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Chapter 7
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
After Demon finds Mom passed out on her bed, he grabs the phone to call 911. Stoner punches him to try and stop him. Mrs. Peggot pounds on the door. Demon rides up front with the driver after the ambulance arrives. Stoner rides in the back with Mom, pretending to be shocked and polite. The Peggots follow in their truck. At the hospital, a woman from DSS speaks to Demon. At first, she wants to know if Maggot, Mr. Peggot, or Mrs. Peggot have molested him. Demon says certainly not and thinks that Stoner must have already talked to her. He then tells the woman from DSS about Stoner and says that, if he could, he would shoot Stoner in the kneecaps and elbows before killing him so he could watch him beg for mercy. The woman writes down everything Demon says.
When the ambulance comes to take Mom to the hospital, Stoner acts shocked and polite. The narration implicitly compares him to Romeo Blevins: like Blevins, he is abusive behind closed doors but able to put on an act around others. Thus, those in positions of power initially take Stoner at face value, inclined to believe him on account of his age and his authority over Demon.
Themes
The woman from DSS asks about other fights Demon and Stoner have had. She asks Demon to take off his shirt and takes pictures of his injuries. She then shuffles Demon to a doctor who will examine Demon’s “mental aspects,” to see if he is okay to be released. The doctor says Demon can go, but Mom will be recovering for the next few weeks, and he can’t go with Stoner, either. Meanwhile, Stoner has made a complaint against the Peggots, so the authorities will have to investigate them before Demon can live with them.
While DSS seems to take Demon’s true allegations against Stoner seriously, they also take Stoner’s untrue allegations against the Peggots seriously. The ensuing investigations leave Demon with nowhere to go. Now, Demon is at the mercy of the foster care system when trying to find the kind of family, community, and belonging he needs to thrive. Although DSS is theoretically supposed to help someone in Demon’s positions, that doesn’t happen in practice.
Themes
The next morning, Demon’s new caseworker, Miss Barks, tells him they’ve found him a temporary placement with Mr. Crickson on a farm with other boys Mr. Crickson has taken in for short-term stays. Demon wonders if Miss Barks might be his “guarding angel.” She says Mom will be released from the hospital and start treatment, which will last for a few weeks. At the house, Miss Barks doesn’t want to take him to the door. Demon can tell that she’s afraid of something in there and thinks this might be her first day on the job. So much for being a “guarding angel,” Demon thinks.
Since Demon cannot stay with Mom or the Peggots, the community he had come to rely on for support is no longer available to him. As a result, DSS seems to put Demon’s future in the hands of chance. While in theory, DSS would evaluate potential foster placements before sending children to live there, Miss Barks’s reaction to Mr. Crickson’s farm shows that she knows something is wrong with the farm but is still willing to send Demon there, intimating that the foster system, designed to ensure the wellbeing of children, is hopelessly broken.
Themes
