Demon Copperhead is on fire. And he’d rather die than let that flame go out. From the moment he arrives – blue and cold and trapped – into this world, the cards are set against him. He is pinballed from addictive mother to violent stepfather to neglectful foster parents, battered by individual losses and systemic letdowns. And yet, Demon Copperhead – named for the Copperhead snake which killed his father – is full of fire.
For this novel, Kingsolver was inspired by her “genius friend” Charles Dickens and his novel David Copperfield. What Kingsolver successfully shows in her nineties Appalachian reimagining of the classic is that the issues that fired us up in 1850 still get us going today. Demon Copperhead is more than a retelling; Kingsolver builds a world for the reader to become immersed in, with a complex, tragic, and deeply emotional central character for us to fall in love with. (Such a character is rare.) At the same time, Kingsolver seamlessly involves critical political thought in her novel. As Demon fights for his survival, so do the Appalachian people fight for theirs. Despite his unique and complex story, he acts as a representative of the Appalachian people, fighting against state-induced poverty and addiction, and a popular culture which sees them only as “rednecks’ and ‘hillbillies”.
Barbara Kingsolver’s newest novel is “for the survivors” – a dedication that is our introduction to the text. Survival is the primary theme of the novel. From his eventful birth (born with the amniotic sac intact), through his years in the foster system, to teenagehood in addiction and adulthood in recovery, Demon has one goal: survive. His fire is dedicated to his survival.
In this sense, Demon acts as a representative of the Appalachian people. When reading this novel for the first time, I was so struck by his compelling character and tragic story that I failed to properly recognise the unifying thread connecting the events of the novel. On the second read, it was clear to me that this book is more than an emotionally engaging character study. Demon Copperhead is a politically complex masterpiece, with a critical analysis of Appalachian fire at its centre. This novel is very focused on place, revolving around Lee County in southwest Virginia. Demon is always there – if not in body, then certainly in spirit: “I wanted to go home, which was nowhere, but it’s a feeling you keep having, even after that’s no place anymore”. The story of Demon – an orphan raised in a community battered by poverty, addiction, and governmental negligence – is ubiquitous to Appalachia. With only the sensitivity, humour, and bluntness of someone who intimately understands the issues she discusses, Kingsolver tackles the oft-ignored plight of the Appalachian people.
Demon Copperhead is born in a trailer in Lee County, to a dead father and a teenage mother with a drug addiction. Immediately, Kingsolver introduces key issues in the novel, such as a lack of affordable housing, teenage substance addiction, and poverty. Throughout the novel, Kingsolver zeroes in on these themes through her main characters. The first part of the novel focuses on Demon’s childhood in the foster system. Here, he faces hunger, poverty, and child labour; all due to a systemically underfunded and overworked social services department. Through Demon’s time in foster care, Kingsolver also touches on a key issue in Appalachia: the banning of tobacco advertising and the closure of farms. The novel explains how farmers who were once subsidised to grow tobacco suddenly lost both funding and demand overnight and many were forced to sell their land. Land ownership is also a significant issue in the novel: “leaving your family’s land would be like moving out of your own body. The land is alive, a body itself”.
Alongside the closure of tobacco farms is the issue of mining in Appalachia. As with tobacco, the mining industry once dominated the area, and the majority of the population was dependent on mining companies for employment, housing, and education. As such, the education system had been deliberately underfunded in order to push more young people into mining. Therefore, when tobacco farms and mines were closed, the biggest employers in the region disappeared overnight, and Appalachia was left with an entire generation of impoverished and uneducated young people. So, when the opioid crisis hit the US, Appalachia was particularly vulnerable to exploitation by pharmaceutical companies who sought disabled, low-income, or unemployed patients. Subtly, Kingsolver draws these themes together throughout the novel. She concludes that the combination of scant job opportunities, the opioid crisis, and poor education resulted in a generation of young Appalachians who fell into substance addiction and crime due to a lack of alternatives. Despite his best efforts, Demon also falls into this trap, and it takes a monumental effort for him to climb out.
And yet, Demon Copperhead is not a bleak novel. Alongside the tragedy, Kingsolver creates a tribe of emotionally complex and deeply real characters who accompany Demon throughout his story. These characters – Maggott, Emmy, Angus, and Mrs Peggott in particular – bring joy, levity, and comfort to the novel. Without them, the novel – and Demon’s life – might feel too bleak to keep going. Here, Kingsolver touches on perhaps the most vital aspect of Appalachian fire: community. Despite his orphanhood, we never doubt that Demon has a family. This family might be scattered, trodden down, and dealing with problems of their own, but they are always there, as in much of Kingsolver’s writing. Family and community are recurring themes in her work. In The Poisonwood Bible, community is an essential element of the decolonisation process in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of the sisters in the novel – Leah – devotes her life to providing support and shelter for those displaced by the conflict. Similarly, Demon is surrounded by caring characters, who do their best to help him despite their own issues. Notably, Demon’s teachers – Annie and Mr Armstrong – see Demon for who he is, rather than for the circumstances which have shaped his life. One of Mr Armstrong’s lines particularly stood out to me: “sometimes you hear about those miracles, where a car gets completely mangled in a wreck. But then the driver walks out of it alive? I’m saying you are that driver”. Referring to Demon as the driver rather than a passenger gives Demon a sense of agency which he had so far been lacking. He is beginning to understand that his life is something that he might, one day, have some control over. We can also apply this to the advocacy shown by Appalachian activists, including Kingsolver herself. Despite the neglect and discrimination that they have faced, Appalachian folk have a spark which cannot be extinguished. Community is the fire around which Appalachian people congregate, seeking warmth, comfort, and hope.
Even after recognising that he cannot healthily return to Lee County, Demon maintains his connection to the community in which he grew up. He is encouraged to commit to recovery by his Aunt June, pushed to pursue his graphic novel by his teacher Annie, and never loses touch with Angus. The recovered (and renamed) Damon Fields does not have to be on fire. This is not to say that his light has gone out. Inside, his flame is fanned by his work, his relationships, his life. Only when he begins his recovery can his fire begin to spark and warm other passions. The most significant of these being his graphic novel series Red Neck. Inspired by the reclamation of the slur ‘redneck’, Kingsolver seeks to shed light on the issues faced by Appalachian people, using her fiery main character as a representative. As Demon expresses his activism through Red Neck, so does Kingsolver through her novel. Demon Copperhead is a dedicated, thorough, and astounding piece of advocacy for the Appalachian community. The novel challenges stereotypes, raises voices, and paints a genuine and informed picture of life in Appalachia.
