Demon Copperhead

Mr. and Mrs. Peggot are Demon’s neighbors and substitute parents when he is a young boy. They are an older couple whose family has been torn apart by external and internal issues, yet they maintain a loving and secure home. The Peggots take care of Demon in his most desperate situations, but they ultimately can’t save him from himself. Their old age and health problems make them unable to give Demon the home he deserves, which Demon resents for some time. The Peggots are based on David Copperfield’s Peggotys, who fill a similar role in David’s life.

Maggot is Demon’s life-long best friend. As different as they are, their friendship stands the test of time because of their shared childhood experiences. Maggot goes through his own coming-of-age journey. He is lonely despite the structured and loving home his grandparents provide because he, like Demon, doesn’t have his mother in his life. Maggot also struggles with expressing his creativity and sexuality. He styles himself as a goth, which is very much at odds with the rural style that surrounds him and makes him stand out further. His discomfort with himself leads to a meth addiction. Maggot only enters rehab because he is imprisoned, which ends up saving his life. Maggot later reunites with his mother, and they get their lives on track together. Maggot also gets a boyfriend, demonstrating that in accepting himself he has found love.

Stoner is Demon’s stepfather. He presents himself as a stable adult who can make Demon’s mother’s life better. However, their marriage only highlights her naivete and desperation for a life partner. Once married, Stoner reveals his true self. He is physically and emotionally abusive to both his wife and stepson. He drives Demon’s mother to death by overdose. Stoner is the first adult who actively betrays Demon’s trust and makes his life worse. His equivalent in David Copperfield is Mr. Murdstone.

Crickson, Demon’s first foster home placement, represents everything that is wrong with the foster care system. He uses the system to get more money for his failing farm and uses the children in foster care as unpaid labor. Crickson is the second adult who betrays Demon because he takes advantage of Demon’s status as an orphan. Crickson also represents a common story in Appalachia: His farm is failing, but he has no other options for employment. Though it does not excuse his abusive behavior, Crickson is in his own way a victim of America’s socioeconomic system—an example of The Exploitation of the Rural Working Class. In David Copperfield, the Crickson figure is a schoolmaster named Mr. Creakle.

Tommy is Demon’s friend and one of the only consistently stable and good people in Demon’s life. Tommy is mercilessly teased for his weight, but neither this abuse nor his orphan status ruins his kindness. When Tommy ages out of the foster care system, he finds honest work and tries to rebuild his life. He helps Demon get involved with comic publishing and pushes Demon to see the ways in which society has abandoned and degraded Appalachia. Tommy is a voracious reader and becomes the voice of America’s buried history. He challenges misunderstandings of Appalachian identity and motivates Demon to tell the world about who they truly are. Tommy ends up with everything he wants after many years of patience, having never given up on himself or others, highlighting Kingsolver’s message that with commitment to one’s values, happiness is possible. Tommy is also a figure in David Copperfield, where he shares the same name.

Fast Forward is a teenager when Demon meets him in foster care, and he becomes an idol for Demon. He is older, cooler, and a football star. Fast Forward’s confidence and natural charisma make Demon proud to have him as a friend, but Fast Forward shows early signs of being abusive. Fast Forward gets the other foster boys to trust him by providing them with snacks and drugs, but he doesn’t stand up for them in any real way. Years later, when Fast Forward and Demon reunite, Fast Forward continues to use others for his own gain. He ruins Emmy’s life by getting her to fall in love with him and then using her body for drug deals. Fast Forward’s death is dramatic, brutal, and accidental. This death is a waste of Fast Forward’s real talents, but it also frees many people from falling under his destructive spell. His analog in David Copperfield is James Steerforth, a Byronic-style hero/antihero.

Emmy is Maggot’s cousin. When Demon first meets her as a child, he finds her bossy and off-putting but also attractive. She and Demon develop an intimate friendship and fantasize about growing up and marrying one another. After this childhood dreaming passes as a phase, Emmy and Demon remain friendly but distant.

Emmy seemingly has everything going for her. She has a stable maternal figure, popularity, and good grades. Nevertheless, her bright future is decimated when she falls in love with Fast Forward, who ruins her by getting her addicted to drugs and selling her sexual services for drug dealing. Emmy is rescued by June, who helps her reclaim her life in rehab. Emmy’s highs and lows represent the complex nature of addiction, which can hurt anyone. Her equivalent in David Copperfield is Little Em’ly, whom Steerforth seduces and then abandons and who ultimately emigrates to Australia, where no one will know her past.

Aunt June is a heroic figure. Besides being Maggot’s aunt and Emmy’s adopted mother, June is a nurse committed to eradicating the opioid epidemic. No matter how hard her job is, she perseveres because she believes in the future of her community. She helps Emmy and Demon recover from their addictions and always provides a haven and a second chance for lost souls. She is brave and stalwart in her moral code and one of the only adults who provides a stable influence in Demon’s life. Kingsolver uses her character as a role model to society.

The McCobb family is Demon’s second foster care placement. They are a large and poor family whose irresponsibility hurts both their own children and Demon. They abuse Demon by not feeding him and relegating him to the laundry room—yet another example of adults failing children. The McCobbs also illustrate the systemic nature of poverty; they lose the resources they need to make money because they can’t pay for those resources, trapping them in a constant cycle of desperation, hustle, poverty, and revival. The McCobbs resemble David Copperfield’s the Micawbers, although the latter do not abuse David.

Miss Barks is Demon’s social worker. She is kind but doesn’t truly listen to what Demon is going through. Miss Barks symbolizes what is wrong with the social work system. She is not paid enough to live well and is overworked in her stressful job. She goes through the motions of being a social worker only until she can secure a higher-paying job. When she quits, she represents yet another adult who betrays Demon.

Betsy is Demon’s paternal grandmother. She is a formidable woman who takes care of a lot of people, including unofficial foster daughters. However, she is staunchly against taking care of little boys, so while she helps support Demon in a new phase of his life, she doesn’t extend herself to him. Betsy doesn’t fail Demon like other adults, but she does represent the mystery of adults. She is an important character because she sets Demon up with Coach Winfield. Her Dickensian analog is Betsey Trotwood, whose suspicion of men and boys stems from a husband who abandoned her.

Dick is Betsy’s brother. He is older and infirm, so he relies on Betsy as a caretaker. Dick is kind and is the historian of the family. He is a voracious reader and enjoys flying kites with lines from his favorite book written on them. Dick represents fortitude and peace with oneself: Despite his infirmities, he is a happy man. Dickens’s “Mr. Dick” has some form of mental health condition rather than a physical illness, but he is similarly good-tempered and wise.

Angus is Demon’s unofficial foster sister. She lets him believe she’s a boy at first because she feels like a failure as a girl born to a football coach. Angus is devoted to her father. She is a kind, headstrong, fiercely intelligent girl who turns into a stable young adult with a bright future. In the end of the novel, Demon realizes that he loves Angus, who has always shown him unconditional love. She wants to become a social worker, suggesting that there is hope for the future of society as long as there are people like Angus working for children. Angus corresponds to Agnes Wickfield in David Copperfield; she is a steadfast presence in David’s life whom he ultimately marries.

Coach Winfield is Demon’s unofficial foster parent. He is lauded for being the high school football coach and takes football as seriously as life. In off-seasons, Winfield struggles with an alcohol addiction, broken by his wife’s early death. Coach is a genuinely good and supportive father figure to Demon: He believes in Demon and helps build his self-esteem around sports. However, Winfield is also committed to football to a fault. He doesn’t second guess the OxyContin prescribed to Demon and encourages Demon to keep taking it even when it is clear that the medicine clouds Demon’s mind. Winfield’s generosity is taken advantage of by U-Haul, but Winfield is ultimately saved by his daughter. The parallel figure in David Copperfield is the lawyer Mr. Wickfield—also a widower who has an addiction to alcohol.

U-Haul is one of the major antagonists in this novel. He is a wily man who ingratiates himself into Coach Winfield’s life by making himself seem indispensable. U-Haul takes advantage of Winfield’s generosity and alcoholism. He embezzles money for himself using Winfield’s name and attempts to rape Angus. Because of his experiences with untrustworthy adults, Demon is suspicious of U-Haul from the start. U-Haul proves Demon’s suspicions correct, demonstrating the importance of Demon’s mature instincts. In David Copperfield, U-Haul is Uriah Heep, who embezzles from the Wickfields (and others), extorts Mr. Wickfield, and conspires to marry Agnes.

Dori is Demon’s first significant girlfriend. Dori lost out on her childhood because she devoted her youth tending to her ailing father. While this caretaking role is generous and conventionally feminine, it also makes Dori naïve and incapable of taking care of herself. She introduces Demon to harder drugs and nurtures his addiction, losing herself in her opiate addiction. She is emotional, can’t keep up the house, and can’t hold down a job. As much as Demon loves Dori, staying with her means succumbing to his addiction. Dori’s drug addiction causes her to miscarry, foreshadowing her own death by overdose. Dori’s story is a cautionary tale about drug addiction and reliance on others. The corresponding figure in David Copperfield is Dora Spenlow—David’s charming but childish first wife.