Mungo knew fine well that people had demons. Mo-Maw’s showed itself whenever she jangled for a drink. Her demon was a flat, eel-like snake with the jaw and beady eyes of a weasel and the matted coat of a mangy rat. It was a sleekit thing on a chain leash that shook her and dragged her towards things she ought to be walking away from. It was greedy and it was cunning.
-- Mungo (chapter 1)

Importance: In the opening pages of the novel, Mungo considers the effects of alcoholism on his mother, Mo-Maw. Mungo describes the “demon” that appears whenever Mo-Maw “jangled for a drink.” His mother morphs into a grotesque, animalistic, “cunning” creature that forces her to pursue “things she ought to be walking away from.” In this way, Mungo reveals the extent to which alcoholism changes, distorts, and disfigures his mother. Mo-Maw is barely recognizable to her own family when intoxicated...