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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—The Beverly Hillbillies:
While reflecting on the word “hillbilly,” an often derogatory term used to describe White people living in rural, mountainous regions of the United States, Demon alludes to the television program The Beverly Hillbillies:
Hillbilly is a word everybody knows. Except they don’t [...] I mainly knew it from this one rerun that came on Nick at Nite, Beverly Hillbillies, which was this family running around a city wearing ropes for a belt, packing antique rifles, and driving a junkass truck. Dead hilarious. More so than most of the old black-and-whites they ran, Gunsmoke, Munsters. Then one time Maggot’s high school cousin Bonnie saw us watching it and said we were clueless little turds [...] She said be careful who we laughed at, that family was supposedly us.
As a child, Demon watches reruns of an old show, The Beverly Hillbillies, which ran from 1962 to 1971. In the show, a family living in the Ozark Mountains becomes wealthy after oil is found on their land. Newly rich, the family moves to Beverly Hills, an upscale neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Demon finds the show amusing until Bonnie, a cousin of Maggot, informs Demon that rural families such as theirs are the target of the show’s mockery. Demon is surprised to learn this, as he does not see any of the realities of rural life represented in the show. Through this allusion, then, the novel reflects upon the question of Appalachian representation in television and other media. Shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, the novel suggests, contributed to absurd and negative stereotypes regarding those living in rural America.
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—The Fruit and the Fall :
The novel alludes to the biblical story of the temptation of Eve by Satan in a passage that describes the opioid crisis that profoundly affected Appalachia after the drug OxyContin was approved by the FDA, or the Federal Drug Administration, in 1995:
What’s an oxy, I’d asked. 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. For the bent-over lady pulling double shifts at Dollar General with her shot knees and ADHD grandkids to raise by herself. For every football player with some of this or that torn up, and the whole world riding on his getting back in the game. This was our deliverance. The tree was shaken and yes, we did eat of the apple.
Demon’s mother passes away after overdosing on OxyContin, a highly addictive painkiller. Here, Demon describes the drug, sarcastically, as “God’s gift” to the various people experiencing chronic pain and injury in Lee County who become increasingly reliant upon it as a means of alleviating pain. He continues to use religious language in an ironic manner, describing the drug as “our deliverance” and adding that “[t]he tree was shaken and yes, we did eat of the apple.” Here, he references the Fall as described in the Bible. Much as Adam and Eve, in the biblical account, are tempted by a serpent, (generally interpreted as Satan) to eat a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, so too have the people of Lee County been “tempted” by a pill that seems to solve all of their problems. As in the biblical account, yielding to this temptation has dire consequences for those who become rapidly dependent upon these pills.
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Chapter 25
Explanation and Analysis—Hanging an Elephant:
While Demon hitchhikes to Tennessee, despite informing Child Protective Services that he will be staying with the Peggot family, he is picked up by a kind and understanding preacher. The novel alludes to a real historical incident in which an elephant was hanged in Eastern Tennessee:
His only advice was to be careful in Unicoi because there were folks down there mean enough to hang an elephant. I said okay, thinking it was an expression his people had. But no. They gave the death penalty to an elephant there one time [...] It was a circus elephant that got fed up and finally ran off after its drunk trainer whipped and tormented it to the point of going on a rampage, which, I could relate. But in the process of running off, it accidentally trampled somebody in town.
Demon is heading to Unicoi county to find his paternal grandmother, hoping to learn more about his family and find support. The preacher warns him that the people of Unicoi are "mean enough to hang an elephant." Though Demon thinks, at first, that this is just a local expression, he learns that the preacher is alluding to an actual event in local history. In 1916, a female Asian elephant named Mary was executed in Erwin, Tennessee, after killing an untrained elephant handler during a circus parade. Demon's retelling of the event, including a "rampage" by the elephant, is not quite historically accurate, reflecting the ways in which stories evolve over time. This allusion, then, adds local color to the novel and underscores the perception of the region as hostile to strangers.
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Chapter 27
Explanation and Analysis—The Kite:
In Tennessee, Demon meets Betsy Woodall, his paternal grandmother, and Mr. Dick, Betsy's brother, who uses a wheelchair and has limited mobility. In a scene that alludes extensively to William Shakespeare's Richard III, Demon is captivated by Mr. Dick's elaborate kites, upon which he writes quotes from the books that he has read:
It took forever for him to finish one sentence: So wise so young, they say, do never live long. Words that made no exact sense, but probably true. He’d written other sentences all over that kite. Like, a hundred of them. My eye picked out: Dispute not with her: she is a lunatic. Uh-oh, I thought, trouble with sister dear. But another one said: I am determined to prove a villain, and hate the idle pleasures of these days. I couldn’t make heads or tails. No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
Demon wonders about the meaning of the cryptic words on Mr. Dick's kite, which he writes upon in a slow but careful manner. Though Demon is not familiar with the source, these quotes all come from Shakespeare's Richard III, which portrays the rise and fall of the titular king. Like Mr. Dick, King Richard III is presented as visibly disabled in the play, though the kindly man has little in common with Shakespeare's villain. Demon feels that some of the quotes, such as "Dispute not with her: she is a lunatic" refer directly to Mr. Dick's life, and he worries that the "lunatic" of the quote is Betsy. These numerous allusions to Shakespeare underscore the importance of literature to Mr. Dick, who spends most of his time at home due to his disability but nevertheless enjoys the freedoms afforded by literature and his kite-flying.
Chapter 45
Explanation and Analysis—Salinger and Dickens:
Though he is a gifted and intelligent young man, Demon struggles in school as his addiction to opioids worsens. He falls behind in math, which has always been his weakest subject, and dedicates little time or effort to his other courses. In a passage that alludes extensively to the works of authors J.D. Salinger and Charles Dickens, Demon acknowledges that some of the novels assigned to him in English class spoke to his own experiences and feelings:
That Holden guy held my interest. Hating school, going to the city to chase whores and watch rich people’s nonsense, and then you come to find out, all he wants in his heart is to stand at the edge of a field catching little boys before they go over the cliff like he did. I could see that [...] Likewise the Charles Dickens one, seriously old guy, dead and a foreigner, but Christ Jesus did he get the picture on kids and orphans getting screwed over and nobody giving a rat’s ass. You’d think he was from around here.
Though Demon ignores most of the books that he is assigned to read, some novels catch his attention, and he finishes them "without meaning to." First, he alludes to Holden Caulfield, protagonist of J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Demon feels torn between his lingering sense of idealism and the harsh reality he sees around him. Next, Demon alludes to the works of Dickens, which depict "kids and orphans getting screwed over." Numerous works by Dickens, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and David Copperfield, depict poverty and injustice through the lens of children and orphans. Notably, Demon Copperhead is a loose adaptation of David Copperfield. In this passage, Demon recognizes the parallels between his life and those of his literary predecessor.
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Chapter 49
Explanation and Analysis—Movies and Stereotypes:
In a scene in which Demon and Tommy discuss television and cinema, the novel alludes extensively to media that portrays people living in Appalachia and other rural regions in a demeaning manner:
The month I moved out of Coach’s, Chiller TV was running this entire hillbilly-hater marathon: Hunter’s Blood, Lunch Meat, Redneck Zombies. And the comedy shows, even worse, with these guys acting like we’re all on the same side, but just wait. I dated a Kentucky girl once, but she was always lying through her tooth. Ha ha ha ha. [...] hoped Sophie’s family wasn’t watching Redneck Zombies. Or Deliverance. You try to tune this crap out till it sneaks up and socks you, like the sad day of Demon’s slam-book education.
After Demon moves in with Dori, he spends his time doing drugs and watching movie marathons on television. He alludes, here, to a number of real films that have contributed to negative stereotypes regarding people who live in rural, mountainous regions of the United States such as Appalachia. Some of these movies, such as Redneck Zombies, are low-budget films that were released straight to video, without a cinema release. Others, such as Deliverance, feature prominent actors and were nominated for Academy Awards. Tommy worries that his online girlfriend Sophie's family will refuse to allow her to meet him due to the insulting representation of "hillbillies" and "rednecks" that such films have disseminated. Through these allusions, then, the novel examines the role of media in perpetuating negative stereotypes that affect those living in rural areas like Lee County.
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