Demon Copperhead

Content warning: This section references addiction, death by overdose, physical and emotional abuse, and anti-gay bias.

“According to Mrs. Peggot there is one good piece of luck that comes with the baggie birth: it’s this promise from God that you’ll never drown. Specifically. You could still OD, or get pinned to the wheel and charbroiled in your driver’s seat, or for that matter blow your own brains out, but the one place where you will not suck your last breath is underwater. Thank you, Jesus.”

Demon’s postnatal amniotic sac is a traditional sign of good luck, but in a world of poverty and abuse, good luck is the subject of ironic derision. This quote foreshadows Demon’s future escape from poverty, but it also captures the myriad dangers in his life with characteristic humor. Demon takes on a sarcastic tone to dismiss the idea of good luck in a life marked by trauma and abuse.

“People love to believe in danger, as long as it’s you in harm’s way, and them saying bless your heart.”

Danger makes for a scintillating story or fodder for gossip, but only when it’s happening to someone else. This suggests that people are happier to watch someone else suffer than come together as a community to keep people out of danger. Thus, cycles of trauma, abuse, and poverty repeat endlessly.

“What I said about people, that if they care, they can tell one kind of a thing from another? Big if. Possibly the biggest if on the planet of earth. Why notice zero on snakes, and a thousand percent on certain things about people?”

Demon’s narrative voice demonstrates keen observation and innate intelligence. Here he notes that people are willfully blind to real problems while they construct fanciful ones. This echoes the novel’s message that people often try to cure pain and trauma by cultivating other forms of chaos. The quote also raises the question of whether people care. According to Demon, most people do not care enough to recognize the difference between fictive and real problems, and their inattention contributes to