Faizan Sadiq

Frances Piper: The Devil’s Advocate?

In Fall On Your Knees, Ann-Marie MacDonald presents a vivid and life-like character in Frances Piper. Frances Piper is one of the four Piper girls, and she is different from the rest of them. From her early childhood, Frances is a bold and naughty girl who is always getting herself into trouble. She has a great mischievous streak which troubles her father, James Piper, immensely. James Piper himself has a demon-like personality at various times throughout the novel, some of which he collects from his father in his early childhood. In a similar fashion to Frances’s father’s past, the reader can visualize Frances getting accustomed to her father’s personality and see her become a demon
Another act that is considered vile in the early 1900s throughout the novel is miscegenation. Miscegenation is the marriage or relationship between a man and a woman of different races. There is a lot of miscegenation throughout the novel, the most notable being Frances Piper and Leo Taylor. It can be seen that the inner Devil that Frances possesses forces her to provoke Leo Taylor, a black man, to sleep with her so she can bear a coloured child. She seduces him and tempts him until he breaks down and gives in to her desires. Teresa, who is the sister of Leo Taylor, believes that Frances is under the influence of the Devil. Teresa believes that Frances is the Devil and she shoots her. She can only look at Frances and think, “The Devil’s face housed in a shape of pity. Teresa watched Frances raise her arms in triumph, a mocking smile twisting her lips, and hiss the name ‘Teresa’” (401). However, after that fact, it can be seen the Frances is changing, and making reparations with the people of New Waterford. Gabriella Parro also accounts that France has been changed after the shooting. Parro, in unity with Ann-Marie MacDonald, states that Frances has thrown away her Girl Guide uniform, she makes reparations with people in New Waterford, she makes reparations with her father, and she ceases to act foolishly with Lily (Parro 188). Frances, in a way, is re-creating her