I hated when he dismissed us like we were good for nothing and couldn’t take care of ourselves without his help. It was the other way around, but he’d always been good at gaslighting us.
Devon questions authority - in this case the authority of his father; it's almost as if fathers represent authority and the book is telling us to not fall or give in to authoritarianism using the fathers as a symbol - the fathers lie, push people down, and use others to keep people down, specifically Devon and Nate's dad, but we have heard Maddox refer to his father as a gaslighter as well who forces the sons to give him their money - also brings to mind the idea that sometimes a child's first bullies are their parents
