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Summary
Sections 21-25
21
Mr. McCobb gets Demon a job at Golly’s Market, a small gas-and-go. Demon initially expects to work the cash register or stock shelves, but instead, he’s assigned to sort trash that customers drop off for the landfill. To his surprise, he encounters Swap-Out, now going by Wildman, who remembers Demon’s squad name, Diamond. Wildman has finished school and is living on his own in an apartment.
The work at Golly’s is unpleasant and hazardous. Demon is tasked with sorting through unsanitary items, like human diapers, and dangerous ones, such as draining acid from car batteries. His boss, nicknamed Ghost, seems involved in shady dealings—regular customers often buy something up front before heading to the back for secretive transactions. He suspects Golly’s is connected to a meth lab. Demon reflects on how the place caters to lowlifes and, by working there, feels like one himself.
At school, Demon doesn’t initially care much about his reputation. He’s picked first for gym teams, and girls flirt with him. However, during lunch detention one day, a group of girls place slam books on his desk. The books are filled with cruel comments, calling him a loser and trash. After this, his status at school plummets, and he becomes a target for bullying.
After a particularly bad day at school, Demon lashes out by punching Mrs. McCobb’s car and telling her about the bullying, warning that it reflects poorly on their family since everyone knows he’s staying with them. In response, Mrs. McCobb takes him to Walmart and buys him new clothes, shoes, and a toothbrush. Despite these efforts, nothing changes—once he’s labeled a loser, the perception sticks, and Demon finds it impossible to escape.
22
Miss Barks surprises Demon after school by taking him out for a meal. Though he’s worried about missing work at Golly’s, he doesn’t tell her because his job is illegal. During their conversation, Miss Barks shares some unexpected good news: Demon is entitled to Social Security benefits because of his mother’s death, and the money will go into an account he can access when he turns eighteen. However, she also explains that he won’t receive benefits from his father’s death because his mother didn’t list his father on his birth certificate.
Miss Barks then tells Demon she’ll be leaving her job with DSS to become a teacher, something she’s excited about. Demon, however, feels betrayed and resentful, seeing her departure as another abandonment for better pay. That evening, he goes home and punches the washing machine in frustration until his fists bleed.
Reflecting on this moment in the present day, Demon realizes that his anger was misplaced. At the time, he thought Miss Barks was leaving for a lucrative job, but now he understands that teachers earn very little—it was just that DSS paid even less. He observes that jobs focused on helping lower-income people or improving their well-being are often poorly paid, while jobs that cater to the rich or make people feel wealthy are the most lucrative. He reflects bitterly that work related to the welfare of children, like teaching or DSS, is valued the least. It’s no surprise, he says, that orphans like him end up punching washing machines—or even smashing drive-through windows at drugstores.
23
Demon pours himself into his job at Golly’s, with the goal of dropping out of school when he turns sixteen. Teachers and Miss Barks tell him he’s not living up to his potential, but he’s given up on himself and doesn’t care what anyone thinks. After Miss Barks leaves, his new guardian is the apathetic social worker from the hospital, whom Demon calls Baggy Eyes. Unlike Miss Barks, Baggy Eyes only checks in once a month and always during Demon’s work hours, readily accepting Mrs. McCobb’s excuse that Demon is “playing outside.”
Meanwhile, the McCobbs’ financial situation deteriorates. Their car is repossessed, and Mr. McCobb loses his job. Demon reflects on the absurdity of repossessing a car from someone struggling to make payments, knowing it makes it even harder for them to earn money to pay off debts. Mr. McCobb dreams of starting a dog grooming business, while Mrs. McCobb wants to move to Ohio to be near family. Their constant fighting worsens, and Hailie eventually tells Demon that her parents have stolen money from him. Furious, Demon confronts the McCobbs, screaming at them, reclaiming his money, and breaking some of their belongings.
Mr. McCobb begins drinking heavily and vents to Demon at night, confessing his shame over failing to provide for his family and resorting to taking Demon’s money. By the end of the summer, the McCobbs decide to leave for Ohio. Baggy Eyes, claiming she’s working on another placement for Demon, makes little progress. She tries the Peggots again, but they decline to take him in permanently, though they agree he can stay for a few days.
When the McCobbs leave, Demon lies to Baggy Eyes, telling her the Peggots are picking him up. Instead, he gathers his hidden money and some food from Golly’s and hitchhikes to Murder Valley, Tennessee, where his father is buried, seeking a family of his own.
24
Demon gets a ride with a preacher who drops him off at a truck stop, where he encounters an older sex worker who asks him for Oxy. Uncomfortable, Demon heads into the truck stop’s minimart and locks himself in the bathroom to count his savings, which amounts to over $200 in small bills.
The sex worker follows him into the bathroom, sees his jar of money, and offers him a free blowjob so they can spend the money together. When he refuses, she tries to climb into the stall. Panicking, Demon runs out, only to see her reappear wearing a conservative housedress, claiming he stole the money from her. The cashier, who had already been giving Demon suspicious looks, believes her story and confiscates the money.
Demon erupts in anger, screaming that the money was his hard-earned savings and shouting at the woman, wishing she’d overdose like his mom. Left with nothing, Demon is forced to hitchhike away from the truck stop, penniless and feeling even more defeated.
25
Demon falls asleep while hitchhiking and wakes up in Nashville, far past his destination. He eats one of the last pieces of food he has—an apple—but a long-haired man approaches, first asking for money and then stealing the apple. The woman with him gives Demon a warning look, signaling the man is dangerous, so Demon hides in a public bathroom until they leave.
Frustrated, Demon tries hitchhiking again with no success until he remembers seeing men with signs specifying their destinations. He writes “Unicoi” on a sign, referencing the county where Murder Valley is located. A unicorn-obsessed woman picks him up but mistakenly believes his sign says “Unicorn.” Realizing her misunderstanding, Demon lets her drop him off, eats his last Slim Jim from Mr. Golly, and lies down behind a dumpster to rest. He reflects on Mr. Golly’s stories about growing up in India as part of a caste of “no-toucher” people, untouchables who couldn’t interact with higher-class individuals. Mr. Golly had found freedom in America, where he could serve anyone at his store and saw Americans as kind. Demon bitterly muses that if Americans had a word for untouchables, they would use it.
The next day, after hitchhiking with several people, Demon gets picked up by another preacher. The preacher warns Demon to be cautious in Unicoi, mentioning the time the town gave the death penalty to an elephant. The elephant had attacked its trainer, who abused it, and accidentally trampled another person. In response, the town hung the elephant.
The preacher drops Demon near Murder Valley, and he walks into town asking if anyone knows Betsy Woodall, his paternal grandmother. Used to small towns where everyone knows everyone, Demon is surprised when people ignore him or claim not to know her. Finally, some boys mockingly mention seeing her on a broomstick. Following their directions, he finds Betsy in her garden. When he tells her he’s her grandson, she initially tells him to leave but pauses when she sees his red hair. Shocked, she exclaims and sinks to the ground.
Analysis
The story of the elephant hanged in Unicoi serves as a powerful metaphor, echoing Mariah’s story. Both the elephant and Mariah are punished for retaliating against their abusers. The town’s decision to kill the elephant, despite its actions being a response to abuse, underscores the cruelty of systems that prioritize control and punishment over understanding and rehabilitation. Similarly, Mariah’s disfigurement of Romeo Blevins led to her imprisonment rather than recognition of the abuse she endured. These parallels deepen the novel’s critique of how society often responds to acts of defiance from marginalized or oppressed individuals with disproportionate and unjust retribution.
The commentary on repossession vividly captures the crushing cycle of poverty. The McCobbs’ car, their only means of mobility and earning potential, is taken because they cannot make payments. This system, which punishes individuals for being poor by stripping away the tools they need to improve their circumstances, mirrors the broader socio-economic barriers Demon faces. Poverty becomes a self-perpetuating trap, where every setback compounds the difficulty of escape. Demon’s reflection on repossession emphasizes this absurdity, illustrating his growing awareness of the systemic forces working against him.
The section about untouchables encapsulates Demon’s dual role as both an unreliable and profoundly insightful narrator. Demon’s unreliability is evident in his limited understanding of the world beyond his immediate experiences. He doesn’t grasp that “untouchables” is not just a word but a term tied to the Dalit caste in India, a historically marginalized group subjected to systemic oppression. His interpretation of Mr. Golly’s stories lacks cultural nuance, reflecting the gaps in his education and worldview. Yet, this same ignorance also lends his narration a raw, unfiltered quality, allowing his insights to emerge unadorned by pretense or academic framing.
While Demon’s understanding of the term untouchable is incomplete, his interpretation transcends cultural specifics to reveal a universal truth about marginalization. His observation that Americans would embrace such a term if they had it demonstrates an intuitive understanding of societal dynamics. He recognizes that, in every culture, there’s a need to create outcasts—to label and degrade a group of people as lesser. This insight positions him as a narrator who, despite his gaps in knowledge, has an acute awareness of the systemic and interpersonal forces that shape his world.
The concept of being "untouchable" resonates deeply with Demon’s lived experience, both in terms of his poverty and his sense of social and physical alienation. Economically, Demon occupies a position of invisibility and stigma; he’s relegated to menial, degrading jobs like sorting trash at Golly’s, and he’s routinely dismissed or scorned by those with more privilege. Socially, his status as a foster child and a poor Appalachian boy places him firmly in the realm of the “untouchable,” where he’s seen as disposable and undeserving of dignity.
At the same time, Demon’s reflection on untouchability extends to his experience of physical and emotional touch starvation. His life has been marked by a lack of nurturing physical connection, a void that exacerbates his sense of isolation. The physical deprivation mirrors the social rejection he faces—both reinforce the sense that he is “untouchable,” undeserving of care or closeness. This idea is compounded by moments in the novel where touch is weaponized against him, such as Stoner’s violence or the neglect of foster parents who view him as a burden rather than a child in need of affection.
