Embedded Files
About the Autor
About the Autor
Biography:
Because of the way she was raised, Ms Kingsolver is reluctant to sing her own praises, " Prolonged self-revelation seems discourteous to me, and self-aggrandizing is vulgar. Among the worst things I commonly heard people say about a woman, in my childhood, was that she was “parading herself around.” This may explain why I’m happy to put a three-pound novel into the hands of anyone inclined to heft it, but squeamish about autobiography." ( http://barbarakingsolver.net/) However, she recognizes that if she doesn't tell her story then Wikipedia will, so she offers up a delightful summary of her life from a childhood spent among nature in rural east-central Kentucky to "seeking her fortune" after college and beyond. Best to let her tell it to you in her own words right here.
Photo: http://barbarakingsolver.net/
Author Interviews/Information:
Oprah Daily Article by Leigh Haber
Diane Rehm Book Club - One of the panelists. wrote Dopestick and offers valuable information on the opioid crisis.
Bleak House Kent - Inspiration for both Dickens and Kingsolver
Summary Part One Chapters 1 - 25: Demon begins at the beginning: First I got myself born. He tells his story from memory, sometimes sliding away from chronological order to jump ahead or comment on the many social issues he confronts: poverty, addiction, domestic abuse, and a corrupt child welfare system. Along the way we meet people who help him, exploit him, ignore him, and abuse him. The bleakness of the tale is buoyed by Demon's strong narrative voice and obvious pluck.
Demon Copperhead
Demon Copperhead
First person pov spins a yarn about his life. "First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they've always given me that much: the worst of the job was up to me, my mother being let's just say out of it." (p. 1)
Fatherless with the father's female relative threatening to take the baby away. They both believe the baby is going to be a girl. "What is she doing to this innocent lamb that Almighty God has put in her womb? She's come to take her dead son's only child from this den of vice and raise her up decent. [Demon's grandmother's name is Betsy Woodall. ]
Allies: Neighbors Mr. and Mrs Peggot
Abusive step-father: Murrell Stone "Stoner"
Foster care & Poverty: Crickson Farm "Creaky"
Motherless: "Maybe life, or destiny, or Jesus if you really need to put somebody in charge of things, had finally flung down one too many rocks in Mom's road and she called it a day. That's option one. Or two, maybe she didn't aim to die but miscalculated, to cap off her twenty-nine-year pileup of miscalculations, one of the those of course being me. " (p.107)
Flat broke foster family - The McCobbs
David Copperfield
David Copperfield
"To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have informed and believe) on a Firday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously." (p.13)
"I was a posthumous child. My father's eyes had closed upon the light of this world six months, when mine opened on it." (p.14) [David's great aunt's name is Betsy Trotwood.]
Peggotty the housekeeper.
Mr. Murdstone
Salem House "school" Mr. Creakle
"There was no need to tell me so. I had already broken out into a desolate cry, and felt an orphan in the wide world." (p.134)
The Micawbers
Discussion Prompts
"Me thought, I was a born sucker for the superhero rescue. Did that line of work even exist in our trailer-home universe?...Save or be saved, these are the questions. You want to think it's not over till the last page " (p.2). How does Demon view his odds of thriving in a community with so much poverty and addiction?
Why does Demon dream about the seeing the ocean? (p.2)
"My thinking is to put everything in the order of how it happened, give or take certain intervals of a young man skunked out of his skull box, some dots duly connected (p. 7). How does the author's choice of pov add or detract from the story?
"A ten-year-old getting high on pills. Foolish children. This is what we're meant to say: Look at their choices, leading to a life of ruin. But lives are getting lived right now, this hour, down in the dirty cracks between the toothbrushed nighty-nights and the full grocery carts, where those words don't pertain. Children, choices, Ruin, that was the labor and materials we were given to work with. An older boy, that never knew safety himself, trying to make us feel safe. We had the moon in the windown to smile on us for a minute and tell us the world was ours. Because all the adults had gone off somewhere and left everything in our hands" (p. 76-77). How does this scene illustrate the author's views on the state of child welfare in this country?
How is Tommy different from the other boys Demon meets at Creaky's Farm?
"I had roads to travel before I would know it's not that simple, the dope versus the person you love" (p.109). Demon tells this story from memory mostly chronologically but sometimes jumping forward in time. How do these time shifts help the reader form judgements about Demon and other characters in the story?
"That November it was still a shiny new thing, OxyContin, God's gift for the laid-off deep-hole man with his back and neck bones grinding like bags of gravel" (p.112). "No love gets lost over one person's reckless mistake. Only after it's a mountain of bodies bagged do we think to raise a flag and call the mistrake by a different name, because one downfall times a thousand has got to mean something. It needs its own brand, some point to all the sacrifice" (p.113). What kind of reckoning does our narrator/author call for here?
"Starting from that day, in that kitchen, I was on my own. New year, new life, not yet in own house making the payments, but that's how I felt: my own man. Not liking it a bit" (p. 139) How do Demon's actions and thoughts change after that moment of realization?
"The place smelled like clorox and was lit up like a nightmare" (p.178). Demon has such a keen eye for detail. What are some of your favorite passages for how he describes people and/or places?
Demon's arduous journey to see his grandmother is full of danger. What about the trip surprised you?
Chapter Summaries
Chapter One - Demon is Born - Demon tells the story of his dramatic birth to a mother who is passed out drunk and high when he is born. The Peggots who lived next door call 911 as Demon fights his way into the world on the vinyl floor of the trailer he lives in with his eighteen year old single mother. Before his birth, his father's mother wanted to take the baby who she thought would be a girl. He describes his early life growing up with Maggot, the Peggot's grandson in impoverish Lee County Virginia where coal mines once dominated. They explore creeks and hollers but are always on the look-out for deadly copperhead snakes. Demon never knew his father who died before he was born in an accident at a dangerous swimming place called Devil's Bathtub. His mixed-race father (a Melungeon) had red hair, green eyes, a snake tattoo and was called Copperhead. His mother regards him as a "bad choice" and refuses to talk about his family.
Chapter Two- Demon's Name - The Peggots' orderly home is starkly different from the chaotic state of the trailer where Demon lives with his mother. He spends a lot of time next door and takes part in Peggot family activities. Mrs. Peggot is the only person who regularly uses his given name, Damon Fields. Damon's nickname became Demon pretty quickly in school (demon seed), and his flaming red hair (after his father) earned him the last name Copperhead. Demon embraced it, "You can't deny, it's got a power to it" (p. 13).
Chapter Three - Murrel Stone Arrives- A calm and sober interval in their lives is upended when Murrell Stone "Stoner" becomes involved with Demon's mother. That summer Demon goes to Knoxville with the Peggots to see Maggot's aunt June who works in a hospital and is the pride of the family.
Chapter Four - Knoxville & June & Emmy Peggot - Demon meets cool 6th grader Emmmy Peggot, June's niece and daughter of her deceased brother Humvee. June takes Demon to the aquarium, which is "the best day of my life." In contrast to Demon's mom, "June keeps track" meaning she watches out for her family. Demon is flattered that Emmy wants to keep in touch. When they get home, Mrs Peggot tells Demon that while they were going his mother married Stoner.
Chapter Five - Life with Stoner - Stoner's dog Stan scares Demon and Maggot. Stoner belittles Demon's mother and doesn't want her to attend NA and AA meetings. He insists that Demon learn "self-discipline", which leads to physical and mental abuse.
Chapter Six - Maggot's Origin story - Maggot's mother Mariah Peggot falls for an abusive older man named Romeo Blevins while she is still in high school. The Peggots tell her not to come crying to them if things go badly. Romeo becomes especially violent after she has their son Matty, frequently putting both mother and son in mortal danger. Mariah takes her revenge by slicing up Romeo's face and chest with a knife. He presses charges and gaslights the jury, so she goes to prison. He also denies paternity. Mrs Peggot pays penance for not helping her daughter by caring for Maggot.
Chapter Seven - Overdose - Stoner continues to abuse Demon, and when Demon fights back things get worse. Demon's mom overdoses, and Stoner and Demon fight. Demon is the one who has to call 911. "Life as we lived it is over" (p. 50).
Chapter Eight - Foster Care - While Demon's mom is in the hospital Stoner gaslights the social worker claiming Demon assaulted him not the other way around. His young social worker places Demon in his first foster care situation.
Chapter Nine - Creakys Farm - Demon joins other boys on "Creaky" Crickson's run-down tobacco farm where he is put to work along with the other boys. Tommy becomes his friend, and the oldest boy, Fast Forward asserts himself as the leader of their "Hillbilly Squadron."
Chapter Ten - Fast Forward & Tommy - Tommy, an orphan, has been in foster care a long time and tells Demon it gets worse the older you get. Maggot gives Demon a bag with his clothes, which he and Mr. Peg retireved by sneaking into the trailer when Stoner wasn't home. Fast Forward is a star quarterback at the high school and gets his own room at Creakys. He brings the group cigarettes and drugs in an event he calls a "pharm party."
Chapter Eleven - Supervised Visits - The social worker takes Demon on supervised visits with his mother who is a residential rehab. Demon shows his super-hero drawings to Fast Forward. The Peggots visit Creaky's and Mrs Peggot is appalled at the mess.
Chapter Twelve - Visits at Home - Demon finally gets to visit his mother at home. She tells him she is pregnant. Stoner is there for one of the visits and it does not go well. He forbids Demon to visit Maggot because he is "queer" and threatens to get an injunction to prohibit any interaction with the Peggots.
Chapter Thirteen - Football & Tommy- Fast Forward shows himself to be totally self-serving letting Tommy take a punishment for something he did. But he is the star of the football team , so they all look forward to going to see him play on Friday nights. Tommy puts flowers out for his dead parents because he doesn't know where they are buried and wants to honor them.
Chapter Fourteen - Tobacco - Creaky keeps the boys out of school in October so they can help him harvest his crop.
Chapter Fifteen - November 19. A Birthday Never to Forget - Demon's mother overdoses on his 11th birthday. The social worker tells him she died of oxy. "Believe it or not, I had to ask. What's oxy?" (p.106)
Chapter Sixteen - The Funeral - Everything about the funeral seems wrong to Demon - the church service for his areligious mother, the casket from Walmart, her employer and least favorite place. "..being mad was the one thing holding me together" (p.109). He feels robbed that he not only lost his mother but his only chance at having a brother. He describes his mother as, "the unknown soldier" in the war against oxy addiction.
Chapter Seventeen - Lunch with Stoner - Stoner makes it clear that he isn't going to take any responsibility for Demon. Demon won't be able to stay at Creaky's as he doesn't keep boys after the harvest, so he doesn't know where he will go next.
Chapter Eighteen - Christmas in Knoxville - The Pegoots reluctantly take him along with them to Knoxville. Having successfully adopted Emmy, June decides they will move back to Lee County.
Chapter Nineteen - Peggots Say No - Demon gets to know Emmy better as they both share a "messed up past." When they return Demon asks if he can stay with the Peggots. They are unable to commit to being guardians or foster parents due to their age and other responsibilities. Demon didn't cry at his mother's funeral but he cries now.
Chapter Twenty - The Mc Cobbs - Demon goes to live with the McCobb family who are "flat broke." They only take him in for the extra money and exploit him. He isn't given enough to eat at their house and has to scrounge around school to fill up. He is only in fifth grade.
Chapter Twenty-One- Golly's Junkyard - McCobb gets Demon a job at a road-side market's trash dumping/picking underground business. It is run by a lowlife named Ghost who runs a meth lab. One of the boys from Creaky's named Swap-Out also works there.
Chapter Twenty-Two - Good and Bad News from the Social Worker - The good news is that there is money from DSS after his mother's death. The bad news is that the nice young social worker, one of the few bright lights in his life, is quitting her job to become a teacher.
Chapter Twenty-Three - On the Move - Demon lies to the next social worker about the McCobbs moving. He takes the money he has saved and decides to look for his long-lost grandmother Betsy Woodhall in so-called "Murder Valley" Tennessee.
Chapter Twenty-Four - Robbed - He hitchhikes and gets as far as a truck stop before trouble starts. He counts his money in a gas station restroom where a woman who is a drug addict wants to rob him. He refuses to give her any money, so she accuses him of robbing her in front of the cashier. He is forced to give up the money. "That's how I left Virginia, walking down the shoulder of 26 with my thumb out, headed twoards my grandmother with the exact same naked-ass nothing I'd had the first and last time she saw me " (p. 182).
Chapter Twenty - Five - Finding Betsy- Demon gets a ride with a trucker, falls asleep and ends up going the wrong way ending up near Nashville. He pulls out an apple near a gas station and a crazy-talking religious zealot takes it from him - a last piece of food. He gets picked up by a very chatty young women and again heads in the wrong direction. He finally orients himself and hitches to Unicoi County. When a preacher gives him a ride Demon finally unburdens himself, .."eleven years old without a dime, running away from nobody that gave a damn, probably headed for more of the same" (p. 189). He gets off near Murder Valley and walks all day until his shoes start to fall apart. Finally he meets some people who have heard of Betsy, but no one can say anything good about her. They point him in the right direction where he finds a lone yellow house and an old woman outside pulling weeds. He's met with a loud rejection: "I said get. No boys here!" Demon tells her he is her grandson. "Oh, lord," she said. And sat down on the ground" (p. 193).
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