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Demon’s Mom
Maggot, born Matt Peggot, is Demon’s closest friend growing up. They spend days together playing in the nearby creek, and Demon seems to spend as much time at Maggot’s house as his own. When Mom becomes involved with Stoner, Stoner forbids Demon from spending time with Maggot because he suspects that Maggot is gay. In some respects, Maggot serves as an example of the discrimination and prejudice that people from the LGBTQ+ community can face in Appalachia. However, as Maggot becomes unhappier and struggles with drugs and addiction, his grandparents who raised him, Mr. and Mrs. Peggot, say they just want him to be happy and don’t care about his sexual orientation. Notably, while people like Stoner discriminate against Maggot, Maggot doesn’t seem to face significant prejudice or discrimination at school. By the end of the novel, after spending time in juvenile detention, Maggot has a boyfriend and is sober, presenting another example of how, despite setbacks and hardships, a person’s community can help them overcome their personal struggles.
Maggot Quotes in Demon Copperhead
The Demon Copperhead quotes below are all either spoken by Maggot or refer to Maggot. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
For whatever reason Emmy said okay, let’s do it. I had to hold her hand. She kept her eyes closed.
It was true about Aunt June keeping track. Which was not true of my mom in any way, shape, or form. So that was me promising Emmy that life is to be trusted. I knew better. I should have let her go with her gut: Never get back on the horse, because it’s going to throw you every damn chance it gets. Then maybe she’d have been wise to the shit that came for her later on, and maybe it would have turned out better.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6
Quotes
Nobody believed a word out of this girl’s mouth at the time of her need. And today, her side of the story stands as gospel. The world turns […]. How all this fits with the story of me, hard to say.
Chapter 20
Quotes
Miss Barks […] stuck with a different theory. I needed to be more pushy with them. Did she give up on her dreams? No, she worked hard for what she wanted. Did I expect anybody to look out for Damon if he wouldn’t look out for himself? Life is what you make it! Here’s where Miss Barks didn’t grow up: foster care. She had no clue how people can be living right on the edge of what’s doable. If you push too hard, you can barrel yourself over a damn cliff.
Chapter 59
Quotes
“It’s not natural for boys to lose their minds,” she said. “It happens because they’ve had too many things taken away from them.”
I asked her like what. She got up and walked around the room, upset. No decent schooling, she said. No chance to get good at anything that uses our talents. No future. They took all that away and supplied us with the tools for cooking our brains, hoping we’d kill each other before realizing the real assholes are a thousand miles from here […].
She sat down on the bed again. “The question you have to answer now is, What are you willing to do for yourself? And I won’t lie, it’s going to be harder than anything you’ve done before.”
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Maggot Quotes in Demon Copperhead
The Demon Copperhead quotes below are all either spoken by Maggot or refer to Maggot. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
For whatever reason Emmy said okay, let’s do it. I had to hold her hand. She kept her eyes closed.
It was true about Aunt June keeping track. Which was not true of my mom in any way, shape, or form. So that was me promising Emmy that life is to be trusted. I knew better. I should have let her go with her gut: Never get back on the horse, because it’s going to throw you every damn chance it gets. Then maybe she’d have been wise to the shit that came for her later on, and maybe it would have turned out better.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6
Quotes
Nobody believed a word out of this girl’s mouth at the time of her need. And today, her side of the story stands as gospel. The world turns […]. How all this fits with the story of me, hard to say.
Chapter 20
Quotes
Miss Barks […] stuck with a different theory. I needed to be more pushy with them. Did she give up on her dreams? No, she worked hard for what she wanted. Did I expect anybody to look out for Damon if he wouldn’t look out for himself? Life is what you make it! Here’s where Miss Barks didn’t grow up: foster care. She had no clue how people can be living right on the edge of what’s doable. If you push too hard, you can barrel yourself over a damn cliff.
Chapter 59
Quotes
“It’s not natural for boys to lose their minds,” she said. “It happens because they’ve had too many things taken away from them.”
I asked her like what. She got up and walked around the room, upset. No decent schooling, she said. No chance to get good at anything that uses our talents. No future. They took all that away and supplied us with the tools for cooking our brains, hoping we’d kill each other before realizing the real assholes are a thousand miles from here […].
She sat down on the bed again. “The question you have to answer now is, What are you willing to do for yourself? And I won’t lie, it’s going to be harder than anything you’ve done before.”
