Demon Copperhead

by Barbara Kingsolver

U-Haul

tetchy

barbershop?” “No. This chick at school. Martha

Ms. Annie. She talked in a voice that was almost like singing (which she did, in their band) and dressed like a hippie. Long blue skirt, flowery scarf on her long hair, earrings with little rocks on them, four colors of blue.

It was hard to see how September 11 was my fight. As far

as doing good for my fellow man, my better option was football.

Angus helped me think of excellent ones, like False Teeth in Salad Bowl.

There’s a shoe out there for every foot.

shiznet?”

since nothing probably had changed in that house since God was a child.

and sat us down in her living room where old furniture goes to die.

Fast Forward

sigoggling

geld

kyarn,

There’s north and there’s south, and then there is Lee County, world capital of the lose-lose situation.

Demon Copperhead.

Tommy

She had on a silky type dress with her hipbones jutting out like furniture under a sheet.

Great example of a SIMILE

Big Bear

Rose Dartell.

Sterling Ford

Sterling Ford, known as Fast Forward in Demon Copperhead, is a charismatic but troubled former high school football star who becomes Demon's foster brother and a key influence on his life. He represents the novel's version of James Steerforth from Charles Dickens's David Copperfield. Fast Forward introduces Demon to a life of drugs and risky behavior, but his presence also offers a glimpse of the freedom and excitement Demon craves.

“Did you know his mom, for real?”

Sterling Johnson

My mother took her on as a rescue. She died whenever he was real little, and we adopted him.” I tried to square this with everything else I knew about him. “He’s your adopted brother?” “Was,” she said. “Until he was nine. They feel guilty over it to this

day, but my parents had to unadopt him. Can you believe that?”

“Jesus,” I said. “How come?” “The safety of their other kids. Sterling tried to kill ...

It’s a car

Mattie Kate

Mattie Kate is the housekeeper who works for Coach Wingate, the football coach who takes in Demon during his high school years. She provides a stable presence and cooks for Demon, offering a sense of comfort during this period of his life.

U-Haul

U-Haul, born Ryan Pyles, is Coach Winfield's assistant who will later become an assistant football coach. U-Haul is jealous of the attention Demon gets from Coach and is sexually interested in Angus, who is a teenager.

In my time I’ve learned surprising things about the powers stacked against us before we’re born. But the way of my people is to go on using the words they’ve always given us: Ignorant bastard. Shit happens.

but in this game, pain is not the enemy. Failure is your enemy.

the little white submarine-shaped pill

Lortab was her name.

Mattie Kate

The housekeeper

of?” Dori had asked the same question. Clearly I needed to shore up some

Dori is Demon Copperhead's love interest who he meets at his high school job, and their relationship becomes consumed by drug addiction. She is the daughter of a dying man who uses his prescription painkillers, which she sells to support her own opioid addiction. After her father's death, Dori's addiction worsens, and she eventually dies from an overdose.

I didn’t spell out to Angus what she couldn’t understand: that without football I’d be nobody again.

That the loser Demon was still right there under the surface,

June

Aunt June is a community-minded nurse and Emmy's adoptive mother in Barbara Kingsolver's novel Demon Copperhead. She becomes a vocal critic of the pharmaceutical industry after seeing its impact on her community in Lee County and helps both Demon and Emmy through difficult times, including their struggles with addiction and recovery. She is also the aunt of Maggot, who is Demon's best friend

Emmy is the daughter of June's sister, Martha, in Demon Copperhead and serves as an important figure in Demon's life, particularly in his childhood. After her father's death, she is taken in by the Peggots, and later formally adopted by her Aunt June. She and Demon bond over their shared difficult experiences, but her life takes a downward turn when she gets involved with the drug dealer Fast Forward

I had to claw through some brain cotton to get the joke.

I wished I was asleep. Waiting to wake up from this assfucked turn of events.

“I saw your radiology report,” she said, “and I’m not very happy with it.

She said it was hydrocodone and something. Not oxy then, I said, and she said it was really no better than that.

“Kent Holt

Kent is Aunt June’s boyfriend who is a pharmaceutical representative. Kent’s job consists of trying to get doctors to prescribe opioid painkillers more often. As Aunt June sees more and more of the damage that opioids have done to Appalachia, she comes to think of Kent and the pharmaceutical companies he represents as murderers.

she used to see two or three narcotic patients a year and now that many every day.

pretty obvious, that said OxyContin.

Foster-to-fame poster boy,

Lortabs

Percocets,

o...