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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Demon Copperhead, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Exploitation
Class, Social Hierarchy, and Stereotypes
Pain and Addiction
Toxic Masculinity
Community and Belonging
Summary
Analysis
Demon feels like the uninvited person in Aunt June’s home. But she does a good job of anticipating his needs, slipping him extra food and taking him to places he wants to visit, like the skatepark. Emmy starts visiting him every night, and they talk about “everything under the sun.” Emmy tells him she’s scared about leaving Knoxville. She also tells him about how she ended up with Aunt June, explaining that the Peggots took her in after her dad died. Then, when Maggot’s mom was sent to prison, they took Maggot in, too. They couldn’t care for both Emmy and Maggot, so June stepped in to take Emmy, even though she was still in nursing school. At first, June raised Emmy in the trailer that would later become Mom and Demon’s. For his part, Demon tells Emmy about his baby brother who died with Mom.
Having noticed Mrs. Peggot’s reluctance to bring him on the trip to Knoxville, Demon feels unwelcome in Aunt June’s house. Still, Aunt June tries to make him feel welcome, and he grows closer to Emmy. Notably, Demon and Emmy forge their closeness by sharing some of their more difficult memories with each other. They bond over their similar hardships, but those late-night talks ultimately remind Demon that Emmy has a new mother and a family in the Peggots, he is alone in the world by comparison.
Themes
Demon feels like he’s falling in love with Emmy. She asks him if he wants to “go to second base” with her. When he says yes, she puts his hand under her shirt. He tells her he loves her and pictures them both as adults together. On Christmas, Demon gets various presents from “Santa,” and Aunt June gets him a set of markers for drawing comics. The night before Demon is going to leave, Emmy starts crying. She asks him to not get a girlfriend and wait for her until she and Aunt June move to Lee County in May.
Because they have experienced similar traumas and are comfortable opening up to each other, Emmy and Demon develop a deep bond, even though they’re both young. This underscores the importance of forming communities with supportive, empathic people.
Themes
Back at the Peggots’ house, Demon works up his nerve and asks Mrs. Peggot if they might think of adopting him or fostering him. Mrs. Peggot says Miss Barks asked her the same thing after Mom’s funeral. But, Mrs. Peggot says, she and Mr. Peggot are getting older, and they’re both having health issues. And Maggot will move out in two years when his mom is released from prison. Mrs. Peggot tries to explain that they don’t have it in them to raise another kid. Demon starts crying, and Mrs. Peggot tries to console him. Demon thinks he shouldn’t have been surprised. He remembers what Maggot said about Sunday school stories being just like superhero comics. Thinking that Jesus would save the day, Demon realizes, is the same as sending up the Batman signal.
This passage hints at why Mrs. Peggot hesitated to let Demon come with the family to Knoxville. She knew Demon would need a home and suspected that bringing him to Knoxville might raise his hopes that the Peggots would adopt him. Mrs. Peggot’s refusal to adopt him confirms his worst fears: now, he feels that he has nowhere to go, no home, no family. When Demon mentions superhero comics and Sunday school stories when discussing Mrs. Peggot’s decision not to adopt him, he underlines one of the novel’s main themes: while there may be heroes and villains in this story, there are no easy solutions, and no one can change the course of history (or the course of a person’s life) with a single act.
Themes
