The Serpent King

Lydia is a precocious teenager, wise beyond her years. Goal oriented, she wants to move to New York and become a writer. She is an online influencer who spends much of her time writing posts on fashion and social topics, such as her life in a small town in the American South. Sometimes, she uses her blog to create a false image of herself being a fish out of water, even though she has a supportive family and very good friends in Dill and Travis. She uses her cultural background to increase views and garner empathy, especially when it comes to making sure NYU accepts her application. 

Lydia is also an influencer on Dill and Travis. She takes initiative, which sometimes causes friction, especially with Dill. Lydia believes she knows what is best for everyone, and, although she is often right, she learns the value of letting other people discover their abilities for themselves. Still, Lydia’s support and kindness help Dill with his budding music career, and Travis gets to meet his hero, the author of the fantasy book series he adores.

Lydia also fears the emotions she has towards Dill because she knows that she will soon be leaving, and she, too, does not want to jeopardize the friendship. She gradually realizes that instead of looking only to the future, she should allow herself to enjoy the moment. She enters a romantic relationship with Dill and learns that there is a softer, gentler side to her that she has never known before. By the time she leaves for university, she has become a fuller version of herself, more mature and more appreciative, both of the small gifts of life and of the larger ambitions she aims to fulfill. 

Travis is tall, strong, smart, funny, and kind. Even though a school incident, when he beat up a bully who was teasing Dill, made others afraid of physically attacking him, he reacts badly to his own violence because he sees his alcoholic father’s behavior in it, and he doesn’t want to be like his father. Coming from a poor, uneducated family, Travis yearns for something more, which, at the beginning of the novel he finds in his fantasy books. They bolster his self-confidence, helping him to envision himself as the hero of his own adventure. 

In time, thanks to their mutual interest in the Bloodfall series, he develops a potentially romantic relationship online with a girl named Amelia. As he recognizes and enjoys the emerging feelings, he tells Dill that he knows how Dill feels about Lydia and urges Dill to confess his feelings. In these subtle and more tactful ways, Travis is as influential as Lydia is. 

After meeting the author of his favorite books, Travis starts believing more in his own creative abilities. He decides to transform his fantasies into writing, imagining a life away from his dysfunctional family where he shares a house with Dill— he can write his stories, and Dill can make his music. Travis’s life is cut short, suddenly and senselessly, when two drug addicts murder him believing they will find money on him. The brutality of his death shakes the community, shatters his family and friends, and changes the course of the novel. In literary terms, his death makes Dill and Lydia treasure their relationship even more; thus, the author allows Travis’s character to remain influential, even after death. 

Of all the adult characters, Lydia’s father, Dr. Blankenship, shows the most mature, positive attitude, both toward life and toward the three protagonists. He and his wife chose to live in a small town because they believed this would be better for raising a family. The author portrays him as an educated man (he works as a dentist), but, more importantly, as an enlightened man, which makes him stand out in such a small-town environment. 

Despite the disadvantages of Forrestville, Dr. Blankenship and his wife have brought up Lydia to be independent, diligent, and ambitious. Lydia understands her value and does not need others to confirm it for her. This confidence is mostly due to her father’s caring attitude, one of unconditional support, good will, and humor. When the need arises, however, like when Dr. Blankenship notices that Lydia is being dismissive of her friends in Chapter 14, he sternly but kindly reminds her to pay more attention to her behavior and how it affects other people. 

Dr. Blankenship supports Dill as well. He takes Dill under his wing, knowing his home situation, and gives Dill a job in his office. He also drives him to Nashville to visit his father, knowing what kind of reaction such an encounter might provoke in the sensitive young man. He becomes a surrogate father to Dill, as he comforts him in his moment of need and as they commiserate about Lydia’s leaving for New York. At the end of the novel, Dr. Blankenship drives Dill to college and into a new life, remaining available for both Dill and Lydia as a source of support and care. 

Dill’s father, former pastor of the Church of Christ’s Disciples with Signs of Belief, is a dark and shadowy character. His influence is more felt than seen, except in brief scenes in prison and in Dill’s memories of him. The author portrays him as tall, extremely thin, and wiry with muscles, covered with tattoos of snakes. Dill Sr. is known as the Serpent King, just like his father was, but for different reasons. 

Whereas his father went mad from grief, Dill Sr. is mad with sense of importance, feeling the he is a messiah for the masses. As he used to hold sway over his congregants, he now holds sway over his wife and, to some extent, over his son as well. Dill makes himself visit his father in prison out of a sense of duty and guilt, although Dill feels disturbed by the changes he notices; his father is becoming even more unscrupulous and hard than before. Dill Sr. has instilled a deep sense of insecurity into his son because he never believed in him and thought him too soft for his religion (Dill was afraid of snakes). Dill Sr. used his “love” and attention selfishly and with manipulative ease, provoking feelings of guilt and remorse in his family. When the police discovered child pornography in his possession, he fully and self-righteously expected his son to take the blame for him. 

Dill Sr. is an obvious narcissist. A man incapable of empathy or positive feelings toward others, he believes in his own absolute superiority; without other people’s devotion and attention, he cannot function. He chooses to interpret his prison time as God’s wish for him to perform “missionary work.” Dill’s acts of defiance at first do not disturb Dill Sr., because he believes that no one can get out from under his spell, but by the end of the novel, his son only has pity for him and implies that he will never come visit him again. Even as Dill Sr. insults his son as he leaves for the last time, he calls his name repeatedly, indicating his escalating fear that his son is truly abandoning him.