Demon copperhead review7/3/2023 But one of the problems with social novels intended to heighten our understanding is that in writing about traumas, the writer risks turning suffering into entertainment, and stripping the characters of agency. Novels entertain, and many have also argued that reading novels increases our empathy for others. She makes the people of Appalachia into objects of pity, but in doing so, also intimates that falling into drug abuse, rejecting education, and 'clinging' to their ways are moral choices that keep them in their dire circumstances. Her characters wallow in dark hollows with little light, condemned to forever repeat the horrific mistakes of previous generations. In seeking to raise awareness of child hunger and poverty in the United States, Kingsolver turns her characters’ lives into tales of misery and the inevitability of failure. Kingsolver makes little mention of Appalachian history or resilience. In Kingsolver’s depiction of her Appalachian setting, virtually no one gets out alive. She hangs markers of poverty - the coal country location, a town considered 'right poor' - like wind chimes on Demon’s single-wide trailer to catch her readers’ ears. Kingsolver must make clear Demon’s straitened circumstances. It’s not clear that using David Copperfield is the best way to tell Demon’s story.
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