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Chapter 54
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
June plans to send Emmy to residential rehab in Asheville. The day before Emmy leaves, Demon goes to June’s house to say goodbye. When Demon and Emmy talk, Emmy tells Demon that she’s afraid of going to rehab. Demon thinks she’s afraid that when she goes away, no one there will know that she’s “queen bee, Emmy Peggot.” After seeing Emmy, Demon goes to Tommy’s. His phone keeps ringing, but he doesn’t answer. When he picks up, it’s Angus. She says he needs to come over immediately. She says it’s about U-Haul. If possible, she wants Demon to kill him.
Emmy’s fear about going to rehab highlights one of the novel’s primary themes: that community gives one’s life meaning and person. Emmy is afraid that when she leaves Lee County, her life will no longer have the same meaning and purpose because she will lose the sense of belonging that she feels at home. Demon tries to reassure her, but he also seems to share the same kinds of fears, and that fear is part of what keeps him in Lee County, even though leaving might be the only way he too could try to get clean.
Themes
When Demon gets to the house, Angus and U-Haul are circling the kitchen table. Demon can’t tell who is trying to catch whom. Demon tackles U-Haul, and Angus yells at Demon not to let U-Haul escape. She grabs papers from the table and runs out the door. Demon pins U-Haul to the ground, but he eventually escapes and runs out to the driveway, where he bangs on the windows of his Mustang. Angus has locked herself inside. Demon punches U-Haul and then gets into the car beside Angus. Angus tells him that U-Haul has been watching her since she was a child. Now, he's trying to blackmail her into having sex with him. If she doesn’t, U-Haul says he’ll go to the school board and get Coach fired for being a drunk or for embezzling school and booster funds.
This chapter reveals the full scope of U-Haul’s scheme. Not only has he been embezzling funds, but he also wants to frame Coach for the crime and use Coach’s addiction as a way to explain why Coach did it. Beyond that, he wants to force Angus, a teenager, into having sex with him. U-Haul’s behavior shows what exploitative and manipulative behavior looks like on a personal, individual level. The novel makes an implicit comparison between the exploitative behavior of people like U-Haul and the exploitative practices of institutions like the pharmaceutical industry.
Themes
Demon says Coach would never steal money. Angus agrees, but U-Haul is in charge of bookkeeping, and he’s been funneling money into his mom’s bank account for years. Angus says U-Haul had been altering Betsy’s checks to steal money, too. Angus says that U-Haul tried to blame her because she knew about Coach’s drinking. Demon says, “This was done to you. To you and Coach both.”
Demon points out that Angus is not responsible for U-Haul’s actions or for the events that happen because of his actions. The novel suggests that the same statement could also apply to people living with opioid addiction in the Appalachian region. It is something that was done to them by pharmaceutical companies, the novel argues, not something they chose for themselves.
Themes
