Demon Copperhead

Demon Copperhead, like Dickens’s David Copperfield, explores the ways in which society fails its young people. It is a veiled didactic novel that holds up a mirror to a society that pretends to care about children but actually leaves the most vulnerable among them to suffer.

Demon’s early life exemplifies this theme. His social workers are a pattern of disappointments. Miss Barks, a young and kind social worker, constantly has one foot out the door. She doesn’t truly listen to or consider Demon’s truths. When she quits, Demon is disappointed in her and feels betrayed, but he is hardly surprised. Miss Barks is just another adult who abandons him. Demon’s second social worker is completely uninterested in him. When Demon finds his own home placement, she checks out completely, even though Demon is technically still the state’s responsibility. Social workers have the difficult but important job of protecting children who are orphaned, abandoned, or separated from their parents for their safety. However, in Demon Copperhead, social workers are a prime example of society at large turning its backs on children. In part, this is thanks to the structure of social services. Social workers are underpaid, overworked, and have limited resources to help children. Kingsolver suggests that if society were to invest more in the social work system, the children in it would be more likely to succeed.

Instead, the social work experience constantly puts Demon in danger, in part because it treats him as a commodity “So fostering was done by companies, and we, as Stoner would say, were Product” (78). Though Crickson doesn’t abuse Demon, he does use him for unpaid labor. Crickson is only interested in the money and work he can get from fostering children. He has an important responsibility, but he shirks that responsibility for his own profit. The same happens with the McCobbs. That the McCobbs, who have had their furniture repossessed because they can’t pay their bills, were able to acquire a child from the foster care system highlights how broken the system is. They don’t feed Demon, force him to get a dangerous job, and charge him for rent. Demon’s history—his mother’s drug addiction, his stepfather’s abuse, etc.—already renders him vulnerable. The foster system could have given him structure and support during a traumatic time in his life. Instead, the social care system and the foster families make his life worse.

Kingsolver includes bright lights in her novel to encourage her reader to consider the ways in which society can help children. Aunt June is a hero in this story. She is at the forefront of the fight against the opioid epidemic and she devotes herself to saving the young people around her. Aunt June could have moved anywhere, but she chooses to live in Lee County so she can help her community. At only 19, she takes in and then later adopts her niece, Emmy. June’s generosity, loyalty, and kindness exemplify what society could be. June literally saves lives, including Emmy’s and Demon’s. Angus symbolizes the hope that the system itself can be reformed—i.e., made to serve the people it’s meant to serve. Angus, who is smart enough to do anything with her life, chooses to become a social worker.