The Presence of Evil (

Nowhere in the narrative is the phrase "the devil all the time" actually used. There are, in fact, few if any actual uses of the term "devil." There are, however, plenty of instances (physical, verbal) which could easily be described by the reader (and sometimes are by the characters), as being purely evil, corrupt and destructive. These manifestations of the devil occur "all the time" and manifest in ways that almost always end in some form of death. Willard clearly believes that Charlotte, suffering in cancer, is inhabited by a form of evil, and takes psychotically desperate measures to end that evil's influence, but ultimately fails. Carl, Sandy, Bodecker, Teagardin, Roy, Theodore, and so many other characters (principal, secondary, glimpsed) are thoroughly absorbed by and in acts of soul and body destroying evil, all of which end in the deaths of those whom they influence...