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Chapter 28
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 starts attending Jonesville Middle School, and the kids seem different from the ones he went to elementary school with. Demon thinks the kids in his new school might know more than him academically, but they don’t know anything about how the world works. They especially don’t know about money. Angus takes Demon shopping at Walmart and buys him new shoes with Coach Winfield’s credit card, which Demon is reluctant to use. After their rocky start, Demon and Angus start getting along okay. Angus is two grades ahead of him in school and tells him what to expect, and Demon tells her about his history.
Demon’s life with Angus and Coach Winfield is much different from any life he’s lived before. Living with Coach also catapults Demon into a higher socioeconomic status. With access to money, Demon finds that he can avoid the pitfalls of poverty that led to his ostracization in his previous school, underlining Demon’s idea that poverty, especially extreme poverty, can lead to social exclusion in the U.S.
Themes
