Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Demon Copperhead’ and the ongoing impact of the opioid crisis

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Barbara Kingsolver, a celebrated author, has received numerous accolades including the National Book Prize of South Africa and the PEN/Faulkner Award. On May 8, 2023, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “Demon Copperhead.” This book is not just a retelling of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield”; it features an opioid-addicted orphan from Appalachia as its main character, highlighting a significant American health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat overshadowed media attention on the opioid epidemic, though the issue remains a significant public health concern.

The author’s focus on this topic is both timely and critical. By addressing it, she joins other artists with Appalachian roots, such as bluegrass musician Billy Strings, the late singer-songwriter John Prine, and photographer Stacy Kranitz, who have all used their craft to emphasize the devastating impact of opioids on the region. As a professor of American Studies who teaches about country music and rural America’s portrayal, I see this innovative work through the lens of cultural geography, which examines how culture and place are interconnected. Certain regions inspire distinctive forms of art, music, literature, and architecture. Geographer Edward Soja’s work has helped illustrate how cultural output can challenge stereotypes. In 1996, Soja’s “Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places” posited that stereotypes about a location’s people and landscape can result in harmful politics and policies.

For instance, external perceptions of “the inner city” as a hub of poverty and crime led to the enforcement of racially-biased public housing policies in the 1960s. Soja’s book urged artists and marginalized groups to reclaim and transform the narrative of their region, highlighting diverse identities and experiences through what he called “thirdspace” — a place where reality and imagination intersect. Appalachia, historically subjected to economic exploitation, classist stereotypes, and environmental and medical negligence, experiences another layer of exploitation through the opioid crisis in rural communities. However, artists and writers like Kingsolver reveal that the region’s people are not merely backward and powerless but are complex individuals with desires, hopes, and concerns similar to anyone else. Raised in rural Kentucky and living in Virginia, Kingsolver understands Copperhead’s story deeply.

She integrates the economic decline from the tobacco and coal industries into her protagonist’s story, yet her main focus remains the opioid crisis. In an October 2022 interview with The New York Times, she stated, “I wanted to say, ‘Look, it’s still here, and this got done to us and we didn’t deserve it.'” This is reflected in Demon’s life, an orphan facing poverty, an abusive foster home, and social isolation who finds solace and achievement in football until a severe knee injury changes his fate. Pressured by his coach and community to continue playing, he blindly accepts OxyContin prescribed by a local doctor, leading to physical, psychological, and emotional addiction. Despite this, Demon is more than his addiction; Kingsolver highlights his humanity and potential for goodness, portraying him beyond just an addict. In doing so, she uses her ties to the region, empathy for its people, and understanding of stereotypes surrounding Appalachia and addiction to present a nuanced portrayal. Instead of a reductive depiction, she presents an authentic and hopeful perspective, exemplifying Soja’s “thirdspace.” This is a potent tool for artists to confront and continue addressing the ongoing epidemic. Kingsolver’s narrative resembles the work of artists like Billy Strings and John Prine through music. Strings addresses opioid addiction in “Enough to Leave,” reflecting on friends lost to fentanyl-laced heroin, evoking the grief experienced by those left behind.

Similarly, Prine’s “Summer’s End” revolves around family routines following a mother’s opioid-induced death. The song’s video subtly highlights the opioid crisis without dominating their daily life depiction, echoing a sentiment from Samuel Beckett’s novel “The Unnamable,” “You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” Words, music, and images serve as powerful tools in this thirdspace interpretation of opioid-affected Appalachia. Like Kingsolver, photographer Stacy Kranitz from Kentucky presents raw, complex, and beautiful images of Appalachia. She aims to counteract the negative portrayals from the likes of Kentuckian Harry Caudill and New York Times journalist Homer Bigart in the 1960s. While Caudill focused on Appalachia’s economic exploitation, he also supported the idea of “genetic decline” affecting the region’s people, perpetuating suffering and reinforcing negative stereotypes.

Despite bringing the region to the attention of the Johnson administration, this view painted Appalachians as backward and helpless, ripe for further exploitation. Kranitz’s work, refusing Caudill’s outdated portrayal, provides a “thirdspace” reevaluation of Appalachia and its people. Her series “As It Was Given to Me” contrasts a burning cross at a Klan event with the innocence of a young girl holding a sparkler, illustrating both the region’s harsh and beautiful aspects. Like other artists and musicians, Kingsolver addressed Appalachia’s complex history and social challenges in “Demon Copperhead.” Her success in doing so is evident, and the novel’s recognition by the Pulitzer committee may inspire others to learn about Appalachia and help in repairing the harm opioids have inflicted on the region.

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