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Chapter 62
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 decides to go back to Lee County to visit Ms. Annie, who is pregnant. He also tells June he’s coming, but he doesn’t tell anyone else. When he gets to Annie’s house, he finds a note on the door saying they have gone to the hospital. He calls June, but she’s busy with patients. He drives around aimlessly before ending up at the trail to Devil’s Bathtub. He’s not sure why he goes there, exactly, but he hikes up to the waterfall.
After more than three years of sobriety away from Lee County, Demon returns. When the two people he isn’t worried about seeing—Ms. Annie and June—aren’t around, he finds himself drawn to the site of one of the worst traumas he has experienced (the place where Fast Forward, Hammer, and his father all died), signaling that while Demon has made significant strides in his life, there are still aspects of his past that remain painful and unresolved. The difference now is that Demon is able to cope with those difficult emotions and stay sober.
Themes
When Demon eats breakfast with June the next morning, she tells him about lawsuits against drug companies she helped get off the ground. She also talks about Maggot and Mariah. They are both working at PetSmart, and Maggot has a boyfriend. June tells Demon about Emmy, too. She is living in an apartment in Asheville with people who are also in recovery. After breakfast, Demon decides to drive to Murder Valley. In Murder Valley, Betsy and Mr. Dick are excited and surprised to see him. Demon talks to them about Angus and asks if she has a boyfriend. Betsy says she has her “hunches about that,” but doesn’t elaborate further.
June discusses lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies, mirroring the lawsuits that occurred in the real world (not the world of the novel) against companies like Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin and the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma at the time. Maggot, Emmy, and Demon all seem to have made their way to sobriety by leaving Lee County devoting themselves to maintaining that sobriety.
Themes
