Summary
In the next section, Demon continues to talk about the hard labor he performs on the farm. He details the physical toll it takes on his body and depicts the dull monotony of the work. Shortly after this, on his birthday, Miss Barks calls him into her office. He says he is not expecting much in the way of a celebration, as his mom rarely plans anything. No one at school or on the farm remembers or knows. He speaks to Miss Barks and she tells him his mom has died; she overdosed on OxyContin.
The funeral is held at a Baptist Church that Stoner has chosen. Demon is heartbroken and also feels like a number of things are wrong with the funeral. The Peggots are kind to him and help him get ready for the funeral. He attends the ceremony and then is driven over to the burial. He is struck by the fact that he has not only lost his mother, but also his unborn baby brother. He also notes that right around this time, OxyContin was hitting the pharmaceutical market and setting off the first wave of opioid addiction through the South.
Demon has one last lunch with Stoner at McDonald's. They have nothing to talk about and it is filled with awkward silences. He realizes that Stoner isn't being harsh or argumentative because he couldn't care less what happens to him. He can tell that Stoner knows their time together is over and that his life will be starting over soon. Demon spends some time at the Peggots' house. Emmy becomes fixated on a local news story about a murder. She is upset because an entire family was killed but the baby was left for dead. She says she thinks constantly about the baby and can't get it out of her head.
Emmy and Demon share a tender moment where she comforts him about losing his mom and not having a family. They start spending more time together. Demon learns that her father was killed in some kind of hunting accident and afterward her mom was unable to care for her. This resulted in her being taken in by the Peggots. She expresses hope that they might adopt him, but he is unsure. June gets Demon coloring markers for Christmas, much to his happy surprise. Demon asks about the possibility of adoption but Mrs. Peggot says that they couldn't take him in. He is embarrassed and upset.
Demon moves in with a new foster family, the McCobbs. They are constantly stressed about money. Mr. McCobb comes up with a number of schemes in the hopes of turning a quick profit. Demon feels fairly uncomfortable with them, as they are hesitant to share things with him. Eventually, Mr. McCobb finds him a job, so he can make money for them. He sorts through trash near a convenience store, for a frightening man named Ghost. At school, Demon learns that other kids have been making fun of him. He tells Mrs. McCobb that all of the other kids hate him. She takes him to the store to buy new clothes. He eventually begins to suspect, accurately, that Ghost is running a meth lab.
Miss Barks takes Demon out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. She says she has very exciting news to share. She informs him, to his sadness, that she is quitting DDS to take a job as a teacher. She says she will no longer be his caseworker. Things deteriorate at the McCobb household, as money gets even tighter. Demon flies into a rage after he discovers that Mr. McCobb has stolen some of his saved money. He decides to run away from home, hitchhiking a ride to Murder Valley, his father's hometown, after work. He takes some convenience store food and his meager savings with him.
Demon is robbed at a gas station rest stop by a drug-addicted woman. Desperate and exhausted, he sleeps behind a dumpster that night. He travels across Tennessee, hitchhiking multiple rides. Eventually he arrives in Murder Valley. He asks around about his grandmother. He finally meets her and she tells him a bit about his father. He also befriends her brother, Mr. Dick, a wheelchair-bound man who enjoys reading. His grandmother decides to help him find another home, saying she does not want to raise him but won't send him back to DDS. At the end of the chapter, Demon watches Mr. Dick fly a kite.
Analysis
Grief is one of the primary themes in this part of the book. The death of his mother leaves Demon feeling not only bereft but cheated by life itself. He feels robbed of the only person in the world he could halfway count on to care for and love him. Without her, as he has found working on the tobacco farm, he is adrift in the world, entirely at the mercy of the people around him. Kingsolver shows how Demon's grief is two-fold: he is grieving the loss of his mother and that of any semblance of a normal childhood he might have had. He already knew that things were not right in his home life, but her death marks the end of any possibility of resolution. There is also an element of betrayal in his feelings, as he feels that his mother abandoned him by relapsing and dying.
Addiction also plays an important role in this part of the book. Demon's mom dies of an OxyContin overdose. At the time, Demon does not fully understand the significance of this drug or her addiction issues. He mostly feels that she left him to suffer. He says that in time he came to see things more clearly. He knew that she very likely loved him a great deal, but couldn't deal with the pain of her life and that drugs became a coping mechanism. He also notes that OxyContin had just come onto the pharmaceutical market at the time and was being pushed heavily by doctors, as people like his mother fell victim to its addictive qualities. With the benefit of perspective, Demon sees that addiction is not simply a matter of willpower, but a cruel and complex illness that ruins the lives of the people afflicted by it.
Charity is also an important theme in these pages. Demon once again finds limits in the charity of the people around him. The Peggots are happy to have him in their home, but do not want to adopt or take him in full-time. Miss Barks wants him to persevere but ultimately leaves DDS to pursue a career in teaching. The McCobbs take him in, but, like Crickson, they treat him like a potential source of income more than a child. In all of these cases, he once again perceives the gap between people's actions and their intentions. Some of them want the best for him and can't provide it. Others seem to be helping him, but are mostly helping themselves.
Community is a major theme in the conclusion of this section, as Demon seeks out his single remaining family member. He meets his grandmother and while she is not warm, she makes sure that he is cared for and has a home. She does not offer to raise him, but instead says she will find a family to take him in. While she does not openly display love or kindness, she treats him more fairly than almost anyone else in the book. Despite having never met her before, Demon correctly assesses that she is one of the last people willing to provide him with care. He expresses a faith that his grandmother will help him on the basis of their family connection, as she is one of the last members of his family still alive. Community ultimately saves Demon, as it allows him to escape life with the McCobbs and permanent rotation in the foster care system.
This part of the book shows the continued deterioration of Demon's life. One by one, his pillars of support begin to crumble: his mother dies, his caseworker leaves, and the Peggots say they cannot take him in. He turns to his grandmother as a last-ditch attempt to find a home, as he feels cast off and lost. These chapters show Demon becoming increasingly disillusioned with the world around him, as he feels that he is continually handed the worst possible fate, surrounded on all sides by people looking to cheat or abandon him.
