The devil's territory : the function of the devil figure in Flannery O'Connor's fiction

This thesis will treat Flannery O'Connor's use of the devil in all of her work from Wise Blood through the posthumous stories. In general the devil functions in her work as an agent who makes the fact of original sin known to the protagonist. He prepares the protagonist for a moment of grace by displacing him through violence from the safe, familiar mundane world. The protagonist's violent encounter with the devil exposes his own complicity with the devil and leads him to self-knowledge. The devil is therefore an unwitting instrument of grace; he becomes an agent of God who uses him for His own purposes. Thus the devil is used in order to test the protagonist's virtue. More frequently than not the devil functions as the protagonist's second self: it is only when the protagonist recognizes that Satan is his double and when he sees the need to exorcise the demon through Christ's grace, that he is saved. The devil functions in O'Connor's work to lead the protagonist to self-knowledge and then to grace by preparing him for a rebirth through Christ. It is only when the protagonist gives up his will to independence and separateness from God, by recognizing the satanic within himself, that he can be saved.English, Department o