Demon Copperhead

To keep myself writing, I’ll use books as a springboard for thoughts. These will be collected reflections rather than strict reviews.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver has been on my radar after a recommendation from a co-worker and an author interview with Ezra Klein.

It lived up to the hype. I cried. I had to walk away at points. My heart burst with compassion for the kids (and adults) trying their absolute best to function in a world without safety or opportunity. High recommendation.

Self-Actualization

The internalized belief that you are safe, loved, and good is the fundamental frame from which personal development can occur. Every coach or spiritual practice starts here.

Demon vividly demonstrates how your upbringing can disrupt these beliefs and trap you in survival mechanisms. We see what happens when a whole community is raised in brokenness. Living without opportunity kills the soul.

I want so badly to provide this safety and affirmation for others. I know it can only come in individual relationships. There’s no shortcut, and I feel tragically limited when faced with the immensity of pain and brokenness in the world around me.

Foster Care

If the foster care system is even 50% as bad as described, it is a mark of shame on our society. If knowing you are securely cared for is fundamental for future growth, our system is failing at every level.

It’s impossible to care about every cause, but this one feels worthy of investment.

I don’t know a single person who fosters strangers. It’s an unnatural act when biology pushes us to take care of our own. I struggle to imagine voluntarily adding the care of non-relative into my life. Taking care of my own kid is hard enough.

As a stereotype looking around me, the people most socially and economically able to help out are the ones least likely to do so. If I and my class of economic overperformers don’t pitch in, we’re leaving these abandoned kids stuck in a world of fewer resources and less chance of escaping.

I’m feeling a deep pull to aid here. Throwing money at a problem is rarely the answer… but perhaps it’s a better than nothing starting place?

Inequality

Sorting cities and social connections by wealth removes social mobility. When a town/city/region grows poor or segregated, the escape velocity needed to break out grows alongside.

I see the impact of The Big Sort all throughout the novel. Adults watch their community fall apart around them. Kids know nothing different. No one is providing resources to make the community whole and recover from the despair wrought by addiction and pain. The belief in achieving more disappears. Hope fades. Tragic.

The situations Demon encountered could have resolved with access to wealth or connections. Knowing someone who knows someone is the solution to bureaucratic failure. But he doesn’t have that. Poverty compounds.

Addiction

Demon’s spiral into addiction was too much to handle. It’s irrational and perfectly sensible at the same time.

I had no idea that opioid addiction is often caused by doctor prescribed dosing. Outside research confirmed. This arc put me on a quest to learn more.

Empire of Pain and Dreamland moved to the top of my to-read list.