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Chapter 52
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 thinks that the prospective baby will help Dori and him get clean. But now, Dori just waits for Demon to leave before she shoots up. Demon goes to see June to try and get prenatal care for Dori and to see if June might be able to help Dori quit using. June is more excited about her own news, though. Through Martha, June thinks she might know where Emmy is in Atlanta, and she wants Demon to come with her to go down there.
Demon and June head to Atlanta with June’s brother Everett. Everett has an open carry permit, so he’s there as protection. When they get to the address June has for Emmy, they stop the car and wait outside. The house is in rough condition. June knocks, and a guy inside tells her that he thinks the women who used to live there moved to a house nearby. That house is new, with factory stickers on the windows. June, Demon, and Everett go inside. In one of the rooms, they find two kids lying on flattened pizza boxes. In the next room, they find Emmy passed out, “half naked.” She has bruises on her face. Demon picks her up and carries her back to the car. By the time they get back home, Emmy has woken up but isn’t saying much.
Emmy’s story also highlights the destructiveness of both addiction and exploitative people. Before taking off with Fast Forward, Emmy had been offered a scholarship to the University of Tennessee. Now, she has been thrust into squalor, and June, Demon, and Everett have to find her to bring her out of it. The novel suggests that Fast Forward’s exploitative and manipulative behavior is similar to the behavior of the pharmaceutical companies, and the repercussions that Emmy feels from Fast Forward are similar to how the pharmaceutical industries have impacted regions of Appalachia.
Themes
