Worm is a general term for long, tubular animals that live in water or burrow in the earth. Some are very small, but others can grow to great length. In the story, the worms the boys deal with are night crawlers, which can be up to a foot long.

A night crawler is a very large earthworm, sometimes up to a foot in length, that Alan and Joe pick for Billy to eat. They choose it mainly for its size, which they hope will be too much for Billy. Like many worms, night crawlers are rubbery, squishy, and moist, which makes them somewhat creepy and, to most people, completely gross to eat.

As a literary symbol, worms have been prevalent in literature for centuries, the term often used to encompass other reptilian creatures such as snakes and even dragons and to insinuate themes of death and renewal. The most famous depiction of such a symbol is the snake in Genesis who tempts Eve to eat the apple, leading to the fall of man. While the worms in Rockwell’s novel don’t carry such symbolic significance as good and evil, they do represent a type of renewal for the boys. Through preparing, eating, and fighting over the worms, each of the boys evolves—some for the better, others for the worse—and mature into young adults.