (heaven forbid you have bad acne like I did!), or even somewhere in your undergraduate English or literature education somewhere in the States, and you are assigned this book for your coursework. You have an upcoming test, class discussion, essay due, and you're not prepared, perhaps because you are attending pet grooming school part time!. That's where I come in! This is a comprehensive summary of the novel, including plot summary, character list and character summary, list of themes, prompts for discussions, prompts for essays, my own opinions about the author, the book, etc. A cheat sheet for the book, a version of Cliffs Notes, an outline, a summary, a shortcut perhaps! But it's not really cheating or a shortcut because it will take you about five hours to read my summary anyway, so no doubt it will enhance your understanding of the book which is more study aid than an exercise in cheating. Certainly you will still read the text itself because you are not, after all, a cheater, and the text is glorious for your soul.
OVERALL SUBJECTIVE STATEMENT ABOUT DEMON COPPERHEAD: For me, for me!, this is one of the best American novels , in the top 10 even. The others: Blood Meridian, Great Gatsby, Old Man and the Sea, Infinite Jest, Catch-22, Middlesex. Better than stale and sour Mark Twain, better than most American novels you will have read in high school. COPPERHEAD is better than Red Badge of Courage for example.
PREDICTION: I predict that within 75 years, Demon Copperhead will be mandatory reading for all American school children, during the high school years. At some point they (the school boards) will need to delete the Scarlet Letter and other crap from the curriculum, to be replaced hopefully be Kingsolver. Scarlet and Red Badge, as well as Mark Twain are probably more appropriately studied in history classes, to understand social context, but for me they do not represent the best of American literature. Of course, perhaps our Republican leaders will cancel Demon Copperhead, since it talks about drug use and has a few swear words. Some day our Republican overlords will ensure the only text in school is redacted, G-rated version of the Bible and the writings of Terry Bradshaw.
THE CONCEIT OF DEMON COPPERHEAD: As the author herself tell us in the extra material, Demon Copperhead is largely inspired by David Copperfield, in terms at least of the structure of the novel. You will see many structural parallels in terms of plot, character development, and list of characters. The author tells us she wanted to write a great novel set in Appalachia, she had many ideas about what she wanted to say, and she used Dickens as sherpa to take her to the promised land. You can read Demon Copperhead without ever having read David Copperfield or indeed any other writing by Dickens.
BRIEF SUMMARY: Demon Copperhead grows up with druggie mom in Appalachia in the midst of the opioid crisis. He realizes his own superpower is resilience.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Barbara Kingsolver is a prolific American author, currently living in Virginia, with ties also to Maryland and Kentucky. These are her primary ties to the Appalachian Region, featured in Demon Copperhead. She has a profound attachment to Appalachia and such places as Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. She is fiercely proud of these roots and you will no doubt encounter many of her political views in the text itself, and you can also find them in interviews and other places. This commentary will be woven throughout the summary to follow, but suffice to say she believes that Appalachia has been overlooked politically. Media centers and money centers in our country are typically in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, and the political centers are the same places plus Washington D.C. As a result, there is a lack of representation of people and stories from Appalachia. Due to political and cultural changes, and just bad luck, the people of Appalachia have had more than their fair share of difficulties, whether because coal and tobacco are not great sources of income anymore, or because many of the farms around Appalachia are built on hills that are not as large or fertile as many other farming areas. The opioid crisis ironically found root in this infertile part of the world and this crisis shapes all the characters we find in our story.
TIP:
If you are reading this for school, you'd be silly not to read these links for context --
LOCATION INFORMATION FOR NOVEL: The novel is set in Lee County, Virginia, close to Knoxville, Tennessee (Knoxville is the largest city the main character encounters in the story). This is in Appalachia, more or less present day or at least 21st century. The book is set right in the midst of the opioid crisis, which involved many drug manufacturers (Purdue, Sackler family, Johnson and Johnson), retailers (Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Kroger), and distributors (Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal, McKesson) in America knowingly over-selling, over-marketing narcotics to patients, to help them manage their pain, leading to great overuse / abuse and addiction (in some examples in real life West Virginia, parking lots at grocery stores are completely full of people waiting to get their narcotics, the point being that overuse was obvious). In this area there has been dramatic economic downturn in recent decades due to less use of coal, less use of tobacco, and decline in blue-collar jobs. The economic downturn leads to lack of work opportunities and lack of access to healthcare, including fewer access points to mental health resources. People have more time and less money, and in many cases rely on drugs.
There is large ongoing national litigation involving nearly every town, city, county, and state in America, against various opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. The claims in the lawsuit are that these defendants made, sold, and distributed narcotics while knowing narcotics were likely to cause addiction and that addiction was likely to cause harm. The drugs were allegedly promoted and sold with a focus on profits as opposed to having a focus on the potential benefit to the patient over a long period of time. The drugs were not appropriately researched from a peer review standpoint before being advertised as cure-alls, or so the plaintiffs allege.
DEDICATION: the dedication reads: for the Survivors . This refers to the survivors of the opioid crisis. To be a survivor is a long and grueling road, meaning suffering and patience for decades on end. Survivor is not an empty title or honor, but must be hard earned. Being a drug addict is not a passive or lazy experience. It requires ongoing effort to try to stop, and fail. It requires ongoing effort to feed the addiction, to get money to feed the addiction, it requires ongoing effort to watch yourself fall apart and watch yourself harm the people around you.
EPIGRAPH: the epigraph states that it is vain to recall the past unless there is some influence on the present. This suggests that it is vain to bemoan the opioid crisis without doing something about it, without taking active political and medical and financial steps to assist those harmed by this crisis. The author is frustrated about political indifference in America to this crisis.
PLOT SUMMARY
ONE
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER ONE
Demon Copperhead (aka Damon Fields) is born, his mother is eighteen years old, drug addict, with poor access to healthcare. A neighbor named Mrs. Peggot assists with the delivery.
The new baby Demon (hero of the story and its narrator) is called the "little blue prizefighter" on account of his skin being blue from lack of oxygen at birth or because of the impact on him of the drugs his mom was using during pregnancy. His birthday is considered the "worst day of his mom's life," and this sets the tone for ongoing conflict with his mom who at times is nurturing but at times is selfish and focused on herself and her problems. Would you want to be born of a mother who thinks your arrival was the worst day of her life? The narrator tells us that a kid born to a junkie is a junkie. The reader is also informed that Demon is a sucker for superheroes, something he apparently inherited from his mom. The suggestion being they place their trust too much in certain people who prove to be unreliable, or that they are swayed by people with a certain charisma or swagger, rather than by those who have more subtle, positive qualities.
Demon is given a promise at birth that he will never drown. This is because he was born within a sac of fluid. As we discover, Demon loves the ocean and his favorite color is blue. He says, "for fish, blue is the only color."
The narrator tells the story at various points in his own life, talking from the point of view of himself as a baby, sometimes talking with his present voice as an adult or at least more mature narrator. Most of the narrator's point-of-view seems to be Demon as a late high schooler or perhaps just before age 20. He apparently has still never been to the real ocean, despite apparently loving the ocean and loving the color blue. We know already that some of his biggest dreams have never been made to happen. Simple dreams, like seeing the blue ocean, not that far from home, have never been realized.
Demon and his mother live in single-wide trailer on the Peggot property. His best friend is a kid named Maggot, which is the nickname for Matt Peggot, the grandson of Mrs. and Mr. Peggot. Mrs. Peggot is a nurturing neighbor character throughout the story. Maggot's mom Mariah is in jail so Maggot has been raised by his grandmother, Mrs. Peggot. We understand later that Maggot's mom Mariah is in jail for self-defense murder. We are also told that Demon and his mom get food with food stamps. Demon's mom considers Mrs. Peggot to be a "lottery ticket," because she takes care of them so well.
Demon's father was considered a "copperhead," a person with red hair. It is said that copperhead snakes are more dangerous than water snakes. Demon's mom apparently had a weakness for Demon's father, on account of his red hair, or perhaps because he was wild or unpredictable, another tie to the idea that both Demon and his mom have a weakness for superheroes or to people with a certain type of wild energy. In any event, Demon's father is considered by his mom to be a "mistake." Demon's father died the summer before Demon was born; he died in a place called "the devil's bathtub." Demon had the hair and eyes of his father, which helps explain why his name becomes Demon Copperhead. Consider being born of a father who was a mistake and of a mother who regrets giving birth to you. Demon's real name is Damon Fields.
Demon's father's mother, a person named Betsy, apparently showed up to the birth of Demon. This birth father's family was abusive to each other, and interested in snake/church evangelism. Betsy attended Demon's birth primarily to scold Demon's mother for using drugs while pregnant. Demon knows little about his father's family. Throughout the novel Demon is in a sense trying to learn more about his father, but very little happens in this regard.
Shortly after Demon is born, his mother goes into drug rehab. Demon seems to bemoan the fact that his mother believed he was stronger than he actually was. He says for instance something along the lines that he was "breakable" but his mom didn't fully realize that. He needed more attention and nurturing. He was not tough enough to handle everything that happened to him without being damaged by it.
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TWO
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER TWO
The narrator (Demon) tells the reader he wants to "put things in the order they happened." His real name is Damon Fields, and Mrs. Peggot still called him by that name. The name "Demon" was a nickname, as was the name Copperhead. The narrator says at the start of chapter two that "a kid is a terrible thing to be." We see throughout the novel how hard it is to survive childhood and junior high and high school without significant emotional or drug problems. As will be elaborated on later, most adults have so many problems they give priority to their own life and there is little leftover for the children. One ongoing theme of the novel is that adults don't stay married very long because it's hard for an addict to take care of another person, let alone herself, and the kids are then left further behind.
Consider if you have a nickname and how you came upon it. In junior high my friends called me Stickman or Bones, because I was so skinny. I never wanted those names and never liked them. We wonder if Damon liked being called Demon, most likely not, and if the nickname in a way made him seem to himself more broken. The name also attached him to his father, in a positive sense, but also in a negative sense, as he knows little about his father.
The Peggot family lives next door to the trailer in which Damon grew up. The Peggot family rents out trailers on their property, or allows people to rent there for free. The Peggots have an abandoned birdhouse also on their property. The birds lived everywhere except for the birdhouse, suggesting perhaps that birds like people have their own agenda and do not necessarily want to live in a regular or formal housing environment. "Birds like livin' their own way." This predicts that people with problems, such as drug addicts, do not necessarily want to be fixed all the time.
The reader learns of Humvee, an uncle of Maggot (Humvee is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Peggot who is rarely spoken of, who died at some point previously), who apparently built the birdhouse in a shop class.
The Peggot home is the center of many activities and rumors. Every family member "got talked to or talked about" except that Humvee and Maggot's mom Mariah weren't spoken of generally. Maggot's mom is in jail for self-defense murder, which we find out later.
Mr. Peggot knows a lot of bird calls which comes up from time to time in the novel. The reference seems symbolic, but the author never follows up on it.
Demon, as narrator, bemoans that he "wasted" the chance the Peggots gave him. Perhaps Demon is high school age as narrator when he says this. Demon is introduced to Bible stories through the Peggot family. He dislikes the Lazarus story because it makes him fear his own father will come back to life and Demon would have to go find him. Demon observes that Bible stories are like superhero comics. This suggests perhaps that Demon doesn't believe the Bible is factual.
Demon as narrator observes that there are different worlds with different rules. At the Peggot home, the fridge is full of groceries to eat, but with his mom the fridge is always empty. This sets the stage for encountering later other systems of rules that are usually negative.
The Peggot home and Demon trailer are surrounded by mud and water and hills. This ties into the idea that rural areas are free for roaming and exploration. The trailer were Demon and his mom live was formerly occupied by "Aunt June," who is another child of the Peggot family, so June is sister of Maggot's mom Mariah, who is in jail, and also sister of Humvee, who is who knows where (dead). June is a nurse in a larger city, Knoxville. Demon is jealous of Maggot's large family. Mrs. Peggot treats her son Maggot and Demon fairly (like a son also). Demon notes that the "manhood situation" with Maggot "was complicated."
THREE
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER THREE
Demon's mom begins dating Morell Stone, aka "Stoner." Mom, who works at Wal-Mart, is vulnerable to hearing nice things said about her. Stoner is sort of a caricature and also a reminder that Demon's mom has a weakness for potential superhero characters. Stoner looks like Mr. Clean. He is a "low bar" for what a woman would accept in a boyfriend or husband.
Demon's mom has a drawer full of sobriety chips at home. Demon says that "what I don't remember is what I didn't know." This is a reference to his inability to remember things about his mom or remember the context of things about his mom that he didn't have the ability to understand as a little kid. For example, as a kid he couldn't have understood what it meant to be pregnant at age 18 and to work at Wal-Mart, nor what it meant to have a drawer full of sobriety chips, or that his mom's friends were primarily co-workers at Wal-Mart, and a lot of his mom's friends were likely themselves to have had sobriety difficulties. We have the sense that the older narrator voice now understands some of the problems baked into his mother's pregnancy and situation.
Demon's mom "tried and failed at lots of boyfriends" and the reader understands Demon perhaps to be saying that friendship and love and romance are basic human needs, even for people who are druggies and work at Wal-Mart. Demon's mom wears more and more makeup as she dates Stoner. Stoner calls Demon "His Majesty," and doesn't accept Demon as he is. Stoner has a huge Harley which is a big deal. Stoner invites Demon to go for a ride and Mrs. Peggot warns Demon not to go, so he doesn't go. This is a warning that Mrs. Peggot can easily see something that Demon's mom cannot see, that Stoner is a dangerous person with poor judgment.
The ongoing reference to the Peggot family is a reminder that Demon is raised by a community of people, and he and his mom are part of a community. By going to a city or a large city, one can lose this sense of community. As an aside, this seems like a political statement by the author about the difference between country and city. At another time, Stoner and Demon's mom and Demon go to a pizza place on the Harley. Stoner's friends joke about Demon's mom being a "nice Camaro with a trailer hooked to the back." This reinforces the idea that children are the bottom of the social ladder.
Demon meets Hammerhead Kelly, another Peggot cousin.
When school is out, the Peggot family take Demon and Maggot to Knoxville to visit Aunt June. June is a child of Mr. and Mrs. Peggot, and sibling to Maggot's mom Mariah. Demon meets Emmy, who is June's daughter (we later find out June is raising Emmy and Emmy at some point is officially adopted by June). Humvee, June's brother, who is dead, was apparently Emmy's father, and June takes care of Emmy since the Peggot parents are already taking care of grandson Maggot. June is a hospital nurse who works at times with opioid use/abuse patients.
As they prepare to leave to see Aunt June, everyone is acting awkward. Demon's mom is overly affectionate. Demon worries about who will take care of his mom while he's gone while his mom seems to be overly worried about him. We discover later the whole trip away is a set-up to give mom time/space to marry Stoner while Demon is gone with the Peggot family.
FOUR
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER FOUR
Emmy Peggot, child of Humvee Peggot, and granddaughter to Mr. and Mrs. Peggot, is being raised by June Peggot. June and Emmy live in an apartment in Knoxville. We later learn that Emmy is adopted by June.
Emmy is skinny with brown hair and a Hello Kitty backpack. She is simultaneously more worldly and also more naive in some ways than Demon. Demon at this point has never been to a city before and it makes a big impression. The city is "huge." He has seen cities before on TV, because cities are "all" they show on TV. A city is a "hot mess, not easily escaped." He and Emmy call the apartment building a "doom castle" and he has a strong memory of it because it's a large building in a city. He notes that you can't run wild in a city, because everything is "monitored." "A city is the weirdest loneliest thing." There's nothing to do in the city, nowhere to play, nowhere to smoke. There's irony here of course because Demon has a miserable rural life and Emmy seems to have a better life in the city, but nonetheless Demon is negative about cities throughout the story.
Emmy and Demon and Maggot build a fort in the living room and play like they are on a ship. Emmy says she has never been to the ocean because she is afraid of sharks.
When June is at work, Emmy spends time with a downstairs neighbor; this seems to be a political statement by the author that in the city, a mom needs a babysitter whereas in the country the mom can just leave the kids home alone. Demon is surprised there's no garden for tomatoes, no dirt. At other times the author seems to make the political statement that food grows in the country but not in the city, and that food forms a sort of small untaxed economy about country people, who can trade or barter. June seems "put together" and has lots of books and at least 21 pair of shoes.
Demon draws a picture of Aunt June as WonderWoman. Emmy tells Maggot and Demon stories told by June about working in the emergency department. Aunt June takes them to an aquarium. For Demon this is the best day of his life. His ambitions are fairly simple it seems -- he loves water, the color blue, the best day of his life is fairly easy to achieve once he's with someone competent like June. He's only with June for a few days and has already had the best day of his life. Is it so hard to take care of him, to love him?
At the aquarium, Emmy, who is afraid of sharks, won't walk through the shark tunnel. June insists she walk through, and Demon helps her by holding her hand. In retrospect, Demon regrets that Emmy was so trusting of taking his hand, the suggestion perhaps that at some later time she will trust someone who is not worthy. Demon buys Emmy a bracelet using 5 dollars June gave everyone.
They drive back home to Lee County. Mr. Peggot tells Demon: "You have a new daddy," as Stoner has married Demon's mom. He worries that Stoner is somehow his biological father come back to life.
FIVE
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER FIVE
During the two weeks Demon and Maggot were with Aunt June, Demon's mom married Stoner, and they went on their honeymoon. They moved around the furniture in the trailer. Now Demon's room is the smaller one. Stoner supposedly makes a good living. Stoner sits around in a wife beater reading magazines. The honeymoon is already "over."
Stoner has a huge black dog named Satan. Demon, for the first time ever, looks forward to school, so he can be away from Stoner. He and Maggot spend more time together. Maggot agrees with Demon that it is better not to live with parents. Demon's mom prefers for Demon to spend more time at home, which seems like something new for her to say, perhaps based on influence of Stoner. This is the first indication that Stoner is trying to drive a wedge between Demon and Maggot.
Demon is a lot bigger now, and his mom claims she needs Stoner to protect her from Demon. This seems like words not from the mom really but maybe something Stoner put in her head. Stoner has started telling Demon's mom that she looks like a whore; in addition, Stoner prevents her from going to her AA meetings. Remember that recently, she was in love with Stoner and thought he looked like Mr. Clean. Perhaps superheroes are not so easy to come by. Perhaps most superheroes are flawed.
Stoner does have a good job. He's a distributor for Anheuser-Busch. Stoner has medical and dental insurance that cover all three of them. Stoner's job and insurance make Demon and his mom vulnerable to Stoner. There is an outsized influence it seems, in this region, of those with good jobs or money. There are so many who struggle without money or with addictions, it gives those with good jobs even more power.
Stoner tells Demon that his mom has been too lenient. Demon has to learn how to live with discipline. Stoner punches Demon in the jaw, out of the blue. Stoner tells Demon he’s going to grow up as a total loser because his mom was a total loser. Mrs. Peggot suggests she can call child protective services re: Stoner. Demon's mom tries to appease Stoner with pizza. She reminds Stoner she is Demon’s mother. The pizza is Hawaiian which is a “message in code” to Demon, presumably because mother and son like that kind.
Stoner calls Demon’s mom a stoner and pillhead. Says she doesn’t have the tools to raise Demon. Demon tells Stoner that his mom is sober. Stoner accuses mom of letting Demon hang out with “queer” Maggot.
Stoner orders Mom to order Demon not to play with Maggot anymore. Demon obeys more or less for the rest of the summer.
Demon draws more and more cartoons. He notes that the way superheroes were organized or categorized didn’t make any sense. Superhero drawing for Demon, and later another character in the book (Tommy), is a way of escaping from reality.
Now in ninth grade, Demon realizes that Maggot is "queer." Demon starts to worry about how he will be perceived for being friends with Maggot. The narrator says that people see what they want, that city people see "hillbillies." He has been friends with Maggot for a long time but now Stoner is labeling Maggot in a way that is new for Demon. One can infer that the author herself dislikes how hillbillies, in real life, are viewed as inferior or stupid by city people. Of course, rural people or country people also have stereotypes about city people. Perhaps the author's point is that cities have more money and have more celebrities and power, so it's not fair that rural areas have less representation or less power.
SIX
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER SIX
This chapter starts with the words, "How Maggot's mother got to prison," for we have gone this far without knowing much about her despite Maggot being a main character. Mariah Maggot, mother of Maggot, is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peggot. She is also sister of June and sister to Humvee. Mariah married a person named Romeo Blevins. Mariah was not the beauty of the family, she was flat-chested and raw boned. On the other hand, Romeo is very good looking, and is described favorably as a JCPenney model. (JCPenney was a very large national brand in the 1970's and 1980's, similar to K-Mart or Sears, before it lost market share and power. JCPenney's in-houses brand was called LeTigre (Tiger) which sort of looked like an Izod more or less.) Romeo had a two-bedroom A-frame home, and worked as an auto mechanic. This is a good job because he has his own truck. Mariah gets pregnant and moves into the home at a young stage in the relationship. Immediately, Romeo is chasing other women. Remember that Stoner, who worked for Anheuser-Busch, was also described as having a good job.
Romeo starts beating Mariah. At one point, he ties her up with the phone cord from the landline (which he has torn out of the wall), and ties her up to a rail outside the house. You get the idea this is a fence near the front of the house, perhaps on a front porch. (Author's note. Before cellphones, everyone had a land line. These often had very long 50-foot cords.) Later, Romeo ties Mariah up again, but this time he leaves the house door open. It's very cold outside and the cold air gets into the house and nearly kills the baby. Mariah knows this but she can't do anything on account of being tied up with the phone cord. She decides this will never happen again. She starts carrying an Exacto knife taped up to the top of her leg, just below the butt. The next time Romeo ties her up outside, she uses the Exacto knife to free herself and then she carves up Romeo's face with the razor, and also carves up his chest. Romeo presses charges.
Just before Mariah takes this action in self-defense, Demon notes that "Mariah remembers how to pray," in other words that taking action is better than being passive, or that it is better to solve your own problems than waiting for God. She also decides that "telling is better than asking" and that "mad is better than sorry."
At the trial, Romeo makes himself out to be the victim. His attorney wears alligator-skinned boots. Mariah goes to jail for 12 years, during which time Mrs. Pegott raises Maggot.
As the book gets further along, it is worth noting the author's interest in social rungs or social hierarchies. Mariah Peggot marries Romeo, an older guy with a steady job as mechanic, a good mechanic job since he has his own truck, we are told. We saw before that Demon's mother marries Stoner, another guy with a solid job as beer distributor. Women are vulnerable for economic security, so they marry guys who don't treat them well. Because economy is bad, there aren't that many guys with good jobs, so women can't afford to be picky. This means they often get pregnant too early. So within Appalachia, which is already a distressed social class, men have more freedom and power than women, and we see also that a baby or a child like Demon or Mariah's baby is worse off than a woman. When Mariah stands up for herself and her baby, the law does not agree and takes side of loser husband. Throughout the novel, the idea of owning your own car is a metaphor for social mobility. Mariah evens the scales of power with the Exacto knife. These are very sharp and dangerous, very easy to come by at a plumbing or handyman store. A crude instrument that she uses to balance the scales, and which tells us about the sense of justice possessed by Demon.
SEVEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER SEVEN
School starts again, it must be fall. Demon and Maggot await the bus. There are only nine kids waiting. This raises the suggestion again that riding a bus is limiting and owning a car is a type of freedom. But at school, Demon is far away from Stoner, which is itself a type of freedom. Maggot is banned from being near Demon's house, but Demon and Maggot don't know where the invisible line is that defines the ban.
At one point Demon comes into the trailer with mud on his shoes, and drags mud into the kitchen and living room. Stoner yells at Demon and Demon's mom does not try to defend Demon. Stoner makes Demon get down on hands and knees and clean up the mud. Demon feels himself getting high with cleaning agents. At the same time he notices his mom is looking funny or acting funny. Perhaps he is sensing that she has relapsed. Demon wishes his mother was "mad instead of sorry." He wants her to stand up to Stoner instead of apologizing to Stoner about Demon. When Demon finishes cleaning, he tries to leave with the rags but Stoner grabs Demon by the t-shirt and drags him back inside to clean more.
Demon continues to get high from the cleaning solution called Stains Away. Demon starts humming an Avenger's rune, Stoner yells at Demon. Demon starts throwing things around, and Stoner grabs Demon around the neck. Demon bites down hard on Stoner's hand or arm. As punishment, Stoner locks Demon in his bedroom and puts weights next to bedroom door so Demon can't get out.
Demon imagines running away but he doesn't know where he'd go. It crosses his mind to run away to Emmy's and June's, but he hasn't kept up with Emmy. Eventually Stoner permits Demon to go to school but Demon is grounded when he gets home. Maggot tells Demon that Demon has "nerves of steel" and that Stoner would be "crushed in the end." This seems to be superhero vernacular.
That night Stoner yells at Demon's mom. Demon draws comics about Stoner being destroyed. Stoner lets Demon out of his room. Demon finds his mother passed out from alcohol and Xanax. Demon yells at Stoner to dial 911 and calls Stoner an asshole.
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EIGHT
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER EIGHT
At this point, Demon dials 911 and he and Stoner trade punches while Demon's mom is still overdosed or overdosing. Demon reminds the reader that it's never a good idea to wonder if your life can get worse -- it can. The ambulance arrives. Stoner gets in back with Demon's mom and makes a show of being supportive of her. Peggot parents are behind ambulance with Demon.
Stoner lies to the medical people about him being a good caregiver. While waiting at the hospital, social services shows up to talk to Demon. Demon assumes he will just go home with Peggot family but by this point it becomes apparent that Stoner has made some accusation against the Peggot family. Demon tells the social worker about previous abuse from Stoner, but Stoner has already beaten him to it (made accusations against Demon) and the social worker asks Demon to explain why he bit Stoner on the hand.
Demon doesn't know why the social worker is characterizing Stoner and Demon "fighting" when in reality Stoner is so much bigger (sort of like how the news says Ukraine and Russia are at "war" when in reality Russia invaded Ukraine without justification). The social worker talks to Demon about foster placement. Demon has no known family or friends to take care of him, and Stoner's accusations have apparently disqualified the Peggot family from raising him. We don't know if Stoner has told the social worker about Mariah being in jail, about Maggot being potentially gay, or if the Peggot family itself is perhaps actually not that interested in taking on Demon. Demon falls asleep at the hospital.
A new social worker Ms. Barks wakes him up. She is more pretty and optimistic than previous social worker. She informs Demon that his foster placement is on a farm with a man named Mr. Crickson.
The two social workers drive Demon to the Crickson farm. Crickson's wife is deceased and Crickson has several other fosters working at the farm. The older social worker leaves it to the younger one Ms. Barks of doing the hard work of taking Demon in and essentially leaving him behind. Ms. Barks tells Demon that with his mom being in substance abuse treatment, there are no other options for him now. Demon realizes he has no clothes or books. He is angry at his mom for inviting Stoner into their lives, then disappearing on drugs and leaving him abandoned with Stoner and then into foster care.
In this last part of the chapter, there's a sense of movement and also a sense that Demon is alone. The ambulance rushes his mom to the hospital, and as he follows behind with the Peggot family, he notices the whole town/city is sleepy/asleep, but all this stuff is happening in his own life. This whole event of his mom overdosing, going to hospital, and Demon being put into foster care seems to happen quickly while the world is sleeping. Things can change quickly is the idea. One day he's with his mom, the next day foster care. The person placing him with Crickson is on her first day of the job more or less, not likely to really be able to help Demon.
NINE
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER NINE
Crickson is described as a big meaty guy, with thin hair, dog face, frayed and grimy clothes. He speaks in a Freddy Krueger whisper.
Demon's case worker reviews Demon's case with Crickson. Demon observes the house is dirty, with grease above stove, open bottles of peanut butter on the counter. Everything is grimy and dirty. Demon admits his mother is disorganized, but he says at least she is not dirty.
As soon as the case worker leaves, Crickson refers to Demon as a "biter," and threatens he will file down Demon's teeth. We come to understand that Stoner has already poisoned things by speaking of Demon being a biter without providing the context that Demon was acting in self-defense because Stoner was assaulting Demon. Here we are reminded that Demon, and others in his position, are often defined by labels outside of their control. Demon is a "hand biter" with a "homosexual" best friend, with a "druggie" mom. These form part of Demon's identity and limit him in various ways.
The other foster boys assigned to Crickson are at school, so Demon begins the work day by himself. Demon's first job is using a pitchfork to spread hay to cattle for food. There are about 200 head of cattle. Demon helps move cattle, he walks around a lot, he learns how to repair barbwire fence with a staple gun.
Lunch is bacon and tomatoes. Two boys come home from school. The smaller one is not quite "normal" - his name is Swap-Out. The other boy is larger; his name is Tommy. Tommy is described as a big teddy bear; he has been at the farm for years, off and on. Tommy is nice and helpful. Tommy tells Demon about another boy Fast Forward, who will come home later. Fast Forward is a star on the local high school football team.
As promised, Fast Forward arrives home at dinnertime, but it's obvious already he has special privileges. First, he drives his own Ford truck, and he has not done any chores today. Fast Forward is long and lean, with lots of curly hair. Fast's real name is Sterling Ford. He has keys to the gun cabinet and also keys to the medicine cabinet where Swap-Out's medicine is kept.
Fast Forward, Swap-Out, and Tommy show Demon the house. Fast Forward has his own bedroom with furniture. The other three boys share a bedroom with two bunkbeds. Tommy, who shares a bunkbed with Swap-Out, loans Demon a shirt to sleep in, because Demon's clothes are dirty and smelly from his day of work.
Fast Forward comes around and does a military-type inspection of the other boys. He takes money and candy from the other boys. Fast refers to Demon as being "Melungeon," meaning mixed-race ancestry. The "internet" says that person who is Melungeon might have red hair and dark skin. Fast refers to the whole group of boys as the "hillbilly squadron."
Demon observes that the term "hillbilly" is pejorative, like the "n" word, and only other hillbillies can use that term. Demon remembers Mr. Peggot saying that hillbillies have a superpower which is that other people who were not hillbillies could not be hillbillies. This again reinforces Demon's understanding of being in a social class dependent upon certain labels: Melungeon, son of druggie, hillbilly, friend is gay, etc.
TEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER TEN
Demon describes fellow foster ward Tommy Waddles as a big talker, with really bad luck. Tommy's father died in a small plane crash. His mother died early. His grandmother had dementia. Tommy had been in the care of the state of Virginia for most of his life. Tommy says that the foster system is better for younger, cuter kids.
This is a reminder of the author's interest in social rungs: men are highest, especially if they have jobs and trucks. Then comes women, who can trade sex or pregnancy to have a man take care of them. Below women are children, but cute and young children are higher on the social ladder than older or uglier children.
Tommy is good at doodling. He doodles a lot when he feels bad; he likes to draw skeletons. This is something he and Demon have in common; recall that Demon draws superheroes when stressed.
Demon and his foster group spend hours on the bus every day going to and from school. The bus is its own form of education. That's where you learn how girls get pregnant. That's how you learn to watch your back. Fast Forward has his own truck, so he doesn't have to ride the bus. Again, having your own car or truck is a symbol of freedom, more free time to sleep, less time trapped on the bus.
With Demon on Crickson's farm, Maggot went over to the trailer and picked up Demon's notebooks, clothes, and books, which Maggot's family brings to Demon.
The boys work together to bail hay for Crickson. These are not glamorous or easy farm jobs. The work is manual. There's little money. The author reminds us that Appalachia has a bartering economy. There may be other large farms in America, run by machines, where owners get rich, but this is not true of the farms in Appalachia.
Fast Forward hosts what the boys call a Hillbilly Squadron party. Fast Forward brings "supplies" which is basically candy and cookies. The candy includes Reese's Pieces. During the party, Demon learns that Fast Forward's trophies are made of plastic. The boys peek into Crickson's room -- they refer to him as Creaky.
Fast has given the other boys nicknames. Tommy's nickname is "Bones." Swap-Out is "Wild Man." Fast gives Demon the nickname "Diamond" because he is bright, shiny, worth a lot, and harder than anything. Demon shows some of his superhero drawings to his friends.
Demon realizes he's high, because the cookies were "special," made by someone named Rose who wants to be Fast's girlfriend. Fast brings in a green ballcap full of pills; they call this a "farm party."
A recurring them in this chapter is the idea of informal education. The boys learn a lot of practical lessons on the bus ride each day. And Fast is in a way the leader and teacher of the boys. They learn a lot from him about the world outside, the rules. The adults think that kids learn or "should' learn in school, but in reality they are going to learn in all sorts of ways. Many of the most important and toughest lessons are not taught in school.
ELEVEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER ELEVEN
Demon expresses that he's partly in love with his social worker Ms. Barks, but another part of him really dislikes her. He usually meets with her at school, and of course he first met her at hospital after his mom had been treated there for overdose. So Ms. Barks is overseeing his case while not really knowing much about the home environment.
Ms. Barks tells Demon he needs to "get along better" with Stoner if he wants to return home. This is based on the false premise that both Stoner and Demon are equally responsible for their troubles. Something like blaming Ukraine for being invaded by Russia.
So far Crickson had not yet hit Demon, so presumably Tommy could stay there on the farm. The threshold for social worker intervention was when you got hit. Of course, the social worker didn't care if you were happy or educated or eating well. By this point, Ms. Banks has failed to bring Demon the supplies from home she promised, but it's moot because Maggot already brought him his stuff. Even a pretty, young, energetic social worker is out-of-touch and unhelpful.
Fast Forward is interested in Demon's comics and asks him to do more. Demon calls him "Force Fastward," aka "Fastman." Fast's superpower is quite obvious from his football talents, he's long and fast. The boys sit around at night while Demon draws.
A supervised visit between Demon and his mom occurs at McDonald's. Awkward. Demon feels the system is too punitive with his druggie mom and not punitive enough with people like Crickson. He feels anxiety and a burden to take care of his mom, as if he needs to please her so she will have reasons to be sober. He feels guilty that he himself might be the reason she uses drugs. He views drugs as a good thing, by the way, especially at the Crickson farm. Perhaps here the author's point is that the government should be more interested in a child being provided for by someone who is "loving" as opposed to someone who is supposedly "safe" and has passed all the system checks.
The Peggot family comes by the farm to visit. Demon is excited to show off Fast Forward to the visitors. They can't find Tommy; Fast drove Tommy somewhere and forgot to pick him up.
TWELVE
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER TWELVE
Demon's mom graduates from rehab and is allowed home. There is talk of Demon being home by Christmas. His visits with his mom, at the trailer, are supervised by Ms. Barks, who waits outside during the one-hour visit.
Stoner is at work. Mom reports that Stoner is against Demon moving back home. Stoner got her a microwave as her gift for finishing rehab.
Demon assumes his case worker, Ms. Barks, would be interested in getting married and pregnant, at her age. He is surprised to learn she is not married, that she's in school to be a teacher, and that she's looking for an apartment. This is a sign of his naivete around what he thinks women "should" be.
Ms. Barks asks Demon what he wants to be when he grows up. Demon becomes somber, realizing he has not thought of this before, and probably has not been asked this question before.
On another Saturday visit, Demon's mom tells Demon she is pregnant. They have fun together. They rake leaves. They measure themselves with a little pencil mark on the wall inside the trailer. They dance. They play board games. Demon is a hair taller than his mother.
Stoner comes home. Stoner and Demon have a forced, formal conversation, which falls apart quickly.
Stoner tells Demon that Demon has oppositional disorder, a term Stoner has learned from the counselor Stoner and Demon's mom are seeing. Stoner tells Demon he will need to go on meds.
Stoner reminds Demon he is still not allowed to spend time with Maggot.
TAKE A BREAK TO CONSIDER
THEMES SO FAR
*Rural life v city life. Cities are big, places you can get lost. No outdoor space in cities, nowhere kids are allowed to be on their own, unsupervised. Cities have homelessness, because there is nowhere to crash, no community safety net, no easy food to find such as food that grows in trees or gardens. Rural areas have more outdoor play spaces for kids. Rural areas have more land, of course, which can be used to grow food for humans or something like tobacco that has value. In rural areas there's more of a barter economy where you can trade one thing for another. In rural areas there's more of a community feeling, for example the Peggot family helps raise Demon. In cities, you have taxis, buses, to get you around. In a sense, you are stuck in a city without public transit. But in a rural area, you are even more stuck without a car, because the distances are great. June's daughter Emmy lives in a tall apartment building, with a feeling of anonymity but less warmth perhaps. When June is at work, Emmy is watched by some other person in the building, whereas in rural area, when parents are gone, kids are left on their own. Of course there is a great opioid problem in the country, which inflicts both rural and city areas.
*Social order. The idea of a hierarchy with men at the top, especially men with a car and a job. A woman is below a man, but she can get married or pregnant to move up a level. This pressure to marry and get pregnant leads to bad decisions and to broken families. Children are the least important and are sometimes raised by the state or by people other than the parents. A kid like Fast Forward who has a skill (being good at football) can have a better life than other kids, with increased freedom. Humans in essence are part of the barter economy. Women can trade their bodies (sex) for marriage. Then they have babies and give up freedom. A kid like Fast can barter his skill (speed) to move up the social ladder (he gets a truck for example).
*Tobacco is a cash crop of important historical significance in Appalachia. But it is labor-intensive to grow and harvest. It's not easy. The land is alive in Appalachia, it is well used. In the cities, there is pressure to make everything smaller but in the country, more land = more money. Land is survival.
THIRTEEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tommy is always taking one for the team. Someone (one of the boys) ran the well dry. Crickson is angry. Tommy is blamed. Crickson beats Tommy twenty times with a hose. Turns out, it was Fast Forward's fault because he washed his truck and didn't shut off the water, and ran the well dry. But during the beating of Tommy, Fast says nothing, he lets Tommy take the beating, which is even more unfair because if Fast had confessed, Crickson would have taken it easy on Fast since he's the favorite.
We have already seen character flaws with Fast (drugs, taking money and candy from others) but now we see for the first time a huge flaw, letting a smaller kid get beat up for Fast's sake. We recall Fast's sports trophies were made of shiny plastic.
After the beating, Demon finds Tommy in the barn doodling. Tommy is drawing lots of skulls. This is probably why Tommy's nickname is Bones?
Demon's mom has returned to work at Wal-Mart. Stoner is not around much. Stoner is not supportive of the pregnancy/baby.
The boys on the farm are working hard, busy. Demon assumes he'll return to his mom within a few months. On the farm the work is never quite done. There is food to eat, but never quite enough. The boys live for Friday night, to watch Fast Forward play football. Fast Forward talks to Demon about playing football. Fast begins to teach Demon some techniques.
Demon compares large corporate farms in Middle America (the kind you see on TV) to those in Lee County. In Lee County, the terrain is steep, so you grow grass on a hill, and feed cattle there. The cattle can only get so big because there's only so much space and grass. So on Crickson's farm, the cattle get to a certain point and then are shipped west to grow bigger and get slaughtered. There is more money in the other part of the operation than in Crickson's part. A feeling of unfairness comes with this--Crickson's farm does labor-intensive, hard, dirty work, and those who get more money do what is possibly easier work.
Each farmer has very little flat land left for tobacco. September and October is tobacco season, "cutting time." The harvest process is exquisitely difficult. Demon imagines he will tell his little brother one day to "enjoy childhood, to love it so hard." At times, Demon's voice as narrator seems to be speaking directly to his unborn brother.
Demon explains how the harvest is done.
In August, the boys start "topping," which is breaking off the tops of the tall tobacco plants to free them for their final growth spurt. Creaky, Fast Forward, and Demon are in the lead doing the topping, with Tommy and Swap-Out behind. This is the first time we really see that Demon has more physical ability than Tommy and Swap-Out.
Tommy is gathering up little flowers and putting them on small dirt mounds. These are little graves Tommy builds to remember his parents. Tommy doesn't know where his parents are really buried, somewhere in Eastern Virginia. This is Tommy's eighth foster home, meaning this is the eighth grave he has erected to his parents. Demon imagines eight little mounds of dirt covered in flowers.
FOURTEEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cutting tobacco is hard work. The boys and Crickson cut down the tall tobacco stalks and hook them to a sharpened stick. Once you have a spear with several stalks on it, you hang those in the barn rafters to dry. It's very tricky to climb to the top of the barn with several heavy spears full of leaves. Once the leaves are dry, they are stripped and bailed and sold. The work has to be done quickly to beat the incoming frost.
Demon observes that most superheroes on TV and in movies are in cities, not on farms.
The cash for this crop is life or life for Crickson and for other farmers in same boat.
Despite working so hard and learning a new skill (farming tobacco), and helping an adult make money from tobacco farming, when Demon returns to school he still feels like a dumbass for not knowing some historical fact. But why would a historical fact be meaningful to remember when tobacco is life or death?
Demon gets tobacco poisoning from not wearing gloves. He says, "it catches up with you." Probably a suggestion regarding drug use to come later in book, or suggestion that hard times and medical problems will eventually beat a person down.
Demon observes again that tobacco farming used to be supported by the US government, through various subsidies. It was an important national interest and national crop, and recognized as such. That provided security and status to Appalachian farmers. But in modern times, tobacco is viewed as negative and it's less valuable for farmers. Demon views this as hypocritical because the big tobacco companies and the stock market have already extracted the real value out of tobacco, leaving those who do the real work (farmers) very little. Classic example of private wealth extracting profit from an operation and then spreading to society the burdens created by that private enterprise.
FIFTEEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It's November 19, Demon's birthday. He wonders if anyone will know or remember.
At school, he is summoned to the front office. He's excited that someone has remembered his birthday, maybe his mom.
Ms. Barks, the case worker, greets him at the front office and says she has bad news. Demon's mom has died from a drug overdose. She overdosed on oxy. This is the first time Demon has heard of this drug.
Notes: A relatively short chapter but Demon's mother dies on his own birthday, which will haunt him of course. Recall that his mom thought Demon's actual day of birth was the worst day of her life, and that Demon feels responsible for his mom's drug use, that somehow he can fix it or stop it by being a good son, by giving her a reason to love him enough that she would have an incentive to stop using drugs. This is a classic psychological problem with children of drug addicts or other parents with addictions or mental illness--the child feels responsible for the parent. Now he will always remember his birthday at the day his mother died, and also that when he was born, it was the worst day of his mother's life.
SIXTEEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When Demon first gets the news of his mother's death, he assumes it was either suicide or an accident. His first guess is that it is suicide, because it occurs on his birthday.
Demon views the funeral and wake as an opportunity for society to blame Demon's mother for her own death.
At the funeral, Stoner pretends to be all broken up. Sitting there, at the funeral, Demon's angry at his mom for marrying Stoner and then ditching them both.
Demon, now as an older narrator, observes that he will only understand many years later how drug addiction works. He thinks of his mom reaching for peace, reaching for the stars, and attaining that peace. He says, in essence to his younger self: "you are such a small speck in this screwed up world."
At the funeral he realizes he's an orphan, like Maggot. He also realizes his mom must have a dead baby in her womb; he might be the only person with this information. Mrs. Peggot accompanies Demon up to see his mom one last time. She has a pissed off look on her face.
The funeral car drives Demon to the graveyard. The driver of the vehicle is flirting with a girl riding in the front passenger seat. She has her sock feet up on the dashboard. Demon is upset that they do not respect the dead.
Mom is buried in a plot with Stoner’s dead relatives. Demon wishes she had been buried with his dad, so he would know where his dad was buried. Now Demon is similar to Tommy, too, being an orphan.
What is oxy? God’s gift. Oxy helps you make it through. Deliverance. “We did eat of the apple.” The doctor who prescribed it to Demon's mom said: “it was safer than safe.” Turns out Demon's mom is one of the early deaths during the opioid crisis.
Stoner has moved out of the trailer. The Peggot family cleans it and makes it available for another family (in distress) to rent. Demon goes inside the trailer. His mother's memory has been completely erased. The two pencil lines on the wall (from measuring) are erased. There are no traces of her life.
Notes: Oxycontin said to help a person forget pain, or to dull their pain. In reality it erases a person's whole life, fills their life with shame and regret, leaving those behind with nothing, no memories. Just as with tobacco, the gains are externalized, with gains going to rich doctors, rich companies, stock market, investors, with the trash left behind in trailers and apartments in Appalachia. Companies like Johnson & Johnson, claiming to make products to benefit children, are made rich by selling addictive drugs. This is a continuation of the author's comparison of city to country, and of the author's criticism of America's favoritism for the elites and for cities.
There is also the idea and feeling that Demon is being sucked into a vortex. At the beginning of the novel, he has a mother, which makes him different than Maggot, who is being raised by a grandmother. His mother then meets Stoner, and Demon has a step-father with a job, and he lives in a trailer, with Peggot family nearby. Of course Stoner is a loser and mistreats Demon and Demon's mom. Stoner stops Demon from benefitting from his friendship with Maggot and the Peggot family, so that source of support is lost. Demon's mom overdoses on drugs while Demon is in foster care. With the death of his mother, Demon's step-father loses interest in Demon. So Demon becomes like Tommy and Maggot, and becomes a true orphan. Not only that but he has nowhere to live and no income. He's worse than Emmy, who has Aunt June taking care of her. He's worse than Fast Forward, who has a truck and some fame. He's worse than Maggot, who has grandparents. Simultaneously, you have movement through space as Demon goes to the hospital with his mom, then goes to the Crickson farm, to and from school, and back and forth to the trailer. There's the physical sense he is losing control and being sucked down into a toilet. And oxy, which made so many people rich, is at the center of that toilet. Oxy is the floating log of shit in the toilet, the log of shit that made the Sackler family and Purdue and Walgreen's, and Johnson & Johnson, rich. Everyone got rich, and orphans in Appalachia are in the toilet with the shit.
SEVENTEEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Demon and Stoner have little to discuss at their supervised visit at a fast food place. Ms. Barks is in the corner, supervising this visit. Apparently, Demon's mom "wanted" Stoner and Demon to "patch" things up. Again, fallacy that Stoner and Demon are equally responsible for their broken relationship.
"I pictured Stoner walking backward to where he met mom." [This is an interesting observation, because Demon is a sense feels bad for Stoner, and recognizes that by being married, Stoner's social status had temporarily improved, even though Stoner was a loser and mistreated Demon's mom. A sense that even a man with a job needs a woman to advance socially. At the same time, Stoner, despite being a loser, has the opportunity for movement, because he is not a drug addict. Demon's mom is fixed in place now in the graveyard. If you want to be stuck in place and time, use oxy.]
Stoner seems to suggest he has a say in Demon's future because Stoner had attended counseling with Demon's mom, and according to Stoner, Demon's mom had sided with Stoner. Demon wonders if he is the only one who knew that his mom's death also killed the little brother inside the womb.
EIGHTEEN
PLOT SUMMARY CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Demon goes to Knoxville with Peggot family to visit Aunt June and Emmy, but Mrs. Peggot is awkward.
Emmy wears neon clothes and has tons of boy band posters; this might be commentary on the influence of city culture. Aunt June is at work. Emmy refers to Aunt June as "Mom." Reportedly, Aunt June is tired of working in the emergency department in Knoxville, and wants to go back home to Lee County. She has now advanced in training beyond a nurse to become a physician assistant or nurse practitioner. Emmy is officially adopted now and will return with June to Lee County.
On TV, Demon sees TV news of homeless people (in the city) cold and looking for somewhere to sleep at a bus station. He observes they have no apples or other fruit trees from which to eat.
In the night, Emmy comes to Demon crying. She saw some news story about a family that was murdered and a little boy abandoned. She feels lucky to have been adopted. Demon tells Emmy it's hard to be in foster care. He notices she's wearing the bracelet he bought her way back when. He tells Emmy he can't drown because he was born in a sac. She tells him his claim is just a superstition, not factual. [Not sure if author is making the observation that everyone notices and is sad when a cute baby is abandoned, but meanwhile there are thousands of older kids in foster care that no one seems to worry about.]
Emmy touches his head. He's surprised at her touch, surprised to be touched by anyone. He tells her being in foster care is worse than having a dead mother. She express sympathy for him.
NINETEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN PLOT SUMMARY
In Knoxville, June takes them to a skate park. Demon can't believe the skill of the skaters. He's only seen skating before on TV, which seemed pretend, because skateboarding is always in cities. June gives him a little extra food at each meal.
He dreads Christmas morning. Gifts are piled in front of Aunt June's tree. It's awkward because there are apparently presents for everyone but maybe not for Demon. It's not clear but Demon believes he wasn't invited to June's house. Not sure if June invited him against the Peggot's wishes or if the Peggots invited him against June's wishes.
He complains that the tree is fake and small. In the country it is easy to get a real tree, but in the city, in Knoxville, it's not so easy. In the country there are free Christmas trees. Demon and Maggot are asleep under the fake Christmas tree, next to the presents. Emmy sneaks in and touches Demon's back. Maggot is asleep or pretends to be asleep. Every night thereafter, she sneaks in and Emmy and Demon talk. He tells her he was scared of bathtubs as a kid because his dad died in a place called Devil's Bathtub.
Emmy reveals she's scared of moving from Knoxville to Lee County. Demon has a hard time understanding, because he thinks the country is easily better, more space, more trees, more freedom from adults. Demon tells Emmy about lightning bugs. He thinks she is missing out from never having seen one. There's a disconnect because he loves the country but that's also where all his problems (his mom dying, Stoner, drug addiction) took place.
In time Emmy and Demon talk about darker topics like Demon's dead younger brother. Emmy tells Demon about her birthmother, a girlfriend of Humvee (June's brother), who was killed. Emmy explains to Demon that Humvee died in a hunting accident. He had gone hunting with several men with alcohol and shotguns. Humvee was accidentally shot but it wasn't clear how it happened. The men were inebriated.
Emmy's birthmom was made single by Humvee's death. Emmy's birthmom fell apart. Emmy got help from the Peggot family but then Mariah (June's sister) went to jail, and the Peggot family had to take care of Maggot. The Peggot family had taken in other kids as well, including Hammerhead Kelly, a cousin of Emmy's.
Emmy looks at Demon in the eyes and says he probably wishes Mrs. Peggot was his real mom, then the Peggot family would have to adopt Demon. Demon looks at her closely, it's the first time he's seen someone that close up. She has freckles and a small eyebrow scar from a cat. Emmy expresses her own life is messed up, too, which surprises Demon given that she is at least adopted by Aunt June. They consider how much work the Peggot family put in to take care of Emmy and Maggot, and then to put June and Emmy in the nearby trailer, while June finished nursing school (the same trailer Demon is raised in by his mom, once June got her nursing job in Knoxville).
Emmy's real biological mom was still around, a druggie, homeless, and would occasionally show up at the Peggot house and demand to see Emmy. The Peggot family kept quiet about June and Emmy being in Tennessee, to make it hard for Emmy's biological mom to find her. Eventually, Emmy's biological mom had agreed to sign Emmy over to June for adoption. Emmy says she has all the mom she needs in Aunt June, and has no reason to ever see again her biological mom.
Demon feels he's falling in love with Emmy. She's beautiful. She's more of a grown person. He tries to impress her, by telling her his friends like his cartoons. Maggot says also that Fast Forward really likes Demon, as if that's a feather in Demon's cap. Emmy wants to meet Fast. Demon starts to have sexual feelings towards Emmy. Emmy asks Demon if he wants to go to second base, but he's not sure what that means. She puts Demon's hands on her breasts. It's mind-blowing to him. Demon tells Emmy he loves her. He pictures them together in Lee County, taking walks in the woods.
Mrs. Gummidge is invited up for Christmas breakfast. This is the lady who lives downstairs from June and Emmy, and who has watched Emmy before during the day. Mrs. Gummidge is a sad person. She complains about being sickly, and complains about her two cats also being sickly. Mrs. Gummidge is a total "downer." She has varicose veins. During breakfast, Mrs. Gummidge continues to complain about her difficult life.
It's time for presents. Demon is surprised there are gifts both for him and for Mrs. Gummidge. Mrs. Gummidge gets a bathrobe. Demon gets socks, Pokemon cards, and other gifts he assumes were for other people originally. Aunt June gives Demon some nice drawing markers and a book with panel dividers for comic strips. He loves his present and is encouraged to start drawing again.
When it's time to go, Emmy starts crying and asks Demon to wait for her, to not get another girlfriend.
Demon and Maggot return with the Peggots to the Peggot house. Demon works up the courage to ask Mrs. Peggot if they intend to adopt him. She says she and Mr. Peggot had already considered it and had decided they couldn't take him on in any official way. Demon is embarrassed for having asked. Mrs. Peggot says Demon will always be welcome but they are too old to take him on. Besides, Mariah (Maggot's mom) would get out of jail in two years and would come and get Maggot and move somewhere else. Demon begs. Mrs. Peggot says it will be better for Demon to find a more permanent placement while he's younger.
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If you are liking this post, please check out this original novel by my friend Ellie James, a writer from Salt Lake City, Utah. The novel is for sale on Amazon.com
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TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY PLOT SUMMARY
Demon feels like his own person after learning the Peggot family won't adopt him. Ms. Barks tells him he will be placed with another foster family. This is around the beginning of a new year. This is the McCobb family that will take him now. Parents plus four kids (two are babies, two others are also young children). The family is broke and stressed over money. Mr. McCobb has work but the family runs out of cash every month.
Demon relates to the family because he himself has always been a charity case, accepting charity backpacks of food from school on Fridays, to help get food through the weekend. He feels bad for the McCobb kids being teased for not having nice things.
The McCobb family takes in Demon as foster kid, to supplement their meager income. Previously Mr. McCobb has sold Amway, been a dog breeder, sperm donor, etc. The government pays about $500 per month to the foster family per foster kid. Of course, Demon has to eat, so the foster family can't really "net" $500 per month. McCobb offers that the room is free but he wants Demon to pay something towards the food. The bedroom is actually a dog bedroom, which is an old washer and dryer room. They call this room the "annex."
Demon says the bedroom is fine but he doesn't have a way to pay for his meals. The house is noisy. The babies are being fed and the older kids are screaming. Demon lives primarily on the main floor with the others are upstairs a fair amount of the time. Mrs. McCobb refers to having recently had nice bedroom furniture, before the furniture was repossessed.
Mr. McCobb suggests Demon get a job after school to help pay for his food, but Demon says he's only 11, so it will be hard to find work. Mr. McCobb suggests Demon can in fact find a job. McCobb was formerly in the military and still dresses that way. He acts like an expert on various topics.
Demon now remembers that year mostly as a year when he was hungry. He was constantly thinking about food. When they did eat, there was never enough food. The adults get larger portions of food and the kids get smaller portions. Demon is bigger than the kids, so he feels he is entitled to a larger portion. Demon no longer gets charity food from school on the weekends, given that he now has a foster family.
Demon doesn't see Maggot as much at school because their home rooms at school have been rearranged. Demon lies to Maggot that he loves his foster home. He lies about having a dog. Demon stands near the garbage can in the lunch room and grabs leftover food that others are throwing away. He dreams about food he's so hungry. Demon complains to his social worker Ms. Barks that there's not enough food to eat at home, but the McCobb family lies and says they feed him plenty. Ms. Barks is not terribly helpful and says he needs to ask for seconds or to be more pushy.
Mrs. McCobb takes Demon in the car around to pawn shops to pawn off for cash. Mrs. McCobb pawns off a lot of nice baby toys and equipment. Her parents do not favor Mr. McCobb, but they do give a lot of things to the kids, which she in turn can pawn off. They drive all over to various pawn shops. Mrs. McCobb sends Demon into the stores, as she is already well known to the shop owners. Damon finds it awkward to play this role. She complains to Demon about Mr. McCobb and out of the blue states she would NEVER divorce her husband.
At night, Demon draws pictures of food, roast chickens, pork chops, mashed potatoes, and gravy, Damon finds girls at school and stares at their lunches and is jealous of how much care their parents have put into their lunches. He raids snacks at night in the kitchen but he never finishes a sack of treats, to avoid getting caught. Mrs. McCobb finds out and moves the snacks to a new location so that Demon can't find them anymore.
One of the McCobb kids, Hailey, is helpful to Demon and talks to him. She watches Demon draw. At Hailey's request, Demon draws pictures of dogs. Hailey tells him her parents fight a lot. Hailey tells Demon she has her own snacks in her bedroom. She offers to bring Demon some. Demon realizes there's a camera monitor in the wash room near his bedroom, which is probably how he got caught eating extra snacks previously.
TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE PLOT SUMMARY
Mr. McCobb gets Demon a job at Golly's Market, owned by Mr. Golly, from overseas, with an accent. Demon is to ride the bus after school to work, after which Mrs. McCobb will pick him up. A good part of the job is Demon is allowed to eat leftover hot dogs and other foods at the market. Demon assumes at first he will be selling goods likes donuts and cigarettes at the market. But he finds out his real job is in back, behind the market. His job is a "hell on earth."
The job is to pick through piles of trash, to sort our recyclable goods (cans, bottles, etc.) from trash. Demon is surprised that Swap-Out is working at the same place. Swap-Out remembers Demon's squadron name, "Diamond." Swap-Out has dropped out of school. Their boss is a man named Ghost, who happens to be a friend of Stoner's; pale guy with face tattoos.
Demon sorts through diapers, shit, rats, to find things that can be recycled. They smash cans and wash out bottles. Ghost is excited that Demon is smarter than most of his workers. Ghost shows Demon how to drain battery acid from a used car battery. Ghost, inside his office, is always coming out with weird smells and leftover toxins on his person. Demon works until about 9 p.m., then he goes into the market and eats leftover food. Then Mrs. Cobb picks him up. Demon observes a lot of Sudafed from the store goes missing.
The customers at the shop are poor and sickly. They leave their trash in back and engage in some type of transaction in back or the bathroom (suggestion that meth is being made and sold). The customers buy unhealthy foods. Demon figures he must be trash since he works at such a store that attracts such trash. He claims he was not trash when he was younger. He describes fifth grade as a year of transition, when kids get taller and bigger and stronger, with fists. He notices the popular girls doing their eyebrows, doing their hair, and writing notes to each other.
The desks the kids use in fifth grade are old and handed down through the ages. He loves doodling on the desks for the amusement of future generations. Demon is in detention. The girls are passing around "slam books," which are a way the kids use to keep track of gossip about the other kids (think of Mean Girls film). Popular, cute, hunk, too square, etc. He realizes he is described by other students as asshole, shit eater, loser, trash, jerk-off.
He is identified in school now as a poor hillbilly. His clothes don't fit. His jeans are too short. His hair needs to be trimmed. People tease him about being poor and hungry. He begins to associate with other kids like himself.
One of these days, he loses his temper and punches the dashboard in Mrs. McCobb's car. He tells her about being shunned and teased about his clothes and his smell. Mrs. McCobb takes him to Wal-Mart on Sunday and buys him some new clothes and a toothbrush.
On the bus he has friends who protect him. He pretends to be older, in eighth grade. He tells them he's a friend with Fast Forward. One of the other kids suggests that Demon would make a good tackle or a tight end. The kids talk about girls, drugs, and so on.
Ms. Barks is of no help. She bugs him about improving his grades. Demon at times wishes he was still on Crickson's farm, with Fast Forward.
Notes: Demon observes in this chapter that trash gets thrown out, given to landfill or other places where garbage is stored, and then that garbage is at times claimed by others and used by them, so that trash has a long life of its own. This is a metaphor for how he himself is passed around at various foster situations. Virginia has a barter economy and foster kids can, in a sense, be part of that--a kid is given to a family in exchange for that family getting cash from the government, either through IRS tax relief or through some kind of direct payment from social security.
TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO PLOT SUMMARY
Ms. Barks picks Demon up with "big news." She takes him to a nice Mexican restaurant. She drives him around a bunch of coal camps towards the Kentucky line. They listen to the radio and sing songs out loud. Ms. Barks says she's never felt so free as when behind the wheel of a car.
Ms. Barks tells Demon he has inherited money. This is because he's an orphan of his mother, related to her work at Wal-Mart. The money will go into an account for Demon. Ms. Barks encourages him to use the money to go to college. Demon wonders if he is entitled to any money related to his father's death. But Ms. Barks says the answer is "no" because his name (father's name) is not listed on the death certificate. Demon contends that he even knows where his father is buried (Murder Valley) but Ms. Barks says that doesn't make a difference as far as inheriting anything from his dad.
Demon considers it a huge mistake that his mother didn't list his father's name on the birth certificate.
Demon is blown away by the Mexican restaurant. Now Ms. Barks says she has bad news. She's going to change careers to being an elementary school teacher; she will no longer be Demon's case worker. Ms. Barks drops him off at the McCobb home. Demon is upset and punches the washing machine. He then lies down in bed and cries.
Demon, looking back, considers that he didn't understand money at an early age. He had assumed that anyone with a job was doing relatively well. Now, at his more advanced age as narrator, he understands that going to high school as opposed to college college puts you in line for different types of jobs. He considers the "totem pole" of paychecks -- willingness to go to college and to live in a city are things that get you up higher on the totem pole. He understands now also that if you are doing a job on behalf of rich people or middle-class people, your pay will be better than if you are looking after "low lifes" or kids. For example, school teachers don't do well because they are taking care of kids. And even worse, Ms. Barks is paid worse than a school teacher! Those case workers responsible for Demon and other foster kids are woefully paid.
TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE PLOT SUMMARY
Demon is looking forward to summertime. He's still working at Golly's. He recollects that he used to be good at school when he was younger, particularly he was a good reader and he thought it made his mom proud. Now it seems impractical to work hard at school. The teachers and Ms. Barks are encouraging him to try harder and fulfill his potential. What he considers "hard work" is just the suffering of regular life -- people looking at him funny, girls not being interested in him, being poor and hungry. In other words, he is "working hard" through regular suffering.
Mr. McCobb drops Demon off to work early at 9 a.m. on a weekday. Swap-Out is smoking a cigarette with one hand while taking a leak with the other hand. He realizes he's in a bad situation. He feels like, in school, even though he didn't like it, there was a sense of forward progress from all the tests and going grade-to-grade. Now, at Golly's, he feels like he has fallen off the elevator, so to speak, no more progress or measurement.
Their job (Swap-Out and Demon) is to pile a bunch of crap into a dumpster. They have to crush and smash all the crap to get it to fit into the dumpster. The full dumpster is taken away, then it comes back empty. There's a sense that nothing changes or gets better.
The McCobb's car has been repossessed. Mr. McCobb can't get to work now, and has lost his job. Demon observes it doesn't make sense for a company to repo your car when you owe them money, because then you are guaranteed not to have any money to pay the company back. The McCobb family is in chaos, trying to figure out odd jobs to stay afloat, considering also moving to Ohio.
Ghost is giving Demon rides to work and back now. Swap-Out has a Glock and he and Demon practice target shooting. Swap-Out is a good shot. They like to shoot at aerosol cans, because they explode. Late at work, Mr. Golly tells Demon about growing up in India, in poverty. Ghali is the correct spelling of the name, not Golly.
Ms. Barks is no longer Demon's case worker. His case worker is an older woman he calls Baggy Eyes. It was she who first greeted him at the hospital after his mom overdosed.
The McCobb parents are still fighting constantly. Mrs. McCobb still tells Demon, out of the blue, she will NEVER divorce Mr. McCobb. Demon learns the McCobb parents are stealing his money that he inherited from his mother's work at Wal-Mart. Demon goes into their bedroom, takes his remaining cash, and breaks a few lamps. Mr. McCobb confides in Demon that he feels like a loser for not taking care of his family. Mr. McCobb gives him life advice, such as to not spend more money than you have. It turns out the McCobb family is moving to Ohio to live with Mrs. McCobb's parents.
Around this time, Demon cooks up a scheme to save his money and run away. Demon asks his case worker if he will have to return to Creaky's farm. She tells Demon that Creaky is no longer an eligible foster parent because he was cheating the system financially. His case worker Baggy tells Demon that the Peggot family invited him to stay for a few days. Baggy is trying to find a new long-term placement for Demon. Demon says goodbye to the McCobb family. He finishes his shift at the market.
Demon walks down the road and hitchhikes away from there. A man in a pickup with two dogs picks him up. Demon tells him he wants to go to Murder Valley, Tennessee (where Demon's father is from or died or spent time).
Notes: Here we continue the theme about how a car represents a type of freedom. The McCobb family loses their car and the dad loses his job. On the other hand, Ghost has a truck and can drive Demon to and from work. And then at the end, Demon hitch hikes away in a truck. Is the point that the blessed ideals of freedom and liberty and such are not as important as the more practical idea of having a job and a car? We continue also the theme of garbage being moved around, idea of life being futile in a sense, people make garbage, then it gets moved around. Idea of bartering, trading one piece of trash for another. At the same time, Demon is being handed around the system himself, as if he's a piece of garbage.
TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR PLOT SUMMARY
The guy in the pick-up truck is a preacher. He preaches at a small church in "Carter's Valley." The preacher feels close to God while fishing. The preacher asks Demon who lives in Murder Valley, and Demon remembers Betsy Woodall is the name of his father's mother. Betsy is the woman who was present at Demon's birth.
The preacher gives Demon tips on fishing, even though Demon has already learned a great deal about fishing from Mr. Peggot. The preacher drops him off at a truck stop. A stripper or whore approaches him and asks if he has drugs or needs sex. Demon says he doesn't have any drugs but she follows him. Demon goes into the gas mart. The woman follows him inside. Demon goes into the men's room, into the stall. Some men in the adjacent stall or just outside of it are smoking meth. Demon reaches into his backpack to get out the money (in a jar) he had saved from working at Golly's.
He's still counting his money inside the stall. The hooker from outside has followed him into the men's room. She peeks over the edge of the stall. Demon runs out of the stall and the bathroom. The woman chases him out and accuses him of stealing her money. The cashier intervenes and prevents Demon from leaving. Demon insists the money is his. The woman claims her coins were in a peanut butter jar (Jif). The other cashier eventually grabs his backpack and pulls out the peanut butter jar. The coins and bills are handed over to the woman. No one comes to Demon's aid. We see that a lying whore is higher on the social scale than a child.
He hitch hikes away from the truck stop, towards where he believes his grandmother lives.
TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE PLOT SUMMARY
A long-haul trucker picks him up and takes him into Tennessee, clear to Nashville. He now hitch hikes with a girl using a sign "Unicoy [County]" which is where his dad's grave is. The girl mistakes his sign for "Unicorn." She talks non-stop about unicorns. She lets him off. Demon is hungry. The rain starts. He sleeps between a dumpster and a cement wall behind a gas station.
Demon recalls that Mr. Golly was from the untouchable class in India. Demon wonders if America has a similar class that doesn't have a name.
Demon hitch hikes several more times to get to Unicoy County. He walks all afternoon and evening. He ties a garbage sack around his shoe, to sturdy the sole from falling off. He sleeps in a barn, on hay.
The next day is Sunday. He realizes he's in Murder Valley. He asks around to find Betsy Woodall (his father's mother). Some men at a feed store know who she is. Demon says he's her kin. The man says Demon looks related because of his red hair. They direct him a ways towards a two-story yellow house.
A tall woman is weeding in the front yard. The yard is fenced and tidy. She's tan and dark and hard-looking, wearing a man's hat. Initially, she chases him off, yelling "no boys here." He tells her he's her grandson. She looks him over and says only, "Oh Lord."
[Notes: at this point the reader has never met Demon's father, but Demon's grandmother has dark skin and is probably Melungeon. So we have a better sense that perhaps Demon is tall and lanky with dark skin to go along with his red hair.]
TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX PLOT SUMMARY
Demon's grandmother has no use for men. Her parlor, full of furniture, smells of old people and cigarette smoke. She looks Demon over, while fanning herself with a fan. The room is crowded with clocks and knick-knacks. "What are we going to do with you?" she keeps asking. Her voice sounds like a man's voice, from smoking. She returns with a plate of sandwiches. She tells Demon he looks exactly like his father.
She says it was as if her own son came back to her from the dead. She doesn't like how men/boys stand up to take a piss.
"Church was his trouble," Betsy says, about Demon's father. First, they handled snakes at church. But it was worse than that, with men wanting to return to Old Testament customs: wanting to marry young girls, and using their daughters as slave labor. She reminds Demon that he didn't know his father, because his father died before he was born.
Demon's father was also crazy about cars. She finds cars to be dangerous. She reports she has not driven or owned a car since 1961. Demon says he, too, loves cars. Her groceries are delivered, or she walks, or one of her girls runs the errands for her. She has raised 11 girls now in her home, as a foster mom. Demon realizes the story his mom told (about Betsy visiting after his birth) was true. Demon surmises that had he been born a girl, he likely would have been raised by Betsy.
Betsy asks Demon if she needs to make any phone calls to inform folks where Demon is. She wants to avoid having the police show up. Presumably she calls social services to inform them where Demon is. Demon tells his grandmother about Stoner and foster care.
He characterizes himself as a hard-working person. Betsy says, "that poor girl," and she is referring to Demon's mom. He's still upset at his mom for dying. Betsy seems upset at Demon's dad for dying and leaving Demon with only his mom. Betsy wears a man's large round watch. A grey cat comes out from under a cabinet.
Betsy announces it's time to meet a guy named "Dick." She returns with a wheelchair carrying a little man. He's small as a child but old and grey, with a Melungeon look. He is frail and twisted. Dick is Demon's great-uncle.
Dick has a twinkle in his eye as he looks at Demon, a suggestion that as men they will need to team up in the Woodall household, which doesn't prefer men. Dick suggests to Betsy she run Demon a bath. Dick looks Demon over and seems to comprehend his difficult past. Dick has a difficult time speaking. He notices Demon needs new shoes. Betsy shows Demon the bathroom. Betsy says someone named James will round up some clothes for him.
Demon's astonished that he, in fact, has his own kin. It's such a big part of his identity to be alone. But these people look like him, and they have money and furniture. After his bath, he dresses and goes to dinner. Jane Ellen and Betsy Woodall have made dinner. Jane has dark hair, is plump, and has a gap in her front teeth. The table is covered with tons of food.
Jane is the eleventh girl Betsy has raised. High school age. The dinner is chicken, potatoes, and green beans. Dick drinks the food ground up into a shake. Betsy asks him, "Do you return the blessing?" Dick says, "We don't," and laughs.
Betsy seems interested in learning more about why Demon's mother chose to be with a loser like Stoner. It appears to Demon that both Betsy and Jane have had their own encounters with abusive men.
After dinner, Betsy and Dick smoke cigarettes. Dick has tiny, white, clean fingers. Demon is given a bedroom with a large four-poster bed. The doors have the old-fashioned keys and keyholes. At bedtime, Betsy closes the door and locks Demon in. Demon is grateful for a full belly and not to be rained on.
TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN PLOT SUMMARY
Betsy wants Demon to spend time with Mr. Dick. Dick had been bullied as a boy. Betsy had protected him. Their father put him in a home, until eventually Betsy took him out of the home once the other family members died.
Demon goes into Dick's room and Dick doesn't notice him because he's so involved in reading. There's a kite on the desk, tons of books and furniture in the room. It's hard to tell what Dick is saying, on account of something wrong with his voicebox.
Dick remembers Demon's father as a teenager. Demon has a hard time picturing his dad in this same house decades ago. Mr. Dick said Demon's father moved out at age 16 on account of not getting along with his own father. After Demon's father ran off, Betsy started taking in girls into the home. She had decided already she didn't like men/boys on account of all the boys who teased Dick as a boy.
A lot of the girls who leave the house leave when they get married.
Demon finds Dick one morning writing on the kite on the desk. Dick has neat, fine handwriting. He writes all these quotes on the kite from a book he is reading. Often after reading a book, Dick wants to "thank" the author by writing phrases on a kite and flying it. This particular book/play was by Shakespeare.
Betsy is determined that Demon return to school and succeed. Jane Ellen (the girl Betsy is raising now) is actively participating in school. Betsy begins wondering about placing Demon in a home with someone familiar to her. She wants Demon to stay in Virginia for legal reasons. The idea is the placement will be probationary at first -- he must get along with the family for 90 days. She identifies a potential placement who is a school teacher and a sports coach. Winfield.
Demon realizes the proposed placement is the head football coach for the Lehigh Generals. He's very excited and relieved that this is the proposed placement.
Betsy takes Demon to the cemetery where his father is buried.
Betsy gives him clothes and a suitcase. Before leaving, Demon goes outside with Mr. Dick and flies the kite. Dick adds more words to the kite. Demon is touched by the words. Demon pushes Dick in the wheelchair through the hay field to get lift on the kite. The kite takes flight. Demon holds onto the string and hands the string to Mr. Dick. Mr. Dick holds onto the kite string. The kite pulls and blows in the air. It's a sight to behold and Mr. Dick doesn't look fragile and disabled at that moment.
Jane Ellen drives Demon to a parking lot where he'll meet Mr. Winfield.
TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT PLOT SUMMARY
Demon and Jane Ellen wait in a parking lot to meet Demon's new foster. Jane Ellen does homework while they wait. Demon is impressed she can use her spare time effectively. Demon wants to got home but realizes he has no home.
A car pulls up in the parking lot. A man gets out of the car -- skinny fair-skinned redhead with bony knees. No eyebrows, slimy looking. He's driving a Mustang with a trailer hitch. They call him the snake man. The man says Coach Winfield is tied up at practice and sent him in his place. Ryan Piles aka U-Haul. His name is U-Haul because he hauls around the football equipment like pads and helmets.
Jane Ellen makes U-Haul call the school to have someone verify that U-Haul is the right person for them to go with. He is.
Coach Winfield lives in a huge mansion, lots of extra windows. Demon feels nervous about going into such a large home. Inside the home there are boxes of cleats and other athletic equipment everywhere. An exercise bike out in the open. A huge fireplace chimney, a huge chandelier. Extra sunglasses and dip. A large interior staircase with a bannister. U-Haul excuses himself.
On the mantle is a photo of a young lady with 80's hair. Suddenly this same person appears in the room but it's a boy with a weird haircut and Doc Martens and a leather jacket. This person looks soft and also scary. He introduces himself as Angus, like the cattle. Coach Winfield is Angus' father. Demon is surprised that Angus does not play on the JV football team.
Coach Winfield comes down the stairs, making a lot of noise. Winfield is big and loud, red ballcap, big black eyebrows. Coach looks Demon over and says Demon looks like a linebacker. Demon is delighted by this comparison.
They eat a small table in the kitchen, with a maid Mattie Kate bringing out the food. No blessing on the food. Angus and Coach leave their hats on during the meal. Demon dives into his lasagna. He realizes there are farms nearby and he's grateful he doesn't have to work on the farm. Demon has the idea that as a young person, having a large body may not be ideal, because it makes it easier for adults to put you to work.
Coach's teeth are too big for his mouth. They make small talk. Demon still can't believe that Angus doesn't play on the JV team. Coach asks Angus to show Demon to his room. Demon's room is huge, walls painted green, three large windows, the "round part of the castle." Out the windows are huge hayfields. It was the best room and best house Demon has ever been in. But Angus says the house is too big for him and his dad. Angus has sad eyes. Angus suggests that Coach will ask Demon to eat a lot to bulk him up for football.
Demon says Betsy Woodall is his grandmother. Angus says she visited Betsy with her mom. Presumably the mom is dead now, so Angus' mom is one of the girls raised by Betsy. Angus brings towels for Demon. Now Angus is ready for bed. Angus has curly moppy blonde hair and a skinny waist. Demon finally realizes Angus is a girl. Demon realizes the dumb things he said to Angus, like asking Angus if she was on the football team.
Notes: Demon goes to a new situation with a football coach in a giant mansion. He's surprised at all the clutter in the house. Angus seems sad and Angus suggests she doesn't see her father much. We begin to see Demon realizing that money would not necessarily solve all of his problems. Rich people are perhaps distracted and wasteful. We also see more of the idea that a person's body in Appalachia is a commodity -- a large boy can play football for example, or can be made to work on a farm.
TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE PLOT SUMMARY
Demon feels like he's getting a "do-over" like Stoner got. It seems unfair to Demon's mom that Demon be in a new house, a new school, when his mom didn't get her own do-over.
Jonesville Middle School is where he's in school now. Sixth grade. People look at him like they are scared of him. Demon is behind in school, but he has a lot of street smarts. For instance, the other kids don't have a sense of how important money is. Demon knows the difference in hours of work between a 1-dollar-bill and a 10-dollar-bill. He doesn't want to be naive like these kids, but he also doesn't like sticking out.
Angus takes Demon shopping on the weekend. She says his clothing style is bad. He is worried he would need to pay for everything, but doesn't have the money. She takes him to Wal-Mart and piles the grocery cart full of food and clothing. He pretends like he doesn't need anything; again, he's worried he will need to pay for everything. Angus tells him directly his style needs improvement. He finally tells her he doesn't have any money. She reassures him that she'll buy everything with a credit card. "Meet the master," she says, with reference to the card.
U-Haul drives Angus and Demon around all day, and they use the credit card to buy things everywhere. At a Hardee's, their meal is free because they are associated with the football coach. They play a game where each calls out the name of a cool car they see. U-Haul and Angus are both good at the game.
Mattie Kate is the name of the maid/housekeeper. She will sit there and help Demon with his homework. She will keep him organized.
The real assistant football coach is a guy named Briggs, the JV coach. So U-Haul has been lying about himself being assistant football coach.
One night Demon and Angus stay up late in the den and get to know each other better. Popcorn fights, throwing M&M's at each other. Angus helps Mattie Kate take care of the house. One rule is to always get your homework done. Angus and Mattie Kate seem to represent nurturing and consistency, traits Demon has not seen enough of in his life so far.
THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY PLOT SUMMARY
Demon observes there are a lot of big kids in school now. People are bigger and stronger than he is. People are nice to him now, now that they know he lives with Coach. Demon gets to help out at Saturday practice. He can't believe how lucky he is to be associated with the football team. He notices Coach is very attentive and observant during football practice, even though he's mostly absent at home.
After practice one day, Coach throws the ball around with Demon. Demon can see why Coach is so effective as Coach. He's inspiring. He notices everything. Demon learns that Coach dated and married one of the girls raised by Betsy Woodall. This is Angus' mom, of course. They met in college where Coach played football for one year before being injured. Presumably this is the person whose photograph is on the mantle in the main room at home.
Demon's 7th and 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Armstrong, is also a guidance counselor. Demon is put with the kids who aren't very sharp. He hangs out with kids with full-blown sideburns and girls with big racks. They are on track to attend vocational classes like auto repair. Mr. Armstrong tells Demon he is "resilient." The word means "strong." Armstrong says Demon is a miracle, someone who gets in a bad car wreck and walks away alive. But he's not "lucky" because a "lucky" person doesn't get in a wreck in the first place. This is the first instance of Demon being told this important word that will define his character for the audience more than any other trait.
Armstrong says school doesn't measure everything a person knows. Armstrong has northern accent, heavy glasses, button shirt, black skin, shiny metal wedding ring. Armstrong learns Demon likes to draw. Armstrong wants to see some of Demon's pictures. In a few days, Demon brings Armstrong some of his hero drawings. Armstrong studies the drawings closely. More assessments, more tests. Spatial awareness tests, IQ tests, etc. Demon is identified as gifted and talented.
In math class, a guy named Fishhead asks Demon to draw pictures of pussies. Demon charges his friends money for pictures he draws. A friend gives Demon a Playboy. He keeps it overnight to study the female anatomy, to help with his drawing skills.
Demon observes that Angus is easy to hang out with, and isn't into drama. Angus and Demon rake leaves outside, filling bags overfull. Demon wants to set the leaves on fire, but Angus won't do it. Angus complains about her girlfriends Donna and McKayla, who are both dramatic.
It's later in the fall, the football team is undefeated. Coach is more and more occupied with football. At home he studies football film. Coach doesn't know much about what's going on with Angus and Demon. Angus reveals she has also been identified as gifted and talented. Angus has a special talent for predicting what different characters will do in a movie. She points out how country kids in a film will always be the stupid ones; a political statement by the author.
Her real name is Agnes, not Angus. Agnes tells Demon that Coach's teeth are dentures; his teeth were knocked out as a kid in football game. Demon observes Agnes is peaceful, chill, while Coach is a storm in a shot glass. Agnes used to be involved in going to all the practices and such, but as she got older, her dad didn't want her around.
THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE PLOT SUMMARY
The Peggots track Demon down in Jonesville; call him on the phone. Demon gets choked up talking to Mrs. Peggot on the phone. U-Haul drives Demon over to the Peggot's house, where Demon stays for dinner. Maggot looks different, eye makeup and earrings in his lip.
The Peggots tell Demon that a few weeks after he was born, his grandmother (dad's mom Betsy Woodall) came to visit. A small man (Mr. Dick) was riding in the car. A younger woman was driving the car (presumably one of the girls being raised by Betsy Woodall). Betsy came to check on her son's son. Demon is surprised his mom kept from him the knowledge of having a grandmother (on his father's side).
Demon hangs out with Maggot for a while. Demon tells Maggot he is living in a "castle house." Maggot has dyed black hair with a jagged, layered cut. Demon feels like there's a distance between him and Maggot that can no longer be bridged.
Maggot's mom is still in jail. Remember she's the one who used violent force to defend herself against her loser husband.
At dinner, the family talks about June. She lives in a dome-shaped house. June Peggot and Emmy Peggot live there. Aunt June has a boyfriend named Kent who is a drug sales rep. They go to visit June's house. Maggot and Demon talk to Emmy. Emmy dislikes Kent -- he barks like a seal when he and June are "doing the nasty." Emmy seems a lot older, she dresses like Madonna or something. Very worldly.
Emmy is friends with Hammerhead Kelly (cousin of Maggot in some way). Possibly they are dating. Emmy, Demon, and Maggot all wonder why June is dating a loser like Kent. They assume he must have something to offer, and Emmy suggests it's because he has access to so many pills. They talk about how doctors who prescribe the most drugs can get a free Hawaiian vacation from the drug manufacturer, but June doesn't qualify for the free vacation because she is dating Kent so there's a financial conflict of interest. June says Lee County is a terrible place to practice medicine, so many people needing healthcare, and so many forms to fill out, for example Medicaid paperwork. June has said that most of the doctors have moved to the cities to make more money.
Demon, Emmy, and Maggot are all in Emmy's room and somewhere else in the house Kent is explaining to everyone the products he sells. The kids can overhear Kent doing his spiel. He explains that pain is the "fifth vital sign" and that "doctors know better." He talks about the creation of the pain score scale and how it works to ask the patient to rate her pain. "Pain is a fact." June tells her father he has nothing to worry about as far as getting addicted to the pain medicine he's on. "Our mission is to take each patient to zero on that scale." The pain medicine is long acting and will help you sleep.
Kent is a "Burt Reynolds type." Mustache, fancy shoes, dark hair combover on a shiny head. As he leaves Mrs. Peggot threatens that if he comes by their house, she'll throw out all the pills.
Notes: Here the author gets into some of the factual nuts and bolts of the opioid epidemic. Rural areas don't have as many primary care providers as cities; cities pay better so doctors move there. And primary care providers don't make as much as specialists like surgeons. The primary care doctors left behind in rural areas have too many patients and don't have the capacity to spend time with each patient. This creates a tendency perhaps to rely on prescription drugs to treat pain without and individualized assessment of each situation/patient. Pharmaceutical companies like Purdue/Sackler developed or marketed the pain scale as part of an effort to increase the sale of opioids to patients. Hospitals and doctors started using the pain scale in the 1990s. Oxycontin and other drugs were advertised as being non-addictive around-the-clock painkillers. Many patients came to rely on such drugs and became ultimately addicted.
THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO PLOT SUMMARY
Demon starts worrying about what Christmas will be like with Coach and Angus/Agnes. Angus and Demon are up on the roof cleaning the gutters. Angus says Christmas isn't a big deal for them. Plus her mom died right around Christmas so it always bummed out Coach. Demon points out that the 4th of July is a bummer holiday for him, on account of his dad dying that day. And then his mom died on his own birthday. Angus says Demon is the winner of the grief competition. Demon compares his mom's memory to carrying around a bag of gravel year round. He doesn't mind when someone brings up her death; at least someone is "helping carry the gravel" by doing that.
Angus says she doesn't remember her mom very well. She compares her mom's memory to a jewel or a ring or something. She didn't know her mom but once in a while someone will tell her how great her mom was. So her mom is sort of like a mystery jewel she carries around, that only reveals itself once in a while.
Demon has some weed from some of the superhero pictures he drew and sold. Angus isn't interested in weed. Demon observes she is without the best things in life: without weed, without Christmas, without a mom. Demon tells her how great presents are for Christmas. Demon really tries to sell Angus on how great Christmas is. She agrees they will do Christmas.
They steal a tree from Creaky's farm but they have nothing to decorate it with. Demon has a lot of stored-up anger about working for Creaky, the constant tension, the hard work.
Angus and Demon put spoons, CD's, pretzels, earrings on the tree. They buy each other gifts and watch Christmas movies on TV. Around the 23rd of December they get super excited and run down to open the presents, while Coach is still asleep. Angus has gotten Demon some comics. Angus also buys him a silver Member's Only jacket. And one of those boats inside a bottle -- she said it was to encourage him on his dream to go to the ocean, and also to encourage him to overcome the odds stacked against him -- he could do something impossible, like building a boat in a bottle.
Demon has used some money from selling his drawings to buy an interesting hat from a pawn shop for Angus -- black velvet with a veil, like Victorian or Steampunk. He also got her some old books like what to do in an emergency-type books. He also has drawn a portrait of her as a superhero and put it in a frame from the pawn shop. Black Leather Angel. Grey eyes staring down evil. Superpower of reading your mind and making you talk. She loves the gift. She carries it around the house in the frame.
Christmas is enjoyable. Demon realizes he's grateful for where he is now.
A few days after Christmas, Coach has a gift for Demon. Demon goes into Coach's office. Coach tells Demon that "he's got something." Coach tells Demon he would make a great tight end. Size, speed, and the ability to commit. Coach tells Demon that a great team is "made of followers." Coach suggests that Demon, once in 7th grade, can try out with the JV team.
THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE PLOT SUMMARY
Demon thinks of his "golden times," running barefoot in the creek and then running through the Peggot's house. 7th and 8th grade are another "golden time," as he is given a new identity and people don't know him as a poor, hillbilly loser. Demon should have been happy in such a time, but instead he's waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Demon talks about how U-Haul is always wandering around the house at night after Coach has gone to bed. One night U-Haul summons Demon into the office to look at the play book. U-Haul closes the office door. U-Haul accuses Demon of thinking he's "hot shit." U-Haul is upset that Demon has wormed his way into Coach's home. U-Haul's been helping Coach for 11 years and he goes home at night. But Demon automatically gets the privilege of living with Coach.
U-Haul warns Demon that he's not really part of the family. That something is going to surprise him and take him down.
Demon is interested in Mr. Armstrong's English teaching. Armstrong is good at relating to kids. Armstrong is from Chicago. He came to the rural area as part of a special program to help rural kids. His wife, too. Armstrong loves bluegrass music. Armstrong's wife is a white art teacher, kind of a hippy type. Her name is Ms. Annie. Mr. Armstrong has shown Annie some of Demon's art. Annie asks Demon to describe to her his drawing methods. She volunteers to help him with his art.
Betsy Woodall comes to visit. She brings paperwork to make Coach Demon's official guardian. Betsy checks Demon's report cards. Betsy wants to make sure Demon is doing well in school. Coach pretends that academics are more important than football. Mattie Kate has cleaned the house a lot. Betsy announces Demon is doing well; she suggests he could some day change his last name to Woodall. He prefers carrying the last name of his mother.
Betsy comes to visit every few months, checking in on Demon. Mr. Dick comes on these visits with Betsy. Jane Ellen drives them there. The good part is that Mattie Kate keeps the house cleaner for these visits. The house is less disgusting. Angus invites guy friends over, now that the house is cleaner. Her friend Sax (Sacks?) comes over a lot. Other friends come over--they all seem to love Mr. Dick. They seem to like him because he's not threatening.
Coach is still preparing Demon to be tight end on the football team. Tight end means being fast and strong and reliable. JV Coach Briggs wants Demon to gain weight to be able to make the team next year. They practice tackling/blocking the chutes. "The chutes were my superpower." By fall, he's wearing his football jersey to school (seventh grade), looking forward to being on the real team in 8th grade.
THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR PLOT SUMMARY
A lot of firsts during eighth grade, for Demon. First scrimmage. First JV game. First tackle. First passing yards made. First school dance. First real date. Angus helps him find a white suit at a thrift store for the school dance/date. First trip to the dentist -- Angus tells him not to be a baby. First time carrying a grown man (Coach) up a flight of stairs -- Coach was drunk. Coach's drinking got worse during the off-season.
First time thinking school was interesting. Coach Briggs teaches history, which is boring but easy. Mr. Armstrong teaches language arts. Armstrong asks a lot of questions. One assignment was to find out where his family is from (ancestry) and what kind of job or trade they had. Part of the assignment is to interview old people. Armstrong reveals his own parents thought he was crazy to leave Chicago. Armstrong says the banjo was invented by Africans (Armstrong plays this) and that there used to be a lot of Blacks in Appalachia until eventually the Blacks moved to the cities for jobs.
Armstrong helps them understand the problem with stereotypes including the stereotypes involved with mountaineers and hillbillies. Armstrong expects correct language use including avoiding swearing.
There's an incident where a car comes tearing through the parking lot with a Confederate flag featured prominently on the car. The kids feel awkward and stare at the ground. Armstrong states that the Confederacy was the enemy of the United States during the Civil War. "Flying the U.S. flag and the Confederate flag at the same time makes no sense." They were enemies. One kid mutters that the Confederacy is part of history. Armstrong says it's true that Virginia did join the Confederacy but that the people of Lee County (presumably majority Black at that time or poor white) were not represented in that decision. The kids sympathize with his position partly because they dislike the rich "fat cats" who owned big farms (those who were pro-slavery). Interesting to consider the proposed notion that poor whites and rich whites in the South might have had different opinions regarding slavery.
Armstrong talks about the origin of the word Melungeon. A word invented to allow one group to hate another group. Melungeon meant any kind of mixture of colors such as involving Cherokee, Portuguese, etc. Mr. Dick said that Melungeon meant "mixed up piece of shit." The Melungeons used their category in their own favor. They asked for legal recognition of the term Melungeon so that people who were mixed race could demonstrate they were not Negro, and therefore not excluded from voting. Another hierarchy reference, one group of disadvantaged people placing themselves above another disadvantaged group.
Angus recommends Demon keep a notebook to keep track of all his girlfriends. Demon's hormones are getting active and he has the hunger for touching the other sex. He still has some interest in Emmy but she's in love with Hammer. Demon talks about some of the other kids in eighth grade who play football.
Twice a week after lunch he goes to the high school to spend an hour with Miss Annie in her art room. This is part of his gifted program. One time she lets him draw her portrait. "A small lady in big squishy clothes." She continues to tutor him in art. The time flies by in art class.
Angus is starting a school "sport" for smart kids to compete against other smart kids at other schools. Her friend Sacks (Sax?) is helping. Angus addresses the teachers, the PTA, and the school board regarding her proposal for this activity to start. But the activity will require funding (buses, etc.). But the "gifted kids" category is already covered in the budget, so they deny the request. Angus just digs in and keeps trying. Angus' friend Sacks (Sax?) withdraws from helping her once the going gets tough. Angus keeps going. She gets help from Mr. Armstrong to schedule a high school assembly about her proposition. Demon attends the assembly with Miss Annie. Angus says smart kids on the team could wear their own "team shirts" to school like football players. Only two teachers and the principal are watching. Mr. Armstrong supports Angus by saying that it would be good for the school to support an academic enterprise like this, and not simply football. Angus' idea is rejected.
Angus tells Demon, however, that a school trip is scheduled in the coming months. Demon doesn't believe it will come to fruition but, in fact, around March, a group of parents decide to sponsor a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. Demon is assigned a car with a mom and a group of kids. He's excited because the trip will include a stop at the ocean. However, during the ride, another girl Glenna gets sick and vomits. Eventually the driver turns around and goes back, so his trip to the ocean is thwarted.
THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE PLOT SUMMARY
Ms. Annie has a tattoo of a goldfish on her shoulder. In class, she wears large clothing such as smocks. At lunchtime she wears a tanktop and Demon can see her shoulder tattoo. One day, Demon goes over to his high school art class with Ms. Annie a bit early. There are tons of military recruiters there who use guilt as a tool to get kids to sign up.
Demon observes that all the kids in his class are from families that at some point would have mined coal, at least two generations ago or longer. A lot of those miners got diseases related to coal dust. Some died in mine fires or mine collapses. Demon talks about a rich classmate, Batina Cook, aka Queen Batina, whose family are part of the Blue Bonnet mine. She talks about how much money her family donates to charity and how corporations are good for the infrastructure of society. There are classmates who take her side, pro-ownership or pro-corporation side.
Now Demon observes that there are those like Mr. Peggot who have disabilities or injuries related to mining, but in general these folks shy away from handouts. Demon talks about the role of unions in coal mining. This material seems to come up in Mr. Armstrong's class. Armstrong talks about a battle that broke out historically among workers and pro-company people. The workers wore red bandanas to the battle. This is the origin of the term "rednecks" apparently.
There is also talk about the history of mining techniques. Machines replaced humans. Deep-hole mines turned to strip mines. And then using dynamite to blow the top off of a mountain and using machines to collect the coal from the rubble. The class breaks into a discussion around the pros and cons of the mining industry. Different students take different sides. Mr. Armstrong talks about the mining companies buying up huge chunks of land and keeping out other industries, so that workers had no choice but to work coal. The coal companies had people in politics who made sure the schools had little money, as it was preferable for the coal companies to have workers with fewer vocational choices.
Demon feels a lot of anger as he considers the history of this area being exploited, back to the time of George Washington cutting down all their trees.
Demon dreams up a superhero idea about a miner wearing a red bandana in olden times. This is one of the main themes of the book, the author Kingsolver wishing that people in Appalachia had more representation in the media, including in superhero stories. She has already had Demon refer to Aunt June as as superhero for working with opioid addicts, to tobacco workers as superheroes for how difficult that work is for low pay, and now to rednecks (miners) as heroes for the danger they are in each day and the low wages they receive. Dickens begins David Copperfield with the idea that the narrator David Copperfield is writing his own story, and that the pages of that book will show whether or not he (David Copperfield) is a hero. Kingsolver has obviously borrowed this idea and repeatedly asks the reader the question: what is a superhero? Is having resilience heroic? Can you be heroic by overcoming a difficult upbringing? Is it heroic to recover from opioid abuse? Is it heroic simply to survive the difficult life of an addict? Is it heroic to hold on and press forward? Can heroism at times look a bit ugly?
THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX PLOT SUMMARY
"I was born to wish for more than I could have," says Demon. But where does the "disease" of wanting more come from? The restlessness -- where does it come from? Hopeless wishes, perfect words you think you could say to make someone stay. "Some people never want like that."
"2001 was the year I had everything and still went hungry." He's on the football team, number 88, big tackles, locker room energy, teammates, so much positive energy, lifting weights, learning plays by heart and then making them on the field, the magic of 11 on 11, "the word made flesh," practicing something and then making it happen. Demon is great at football, throwing and receiving. Coach Winfield is like a god to Demon. Demon is getting write ups in the newspaper.
Demon knows he has it good. He has Coach's special attention. He also has his special art class with Ms. Annie. Demon suggests again there's a lot of military recruiting at his high school, especially after 9/11. To some rural people, the buildings collapsing looked fake, like a movie.
For Demon, a vocational school seems appealing, learning a trade. But Mr. Armstrong wants him to focus on education, and Demon likes Ms. Annie's class well enough to stick with education. At this point, Demon is in high school, ninth grade. Maggot is a goth, Demon is a jock, Emmy is a popular drama kid, Angus is there, too.
He still has not gotten laid. Now he falls for Linda Larkins. Long legs, out of high school. She calls him out of the blue one day, jokes about his "tight end," talks dirty to him. She keeps calling him and talking dirty, sex talk on the phone. He's doing some regular dating at school, school dances, and hasn't met Linda in real life yet. He has no one to confide in about Linda.
The Peggots start to spend more time with Demon now. Angus would drive Demon over there. They go by the trailer Demon grew up in, and it makes him sad. Angus joins Demon for dinner with the Peggots a few times. The Peggots are old -- Mr. Peggot can barely walk. Mr. Peggot asks Demon about Maggot and what's going on with him. Mr. and Mrs. Peggot are worried about the way Maggot dresses. Mr. Peggot asks Demon why the young people are so restless and angry. Demon says one reason might be because through TV and media, the young people in Appalachia are aware how behind the regular world they are, and it makes them self-aware and angry.
Demon tells Mr. Peggot they are great people and based on his experiences in foster care, they are the best parental figures he's had. Demon says that to counter the idea the Peggots should have done more to raise Maggot better. Mr. Peggot is worried about Maggot finding a woman the way he dresses. Demon thinks of Fast Forward and how Fast could identify the real meaning of a person. Demon has the idea that maybe Maggot should meet Fast.
THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN PLOT SUMMARY
U-Haul doesn't like Demon. U-Haul tries to keep Demon in his place. Demon really dislikes him. Demon gets a lot of playing time in football. The team "kicked ass pretty decently." U-Haul forces Demon to help with errands. At times, U-Haul takes Demon over to U-Haul's mom's house, which is disgusting and decrepit. Mrs. Piles somehow knows the McCobb family and wants to gossip about whether Mrs. McCobb deals in stolen goods. She also wants to gossip about Mr. Armstrong and Ms. Annie Armstrong, and specifically wonders why a white woman married a Black man.
Demon tells U-Haul he won't go to the mom's house anymore and U-Haul threatens Demon in a vague manner with revealing information he claims to have about Demon.
Kent and Aunt June have broken up. Apparently, June thinks he's a con-man and Kent thinks she's a paranoid bitch. Emmy, Maggot, and Demon go outside (at June and Emmy's house) so the adults can talk about Kent and June. Emmy says that June and Kent are both excellent at yelling at each other. June did pull a knife on Kent at some point when Kent suggested that June with her training was not a "professional." June had supported a petition against Kent's company regarding opioid addiction. June invites Hammerhead Kelly over to her house after the break-up to provide protection in case Kent returns.
Linda Larkin's sister, May Anne, informs Demon that Linda had gotten married. Demon gets an erection just hearing her name. Linda has married a stock car racer. Linda had specifically instructed May Anne to tell Demon that Linda had gotten married. Demon is perplexed why Linda called him out of the blue so many times and then decided to notify him of her marriage.
Angus and Demon go on a road trip to Murder Valley. Angus has her driver's license. Angus wants to visit Betsy Woodall. Demon and Angus get in a fight when Demon tells her he doesn't want to talk about his feelings and relationships. They arrive at Betsy's house. Angus is excited to see everything again. This is the house where Angus' mom grew up. "A dead parent is a tricky kind of ghost."
Betsy and Dick have prepared a feast for Angus and Demon. Betsy makes Angus talk about her college plans. Angus suggests she might leave to go to college. Now it's Demon's turn. He says he might try for a football scholarship to get to college. Betsy is supportive of this, so long as football doesn't interfere with Demon's studies. Demon has anxiety as he considers moving to a city for college.
Demon is upset, on the way home, that Angus will probably leave for college. She has freedom and confidence to leave while Demon feels trapped. Demon sees landmarks that remind him of his original trip (by himself) to Murder Valley.
THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT PLOT SUMMARY
Summers were a vacation again, living with Coach Winfield -- Demon doesn't have to work. Demon is grateful to Coach and Angus and Mattie Kate for everything they have provided. At the same time, Demon wants more independence, he wants his own money. Demon gets a job working at a farm supply store, where he loads bags of feed into the trucks of customers. Demon is fifteen years old now. $7.00 per hour is the pay, and he intends to save up for a car. Having a car means freedom, means not having to rely on others for a ride.
Demon likes the farm supply job. He moves things around, and takes care of baby chicks. In the morning, he throws out the chicks that died during the night. The farm supply store attracts all kinds of customers. A lot of customers ask Demon's opinion on the football team and its strategy. Suddenly, Demon recognizes a voice, a familiar voice. It's Fast Forward, and he has ordered some feed, which Demon takes out on a cart to load into his truck. Fast can't believe how tall Demon is, has a hard time recognizing him. Fast says he has his own 50 acre farm with a 2.5 acre tobacco allotment. Fast tells Demon that he has watched Demon play football.
Fast makes a point of saying "Hi" to Demon during future visits. Fast invites Demon over on a Saturday night. Fast takes Demon to Pennington Gap to "cruise." This has enough road for a 1-hour circuit. A lot of girls hang out by the theater or the dry cleaner's. Demon and Fast are the star attraction. With Fast are Rose and Big Bear, all four stuffed in the front of the truck. Demon thinks Rose is kind of trashy looking, pointy elbows and jagged teeth. Big Bear was a huge lineman on the team when Fast was on the team. As they cruise, they meet up with a lot of former football players. Demon remembers Rose having made dope cookies for Fast, years ago. Fast and Rose are in an ongoing argument about, it seems, whether or not Fast has been with other girls. Rose buys a pack of cigarettes for Fast.
Rose has tight jeans and sandals on, quite thin, watered-down brown hair. She has a large scar on the left side of her mouth, through both lips. Despite wearing heavy make-up, the scar is still visible. Demon can't tell if Rose is Fast's girlfriend or someone wanting to be his girlfriend. Demon considers how difficult it would be to be a girl with a scar on the face, as compared to a boy with a scar on the face. Big Bear walks around and gets a joint from somewhere; they pass it around. Fords and Chevrolets everywhere, and Demon in the middle of it, dragging main.
Notes: Once again we see the social hierarchy includes boys being above girls, and a boy connected to football being above a regular boy. Now we are introduced to the idea that a girl who is cute is higher than a girl who isn't cute, or who has a scar. This limits her value because as a commodity she can't trade her looks for sex, or for a guy with a job. We see that a job, for Demon, is a type of freedom, and he reiterates the idea that a car, in rural America, means freedom. In this chapter, Fast Forward seems older and in some ways broken, but we don't really know what's going on yet. There's a tension or irony, or even hypocrisy inside of Demon. Before, he has complained about not being well nurtured by his biological mother or father, and then being neglected in the foster care system. Now he has close to everything a kid needs, in a big house with Coach, a good friend and confidante in Angus, as well as the housekeeper Mattie Kate, who looks after him. But he still wants independence. He leaves the cocoon for a part-time job at which he quickly meets up with Fast Forward, who is presumably going to introduce him to more dangers in the world. So the author argues at times in the book that the kids in Appalachia have it rough, with drug addicts as parents, or with a shortage of jobs and limited access to healthcare, or a lack of representation in the media, but once Demon is fairly well situated, he in a sense abandons that for a sense of fame or even danger. Is it fair to blame all of Demon's problems on his demographics? There seems to be something inside of him that is hungry, or looking for trouble, beyond his unlucky genetics or unlucky geographic placement in this world.
THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE PLOT SUMMARY
Demon invites Fast Forward to come to the Fourth of July party at June and Emmy's house. He still thinks he needs to bring Maggot and Fast together for some reason he cannot fully articulate. Fast Forward comes to pick Demon up, and with Fast in the truck is Rose and a girl named Mouse. Mouse is small, talkative, pretty, wearing a silver body suit, Yankee accent, New Wave hair, tons of makeup. Mouse is telling some story about doing hair and makeup for celebrities. Mouse is from Philadelphia. She speaks properly. Demon gives the directions to Maggot's house.
Fast meets Maggot. Maggot is twitchy. Fast looks Maggot over. Maggot is wearing chains, mesh, and other Goth gear. Demon is embarrassed on behalf of Maggot. Now, Demon gives directions to June's house. Half a mile from June's house, there are tons of cars parked for the party. Maggot lights a joint and passes it to Rose, in June's driveway. Demon talks about how in the past Maggot has snorted No-Doze, abused Sudafed, and also used ADHD meds.
Maggot leaves to seek out a friend named Hot Topic. Fast and Mouse have disappeared somewhere. Demon sees June. She's wearing red shorts. She looks young. The clearing behind June's house is full of kids dancing and partying. Eminem is playing on some speakers borrowed from the school. There's a keg. There are tables showing signs of leftover food. Emmy is cutting a sheet cake. Emmy looks good to Demon. He wonders how it would feel to just feel comfortable in your skin, like Emmy seems to be.
A kid mentions to Demon that some kids are going to Devil's Bathtub later to swim. Fast Forward works the party. Emmy gets Fast's attention. She seems to be flirting with him. There's talk about how Hammerhead Kelly was always interested in dating Emmy. June's friends show up after work. The party is getting out of control. June greets her brother Everett, another Peggot the reader first meets here. Hammerhead Kelly has his arm around Emmy. Emmy shows off a garnet ring she apparently received from Hammer; Emmy says it's a birthday present. June seems to like Hammer.
Fast and Mouse run up a hill outside, towards an old cabin, followed by a pack of kids. Mouse is handing out drugs from a Pringles can. Different kids let off huge fireworks into the trees and sky. All over the hills are kids hanging out, kids in tents.
Demon grows nostalgic. He thinks how although his life has been tough, his dad, mom, and little brother were all dead and missing out. It's better to be alive than dead, even when life sucks.
A lot of the kids around the old cabin are now stoned or passed out. Some couples have sex in tents. A big bonfire roars. Demon talks to Maggot. Demon sort of wishes he were with Emmy. Maggot suggests that June likes Hammerhead, which is why he's able to date Emmy. Fast comes over between Maggot and Demon. Fast pretends like he hasn't yet met Emmy. Rose returns from wherever she was and catches Fast's attention. They share a bottle of alcohol. Fast says it's time to leave. Demon goes to round up Mouse so she can get a ride home. Mouse is talking to Aunt June. June says she doesn't like the idea of Fast driving Mouse home, on account that Fast is likely drunk.
On the way back to the truck, they all make small talk. Fast seems to be seeking Mouse's opinion on Emmy and Aunt June. Mouse thinks it's gross that Hammer and Emmy are dating, both being in the same family. Mouse is not impressed by how backwards the kids are in the south. Demon says "Welcome to Dixie," which he later regrets.
The chapter ends with Demon going on a rant about how during the Civil War, there was North and South, with Lee County in between. The people in Lee County were forced by southern soldiers to fight to save the plantations of rich southern men. Demon dislikes how West Virginians and other Appalachians are disparaged on TV.
Notes: This chapter has a unique look and feel to it. Something is going on here that is uniquely artful. I need to think on it more. Aunt June's home has a party atmosphere. Of course it does. The scene is a party. Teens are there, the Peggot family, June's friends from work, Demon and his connections, Emmy and June, Rose, Fast, Mouse, and Maggot. There's a sense that the hills around June's house are teeming with people, some kids going up to the ramshackle cabin behind to pop pills, some kids sprawled out wasted on the ground around the cabin, some kids moving in tandem with the music, the house pulsating with noise, some considering the stars, some in tents having sex. We hear the music, Eminem at first to oldies music later. Meanwhile there's this dance going on where Fast is noticing Emmy but for some reason pretending he doesn't notice her, June is sizing up Fast, Maggot is commenting on why June might like Hammer, Mouse is criticizing the manners of the people of Lee County, and Demon is having an argument with Mouse inside his head. Being staged outside mostly, this scene seems to be comparing humans to animals potentially, humans crawling around the party, looking for pleasure, looking for their kill, fighting to establish a position, to establish a social order. Drugs, sex, alcohol, jealousy, temptation. Emmy is almost described as a piece of meat, someone Demon, Fast, and Hammer are fighting for, even June is characterized in this chapter in a new way, part sexual but part libertarian perhaps. There's a compassionate, organized side to June in the way she allows people to crash in her house and so on, but there's a naive side in hosting a party like this at all. Mouse is a Yankee and she and Fast have a connection that Demon doesn't understand, and it seems Mouse and Fast are opportunistic about the party. Perhaps Mouse is a metaphor for Big Pharma generally, looking for opportunity to exploit poor people. And Demon has made himself vulnerable by inviting Fast and Maggot and Emmy to all meet in the first place. Maybe the party is a metaphor for being tugged and pulled in many directions as a teenager, all the noises pulling a person one way or another. Meanwhile, there's still enough time and space for Demon to be touched by nature, to consider the hills and the trees, for him to think of his deceased family members, for him to feel gratitude. Demon the narrator is more mature than Demon the character in this chapter. People like Fast and Mouse are more sophisticated than Demon and will exploit Demon and his group in some way, and Demon is observant enough to pick up on some of this, but still naive enough that he's not putting it all together yet. A fascinating chapter.
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If you like this review of Demon Coppperhead, please check out EVERMORE, a YA dystopian novella, by my friend Michael Smith. For sale on Amazon.com at link below:
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FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY PLOT SUMMARY
Demon has fallen in love, at first sight. He wasn't looking for anyone.
Donna Marie at the farm store has organized a party in connection with the end-of-summer store blowout. There's a big party at the store with the store still open. Demon gets drunk at the party. In come Vester Spencer (store owner) and his daughter Dory Spencer. He describes Dory thus: "Small, slender, long waist like a mermaid, silvery purple hair cut short on one side, long on another, face of an angel, sandals with criss-cross laces runnin' up her perfect legs." Her father is in a wheelchair. Dory's voice is like a "low running creek." Dory has missed a lot of school, taking care of her dad. She drives him to Tennessee for medical care. Demon figures she's sixteen and has no living mother.
Dory's eyes are shiny black like deep water. Demon has a desire to keep Dory to himself. "Fairy." "Nymph." "Angel." Amazing smile. Raised eyebrows with silver lavender coloring. After she leaves with her dad, Demon is smitten with her. Demon makes the mistake of telling Angus he's in love with Dory. Angus points out that Demon doesn't know Dory very well, he barely knows her name.
Now, Angus is interested in community college, rather than leaving to the city. Angus wants to help take care of her dad. Demon is more comfortable with Angus, knowing she's not going to the city, she's not going to leave him.
Demon sees Dory again a few weeks later. Tenth grade has started. Demon is playing well on both sides of the ball, on the football team. Demon is popular, loves being on the team. Demon doesn't believe himself to be important, he still feels like a turd, but he's a turd who can catch a 30-yard pass. He does at times start to accept that maybe he deserves popularity.
Fast takes Demon to the drive-in movie theater. Fast brings plenty of alcohol. The idea is you tailgate and walk around outside and visit your friends, while the movie's on. Fast and Demon drink a little, smoke some weed. The movie is "Demon Island." Stupid movie. Here comes Dory, making her way through the parked cars. Demon's charmed by her presence. Demon introduces himself again, reminds her that he met her and her dad at the store. Demon asks if her dad is OK. "He's never going to be OK," she says. Demon reveals both his parents are dead. That seems to create a connection or opening between the two. Dory is familiar with the child services operations for kids with dead parents. Apparently there has been some question of capacity with her dad.
Demon expresses an interest in her, acts awkwardly. She tells him he has nothing to worry about, that he's the one all the girls will write to when he's in prison. He's part flattered and part confused why she thinks he will end up in prison.
Demon watches the film for a minute. Here comes Tommy Waddles, carrying a bunch of drinks. It's been five years. They're happy to see each other and immediately talkative. Tommy is 18 now, out of foster care. He lives in an apartment with friends, has a job, has a girlfriend. Demon invites Tommy to come say "Hi" to Fast, Tommy declines. Demon reveals to Tommy that he's in love with Dory. Tommy says he fell hard for his girlfriend as well.
Fast is now with a girl nicknamed Car Wash. Fast is drunk. Now here comes Rose Dartle. Rose glares at Fast. They are apparently in an ongoing verbal dispute of some kind, apparently because it took Rose too long to come back with booze. Fast suggests that he owes Rose nothing because she's so ugly. Rose calls Fast's mom a dead whore. Rose lights a joint and walks away. Demon catches up with her.
Rose says that Fast lies about owning property, when in reality he just works for a ranch. Fast lives in the guest house which is also the barn. She refers to Fast as a "horse's ass." Rose explains that her mother took care of Fast's mom when Fast's mom was young; in other words Fast's mom was rescued by Rose's mom. Fast's mom died young and Rose's mom adopted Fast, in other words Fast was Rose's adopted brother. Then at age nine, Rose's parents had to "unadopt" Fast. Sterling (aka Fast) was violent and put the other kids in danger, which is why Rose's parents had to give him back to the state. For example, Sterling nearly convinced Rose's brother Ronnie to hang himself. Then Sterling hit Rose in the face with a claw hammer, creating the scar across her lips.
Big Bear calls for "number 88" from through the woods. Demon is happy to get away from Rose. He returns to Sterling Ford's truck. Somehow he gets home, which he has no memory of. In the morning Angus helps clean up Demon's bed which is covered in piss and vomit. Angus brings him a flat Coke, which she says is a remedy.
Demon's lucky not to have gotten in trouble: drinking in public, breaking curfew. Even Mattie Kate is upset at Demon because apparently at the party, Demon urinated in a firepit being tended by Mattie Kate's child. U-Haul is more or less living in the house these days, and has had some kind of promotion on the football team.
Angus gives Demon some tough love, tells him he's "fucking up." Suggests his friends are not good examples. Demon promises he won't drink the rest of the summer.
Notes: The author has Demon refer to Dory as an angel or nymph or mermaid. Several chapters ago, he referred to Angus as an angel. He also previously characterized Miss Annie as an angel. The description of Dory is not terribly different than the description of Mouse in many ways. I don't know if this is a defect or limitation in the author's ability to describe women in the way a boy or teen might see a woman. She (author) is after all female and is writing from the point of view of a teenage boy, and what he might find beautiful. I don't know if Kingsolver is putting herself in Demon's shoes and having Demon over-emphasize the importance of looking angelic, or if Kingsolver herself just does a poor job here of describing what different young women might look like. The reality is the spectrum is a lot more broad than what Kingsolver seems capable of, and this is probably the first time we see a limitation in her ability as author, to portray a teen boy's view of girls/women. A girl could be tan and athletic and competitive in sports and calm otherwise and attractive. A girl could be bony and pale and clumsy and goofy and awkward and attractive. A girl could be short and plump and elfish and gregarious and be attractive. A girl could be pale with black hair and blue eyes and a powerful mind and musical talent and be attractive. A girl could be short and Italian looking and nurturing and attractive. A girl could be sophisticated and rich and made-up and shy and attractive. Kingsolver seems to be stuck with the idea that to be attractive a girl has to be tiny and angelic and have a rich voice.
With the party at the farm supply store and the party at the drive-thru movie theater, we have now been told about three large parties with a lot of alcohol. This was partly addressed as part of the summary of chapter thirty-nine. The author seems interested in the idea that life as a teen is tough, you are in a jungle and exposed to so many temptations. Just in this chapter and the prior chapter, Demon has met a lot of new people, with many intense family situations. We find out Rose is more or less Fast's sister, that Fast carved up her face with a hammer. We found out that Mouse, from the North, is more or less a drug dealer. We meet Dory, a motherless fragile girl who takes care of her ailing dad, a dad so ailing, the state nearly took Dory away from him. There's Car Wash, there's Maggot, there's just tons of characters around, again the sense of it being a jungle and the sense that Demon is going to get himself in trouble because the world is more broad now and less controlled.
The irony of course is that Demon is placed in a nice home with comfortable bedding and food, and a great friend in Angus. However, Coach Winfield is completely absent and it leaves Demon vulnerable to temptation. On the other hand, when Demon was in foster care previously, his life was a living hell, but in some ways he couldn't get into so much trouble when he had so little freedom or autonomy.
Another observation in this chapter is that earlier in the novel, Demon as narrator criticized his mom for falling for people like Stoner and someone like Demon's own father. Demon's mom isn't a great judge of character. Now we find out Demon is afflicted with a similar problem: he's not a great judge of Fast's character. At the drive-in, Tommy immediately declines an opportunity to see Fast again. While Rose describes the type of violence Fast is capable of, Demon makes excuses for Fast in his mind. At the party at Aune June's house (prior chapter), we see that June herself is skeptical of Fast at first, and June has an apparent preference for someone like Hammer. Demon can only see the heroic part of Fast, a big, tall, strapping confident football player.
FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE PLOT SUMMARY
"Where does the road to ruin start?"
Late October, deep into football season, Demon's knee is injured badly on a sweep play. He knows he's been tackled, he knows he's underneath a pile of bodies, but it takes him a second to feel the pain. He can see his knee is bent the wrong direction. He tries to stand up and the knee won't hold. The next thing he remembers his leg is being iced and wrapped by U-Haul. Then he's at Coach's house, and he can't make it up the stairs. Angus makes up a sofa bed for Demon. He sleeps poorly. Bad dreams.
Dr. Watts, team doctor, comes by the house in the morning. The doctor and Coach talk about Demon's condition. It will take 2-3 weeks to get an MRI and to get into an orthopedic surgeon. In the meantime, the doctor tells Demon the prescription will hold him. Demon is prescribed Lortab. Demon loves Lortab, it takes the pain away. The doctor tells him to take a double dose of Lortab. Demon hardly eats, he just takes pills and Gatorade. Coach and Watts get the meeting with the surgeon moved up.
Angus comes home from school and reports to Demon that everyone at school is gossiping about different versions of what happened to Demon at the game. Demon is already feeling he won't make it the four hours to the next time he's allowed to take Lortab; meaning, he'll take the drug early in this cycle.
Angus encourages Demon to be more optimistic. Demon is despondent. For him, football is everything. He's worried Coach won't take care of him anymore. He believes the only reason Coach took him in is in exchange for Demon being starting tight end. Demon takes a couple of Lortab pills. Demon explains to Angus that he thinks Coach wouldn't have taken him in if he couldn't have made the team. Demon feels vulnerable. He's about to become a loser again, without football. He's worried Dory won't like him. He's starting to feel good on the Lortab now.
Aunt June comes by after work. She stares at Demon's pill bottle. He can't remember if he's been doubling the double-dose of Lortab. Aunt June is critical of Demon being on Lortab. Aunt June examines Demon's leg, checks the knee and the swelling. June is realistic with Demon. Says his MRI is going to be bad news. Says he will necessarily miss the whole season.
June says "he's playing with fire," taking the pills. She explains to coach her concern about narcotic addiction. She explains to Demon that pain communicates useful information -- to take it easy. Demon falls asleep. June leaves.
Demon goes in to his orthopedic surgeon appointment. This is at the hospital. He remembers being at the hospital when his mom overdosed. The surgeon says he'll need another MRI, suggests he return to his primary care provider to get a cast, increases his Lortab dose. Coach takes him to the pharmacy to fill his new prescription. This time Demon gets Oxycontin (not Lortab). It's shocking to Demon, probably because he knows that's what killed his mom. He encounters a man with no eyes; this is another person in line at the pharmacy.
SEE SEPARATE POST PART II FOR CHAPTERS FORTY-TWO TO END OF NOVEL
PART II HERE:
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Go here for Part II of review of Demon Copperhead