38 pages • 1 hour read
Dennis CovingtonSalvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Wider Circle: Elvis Presley Saylor”
The next week, Covington sees Dewey Chafin at the Church of Jesus Christ in Kentucky for the first time since Jolo, one year prior. Covington notices that Dewey looks exactly the same to him, down to a bandage he had been wearing on his hand. Dewey has recently received two new snake bites, bringing his total to 117.
On that day, Bill Pelfrey from Georgia preaches the sermon. Covington had met Bill during the Scottsboro days, and his wife and daughter, Diane, were also active snake holders. After the service, Covington meets a man outside, sporting a moustache and tropical shirt, who tells him the others call him “the Wicked One” (129). The man is named Elvis Presley Saylor and Covington finds him again after the dinner, when he is attempting to hitchhike home to Kentucky. Because he has been married twice, Elvis has found himself at odds with Punkin Brown. Covington realizes Elvis has been outcast from his own people, and he reveals to the reader that this is what always pushes him away from churchgoing. Covington does not realize he is about to be ostracized in the same way as Elvis.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Wedding”
Covington’s career as a snake-handling preacher begins and ends on a single day in December 1993 at a wedding at Carl Porter’s church in Georgia that he, Vicki, and Melissa Springer attend together. Diane Pelfrey, daughter of Bob Pelfrey, is set to marry Steve Frazier, cousin of Punkin Brown, in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite Steve’s relation to Punkin, he is new to handling and was born in Michigan. Carl’s church is beautiful and a wonderful venue for a wedding. While no snakes would be present during the wedding, out of respect for Steve’s family, there would be snake handling at a regular service later that night. Carl is officiating, and it is a normal wedding and reception. However, the McGlocklins choose to leave directly after the reception.
Later that evening, during the snake-handling service, Carl begins to preach, focusing his critique on Melissa by preaching “the necessity for women to stay in their place” (227). Carl shouts, in a sexist diatribe, that God made women to help men and not for them to live a life of their own. Covington does not understand why Carl is choosing to humiliate them at this time, and when Carl calls on him to preach, he agrees to step up to the pulpit. As is customary for a new preacher, he asks Carl: “[I]f I step out of the Word I want you to tell me” (230). He relates the events of Jesus’s resurrection, saying that Mary Magdalene’s part in it is proof that a woman’s place includes preaching the gospel, but Carl tells him he is out of “the Word.”
None of the parishioners will look Covington in the eye. He leaves the platform and notices that Vicki is receiving a blessing from Aunt Daisy. Punkin Brown takes over, preaching a different sermon. He brings out a rattler and then says, “It’s a lie Dennis! There’s no truth in it! It’s a sin!” (235). The sermons continue in this way until finally Covington, Melissa, and Vicki decide to leave. While he and Carl rarely speak today, Covington has maintained his friendship with Charles and Aline McGlocklin. On the drive home to Birmingham, Covington recognizes the route, taking him past his old neighborhood of East Lake, where he once hunted for snakes as a child.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
It is perhaps surprising to the reader that Covington is still capable of meeting new members of the snake-handling community at this phase of his immersion. However, Covington meets Elvis Presley Saylor for the first time in Kentucky over a year after joining the community. Elvis has been ostracized for his decision to get a divorce. Unbeknownst to him, Covington will also be denounced soon, for progressive thinking in regards to women’s rights and the role of women in the church. Elvis shares that he has evidence that members of his community have had adulterous thoughts about his wife, despite being married with children themselves. This sort of hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy is what Covington says always turns him off from full commitment to any church community. Elvis wanted to find a position in the church and believed wholeheartedly in the practice of serpent handling, having participated eight or nine times himself. He has drunk the strychnine, felt the Spirit of God, and he believes in salvation, but as if experiencing a premonition, he cautions Covington that night: “[I]f you see something that’s not right and mention it, they’ll prophecy against you or say you’re lost” (211).
In the spirit of prophesizing, Covington chooses to admit to his readers in advance that his career as a snake-handling preacher will begin and end on a single day, just over two years after Glenn Summerford’s initial act of violence would send Covington out to Scottsboro, Alabama, in the first place. It is true that the series of events leading toward Covington’s departure are unfortunate and seemingly could have been avoided without such a direct and violent breach of Melissa and Vicki’s honor. In an uncharacteristic move, Carl Porter—the very same man who encouraged Covington to bring photographers into his church and to report on their activities—behaves appallingly toward women he has previously accepted. Covington retaliates simply by standing his ground and defending the women, using a Biblical passage to do so. However, the act is done and Carl cannot condone what Covington has said, nor can he take back his own interpretation of the Bible. This impasse forces Covington to leave the snake-handling community.
