>Revised introductory paragraphs

The Voice of the Tempter

The presence of a voice is all you need to identify a speaker. It is the messages that come from the mouth that serve to give you a look into a speaker’s character. This assumption is the case in the well-known novel authored by Flannery O’Connor: The Violent Bear It Away. A key character named “the stranger” is a spiritual being that can only be identified by his voice. As the stranger interacts in the novel his discourse reveals a character, which parallels Satan’s temptation to Christ. Both characters conceal their identity, weave a narrative of doubt and discouragement, and tempt the flesh.

O’Connor was born in 1925 and created a showcase of literary works, one of them being The Violent Bear It Away. This novel portrays an intense battle of having faith in Jesus Christ or denying Him as Lord. The fight is centred on a young boy named Tartwater and a voice that compels him to stray from the truth—the stranger. In her work, O ‘Connor explicitly portrays the rawness of sin and pain, but also provides hope for the reader through the redemption of Jesus Christ. It is through the violence displayed and the effects of original sin that conveys the message of grace and hope admist the pain in her novels (Biography). O’Connor herself even says… “the demonic which may seem to triumph in the here and now, will in the end be overcome” (Studies in Literary Imagination 143).