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Summary
Sections 26-30
26
Demon’s grandmother has no use for boys or men. Instead, she devoted her life to raising and educating eleven girls—wayward teens and abandoned babies—acting as an unofficial foster mom because she doesn’t trust social services. Demon wonders if things would have been different had he been a girl, questioning whether his grandmother would have taken and raised him and whether his mother would have agreed.
She tells Demon about his father, remarking that he is the spitting image of him. Demon is stunned when she mentions that his father loved cars, realizing he shares the same obsession. For the first time, Demon learns that his name, Damon, was chosen by his father.
She introduces her younger brother, Dick, who is confined to a wheelchair due to spinal defects. When she asks Dick what they should do with Demon, his responses sound nonsensical to Demon, but she interprets them clearly: Demon needs shoes and a bath. Demon is horrified to discover that the house only has a large bathtub—something that terrifies him due to his father’s death at Devil’s Bathtub. Despite his fear, he takes the bath.
Later, Jane Ellen, one of his grandmother’s surrogate daughters, gives Demon clothes from her brothers. They feed him and put him to bed, but Demon notices his grandmother locks the bedroom door, trapping him inside. Though the locked door disturbs him, he’s mostly grateful to be fed, sheltered, and safe for the first time in a long while.
27
Demon learns more about Dick, his grandmother’s brother, who is incredibly intelligent but often underestimated due to his disability. As a child, Dick was relentlessly bullied for both his physical condition and his intellect. Their parents, ashamed of his disability, sent him to a home in Knoxville where he received no formal education, although his sister brought him books. Demon discovers that Dick still has those childhood books and notices a unique habit of his: when Dick finishes a book, he writes his favorite quotes on a kite and flies it, symbolically giving thanks to the author.
Dick shares more about Demon’s father, revealing that he clashed with his parents over religion and left home at sixteen. After his father’s departure, Miss Betsy began taking in young girls, teaching them to excel in school and stand up for themselves. For many of the girls, their “graduation” came through marriage.
Demon’s grandmother struggles with the decision of whether to keep him. While she’s reluctant to raise a boy, she refuses to let a relative end up in social services. She tells Demon he can’t stay with her but insists he needs to be properly raised and educated. She decides to send him to live with one of her former girls, now grown and scattered. When she asks where he wants to go, Demon surprises himself by saying he wants to return to Lee County. He realizes that despite everything, he longs for the familiarity of home.
She arranges for him to stay with Coach Winfield, the widower of one of her girls and a football coach. On the day Demon leaves, Dick flies a kite bearing words of wisdom and hope for him. As Demon sits beside him, he sees Dick not as small or limited, but as a giant.
28
Jane Ellen takes Demon to a Walmart parking lot for Coach Winfield to pick him up, but instead, a creepy-looking man arrives, introducing himself as Assistant Coach Pyles, nicknamed U-Haul. Jane Ellen is wary of him, but a quick call to the school confirms his identity. Reluctantly, she lets Demon leave with him. U-Haul drives Demon to Coach Winfield’s house, a sprawling mansion, which immediately intimidates Demon. He hesitates to enter, unsure how to navigate such a wealthy environment.
Demon is struck by the differences from his previous homes. The family eats without saying a blessing, and they have a maid, Mattie Kate, who handles the dishes and house cleaning. Coach’s son, Angus, is skinny and uninterested in football, a contrast to the Coach’s evident interest in Demon’s size. Angus tells Demon that the Coach will likely try to bulk him up to make him a linebacker, which excites Demon. Feeling at ease for a moment, Demon jokes that the only real danger is ending up in a coma from being attacked by cheerleaders. However, Angus immediately clams up, leaving Demon confused. Later, when he sees Angus in bedclothes, Demon realizes with shock and embarrassment that Angus is not a boy but a girl.
29
Demon goes shopping with Angus and U-Haul, feeling awkward because he doesn’t have any money. Angus keeps asking him what he wants, growing irritated when he repeatedly says “nothing.” Finally, Demon admits he’s broke. Angus apologizes, explaining that they’re using her dad’s credit card, which Demon jokingly nicknames “the Master.” As they shop, Demon observes how the credit card and Coach’s social status grant them a level of respect and privilege around town—something he’s never experienced before. After clearing the air, Demon and Angus start getting along well, often hanging out in the den together after Coach goes to bed early.
Demon struggles to adjust to life at Coach’s house. The idea of being waited on feels foreign, as does the strict structure of doing homework and avoiding partying. When he offers to do his own laundry and prepare his own meals, Mattie Kate gently tells him not to take away her livelihood, insisting his only job is to “be a little boy.” Demon responds that he’s never had that job before.
When Demon starts school, he immediately notices how different the other sixth graders are from him. They know far more about academics, as Demon has barely attended school over the past few years. However, he realizes he has more street smarts than they do—they’re clueless about money, sex, and other adult realities he’s had to confront. Demon wonders if staying with Coach long enough would make him soft like them, but he doubts anyone will keep him around for that long.
30
Demon gains status at school thanks to Coach, who is revered by students and staff alike. Coach lets him help out at football practice and even throws the ball around with him one day. Demon is surprised to see how sharp and attentive Coach is during practice, a stark contrast to his detached demeanor at home, where football seems to consume all his thoughts.
While his academics are struggling due to being so far behind, things begin to turn around when Mr. Armstrong, the school guidance counselor, takes an interest in him. Mr. Armstrong is Black, and Demon is unaccustomed to seeing Black men in positions of authority outside of athletes or entertainers. He also notices Mr. Armstrong’s Northern accent, which feels foreign to him. Mr. Armstrong tells Demon that he’s resilient, and Demon initially assumes it’s a disorder requiring medication. Mr. Armstrong asks to see some of his drawings. Demon hesitates, as most of his recent drawings are nude sketches he’s been selling to classmates for money. After cleaning up his portfolio, he shows it to Mr. Armstrong, who is impressed and encourages him to take the Gifted and Talented test.
When Demon passes the test, he feels conflicted. He’s unsure if gifted and talented kids can still play football, and he’s so accustomed to thinking of himself as stupid that he doesn’t know how to reconcile this new identity. Angus is also in Gifted and Talented and reassures him that it doesn’t change who he is. She gets him excited about the program’s Easter break trip, which might include a chance to see the ocean—a dream of Demon’s.
Demon and Angus grow closer as friends. A tomboy, Angus is frustrated by what she sees as other girls’ dramatics and prefers critical thinking to gossip. She constantly analyzes the world around her, pointing out stereotypes in television, especially regarding women and rural characters. She explains the story behind her name: her real name is Agnes, and when kids started teasing her by calling her Angus, she embraced it and made it her own. Similarly, when her dad stopped taking her to games and practices in fifth grade, saying they weren’t places for a girl, she decided to hate football—and eventually convinced herself it was true.
Analysis
Angus represents a counterpoint to Demon’s earlier experiences with gender and cultural narratives. As a tomboy, she challenges traditional notions of femininity and masculinity, rejecting dramatics and gossip in favor of critical thinking and camaraderie. Her insights about stereotypes in television echo the broader cultural critique embedded in the novel, calling attention to how media representations shape and reinforce societal biases. Her frustration with stereotypes about women and rural communities mirrors Demon’s evolving awareness of the stories society tells about people like him. Angus’s reclamation of her nickname, turning an insult into a badge of identity, parallels Demon’s own journey with his name, transforming "Demon Copperhead" into a source of pride and agency.
Demon’s relationship with his great-uncle Dick evolves alongside his growing respect for him, and this shift is mirrored in the names he uses for him. Initially, Demon refers to him as "Little Brother Dick," a dismissive moniker reflecting how others in the family view him as small and insignificant due to his disability. As Demon gets to know him, his view changes, and he begins to call him simply "Dick," and eventually "Mr. Dick," a name that conveys dignity and respect. This evolution underscores the power of naming in the novel, a recurring theme as characters reclaim or redefine their identities through their names. For Demon, whose own name carries a weight of stigma and misunderstanding, this shift in naming reflects his growing awareness of how names can either limit or empower someone. Mr. Dick, who was marginalized and underestimated throughout his life, becomes a figure of quiet strength and wisdom for Demon, showing that identity is not fixed but can be reimagined through acts of recognition and respect.
Demon’s experience at Coach Winfield’s house is marked by a deep discomfort, not because of any mistreatment but because he doesn’t feel worthy of the stability and privilege it represents. Surrounded by wealth and structure for the first time, he struggles to reconcile this new environment with his chaotic past. Despite being provided with food, clothing, and a safe place to live, Demon remains uneasy, unable to let his guard down. His past experiences have conditioned him to expect that any good thing in his life will be temporary or come with strings attached. This internalized belief prevents him from fully appreciating or trusting the comfort around him.
Demon’s instinct to fend for himself conflicts with the structured world of Coach’s household, where he is told his only job is to "be a little boy"—a role he has never been afforded the luxury to play, encapsulates the central tragedy of his childhood: he has been denied the innocence, safety, and freedom that define what society imagines childhood should be. This statement is not merely about the material hardships he has endured but also about the psychological toll of having to grow up too fast. From an early age, Demon has been forced to navigate adult problems—poverty, addiction, neglect, and abuse—without the guidance or protection a child needs. His mother’s addiction and Stoner’s violence placed him in survival mode, teaching him that vulnerability would lead to harm and that he could rely on no one but himself. This robbed him of the carefree exploration, trust, and joy typically associated with being a child.
In many ways, Demon’s inability to be a little boy reflects a loss of agency, not because he is powerless, but because the world around him has continually denied him the tools and opportunities to explore his identity without fear or survival-driven pragmatism. His journey is marked by a painful realization: even when given the chance to reclaim his childhood, the scars of his past make it almost impossible to believe in that possibility. The weight of what he has endured looms over him, illustrating how the trauma of neglect and deprivation can linger, shaping a person’s sense of self long after the immediate danger has passed.
