Characters and Their Influence

Those in stories, and those in life

On the podcast, we’ve officially moved on to discussing David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. However, there are two characters in Demon Copperhead I can’t get rid of; they are stuck in my brain like a wasp trapped between screen and window pane.

The poor characters trapped are Fast Forward and Rose. Both appalling, tragic figures. Neither of them would I consider “main” characters in the story, especially not Rose. But then, that’s a hard one, isn’t it? Who’s a main character and who isn’t? Sometimes it’s obvious. Sometimes, not so much. Normally, we define the main characters (the protagonist and those surrounding him/her) by how often certain individuals show up in the story and are active in it. In Demon Copperhead, outside of Demon (the clear protagonist) I would say Angus is a main character, the Peggots… for a time, Maggot… maybe, Dori… -ish, Aunt June… Miss Betsy… ???

See, not always so easy.

Maybe a better way of thinking through main characters (outside the protagonist) is to consider influence. In other words: how much influence does a character have on the protagonist?

And here is where Fast Forward enters, and along with him Rose, though in a kind of slant. When I think about the progression of the story, when and where various characters show up, and how their presence causes Demon to act and the story to move along, I see Fast Forward. He isn’t always overtly there, but his influence is, in these quiet, subversive ways. And behind him, there is Rose lurking like a side-kick to her mad scientist, always ready with scalpel in one hand and mop in the other. While they may not always be present at key key turning points in the story, their fingerprints betray them.

Fast Foward comes into Demon’s story as the idolized foster kid amongst the foster kids at Creeky’s farm. He drives his own truck, he’s QB1 for Lee County High (starting quarterback for my non-football readers), he has girls dripping off him—one, in particular, named Rose who’s “interviewing” (his words) to be his girlfriend. He’s fun and easy-going and gives endearing nicknames to the boys, even as he is swindling them out of their pocket change and self-respect. Demon is immediately swept into the magic aura of Fast Forward, acting as if under a spell when in this young man’s presence. Multiple times throughout the story, Demon thinks Fast Forward is the answer or will have the answer to any problem. When his best friend, Maggot, is full of his own malaise, Demon thinks what he needs is a nickname to help him think differently about himself. Who better to offer this than Fast Forward:

“Weirdly, I kept thinking of Fast Forward, how he could look at us and name the true person inside us. Even if we were pathetic losers for the most part. Fast Forward was proof that a kid could keep his head up and survive, no matter how shitty the waters. He’d called me a diamond. I don’t know what I thought he could do for Maggot. It just seemed like this was a situation for Fast Man.” (Demon Copperhead, p. 288-9)

Fast Forward’s true nature was something far deeper and more gripping than Demon could realize until it was too late. What young Demon idolized about Fast Forward was his ability to “keep his head up and survive.” As it turns out, this is all Demon was ever trying to do: survive. It is all he could imagine for himself. It follows then, he would notice and admire an ability to survive in others. And from Demon’s view, Fast Forward had a PhD in survival.

Rose also idolized Fast Forward. We aren’t given insight as to why this is until the end of the story. In fact, throughout most the story it’s difficult to understand why Rose clings to him as she does, especially given his flipancy, near outright abusiveness, toward her. But at the end, we see… at least in part.

“Fast Forward had a beautiful poison inside him that infected people and got them hooked…. Rose didn’t deny that. But she could have been the one to save him. She looked straight at me with her wrecked face full of tears and madness and swore that’s what she believed. That the scar he’d put on her was his way of making sure Rose would belong to him for life.” (494)

She could have been the one to save him.

When it comes to who or what we allow influence us, our imaginations lead the way.

Do you see this?

Demon’s imagination for himself was stuck at survivor. How unsurprising then, that Demon falls into unhappy unions with those people—Fast Forward, Dory—who help him survive? Except, he isn’t surviving, is he? We readers see he is “circling the drain,” on auto-pilot as he drives straight into his own slow-motion catastrophe. Which begs the question: Is survivor ever sustainable long term? At some point, to live only at the level of survival is to become less human. To become less human is to live as a kind of walking dead caricature of whatever “drug” you depend on for your survival.

And what about Rose? She, too, has a malformed imagination. Rose sets herself amongst the gods, believing she has the power to save. She could have been the one to save him… she swore this is what she believed. Where did this belief come from, I wonder? It isn’t arrogance, that isn’t how Rose presents. In fact, I think it’s the opposite. Rose acts more as Fast Forward’s property; he holds a kind of god-like power over her. She is even “marked” by him (think the mark of Cain—Genesis 4; or, more appropriately, the mark of the beast—Revelation 13). Fast Forward knows she’s beholden to him, and he uses her because of it, time and again. Rose seems to know this and allows it. Why? Because she has no choice. He is her god; she worships him and needs his approval. So, she will change him, save him. Then he will recognize her worth… then she will finally feel worthy.

When I started this post (over two weeks ago), I thought I was writing about the interesting way characters who don’t show up much in a story can still have this outsized influence on the main character’s trajectory. I was thinking of how this translates to real life, too: how there can be a person in your life you hardly ever see, but who still has this wild influence over how you think, or act, or make decisions in your life. Maybe this person is even dead, and still he or she occupies a huge piece of real estate in your mind.

But then, as I kept writing, I hit upon this idea that all this influence—whether of minor characters in a story, or those very real people in our lives—is linked directly to our imaginations. That is, who you imagine yourself to be, what you imagine you need, etc… all lead the way in who you allow to influence you and what decisions you make—big or small—out of that influencing.

There is so much more to say about this. We have only taken a teaspoon-sized scoop of a Sahara-sized subject. But, a teaspoon is enough for now. It’s enough to beg a few questions:

Who or what am I allowing imaginative real estate in my head today? Is this a worthy resident? Might I need to imagine a better way?

What about you?