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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
At school, other kids treat Demon like a different person. They don’t know who he is to Coach, but they know Coach is the one in charge, and they respect him because of that. Coach also lets Demon help out with the football team on Saturdays. One day, Coach plays catch with Demon, and Demon sees him beaming. Demon is placed in remedial classes because he’s behind in school, and he’s also sent to meet with the guidance counselor, Mr. Armstrong. When Mr. Armstrong first meets with Demon, he tells Demon that he’s read Demon’s DSS file and that he is resilient. Mr. Armstrong then gives Demon a test with different diagrams. Demon completes this test easily, and Mr. Armstrong says it’s a gifted and talented test and that Demon should make up the work he missed so he can go into the gifted and talented program.
In this passage, and through Demon’s interaction with Mr. Armstrong, the novel argues that Demon has been pigeonholed as a certain type of person—namely, as a poor student—because of his background and his lower socioeconomic status. Various teachers, the novel contends, have assumed that he is not good at school because of the family he came from. As soon as he is part of a different socioeconomic status—and meets someone like Mr. Armstrong, who can see beyond stereotypes—Demon is identified as the gifted student he always has been, underlining how stereotypes and prejudice harm people.
Themes
When other boys in Demon’s math class discover he can draw, they ask him to do nude drawings for them. Demon and Angus start spending time together regularly. Demon hasn’t had a friend since Maggot, whom he hasn’t seen in a long time. He thinks it’s a little strange to spend all his time with a girl, but he also doesn’t think that Angus is like other girls he’s met. She tells Demon that her real name is Agnes. She started going by Angus when kids used the name to tease her in first grade. To make them stop talking, she started using the name herself. As the season continues and the Lee High Generals remain undefeated, Coach becomes more and more scarce around the house.
The novel portrays Angus as defiantly unique: she trusts in her instincts and moral compass. Demon, on the other hand, seems easily swayed by others. He draws nude pictures for other boys in his math class because they want him to and worries that it might be strange to spend all of his time with a girl (meaning Angus). In a sense, Demon’s journey throughout the novel charts his path as he goes from someone who insecurely seeks the approval of others to someone who is comfortable in his own skin: in other words, he becomes someone more like Angus.
Themes
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