Until Mrs. Flood enters the story at the end of the book, O'Connor writes Wise Blood from the omniscient point of view, or, in other words, from a narrator's point of view. From this perspective, the author can enter the minds of all the characters and tell their thoughts. For example, O'Connor divulges that Emery secretly believes that the waitress at the Frosty Bottle is in love with him. At the end of the novel, however, O'Connor switches to the partially omniscient point of view, with Mrs. Flood telling the story. This switch comes in chapter fourteen, where Mrs. Flood ponders her relationship with Motes. O'Connor has Motes act and speak, but she does not reveal his thoughts.

Other techniques that O'Connor employs in Wise Blood include symbolism. Many symbolic images exist in Wise Blood to help portray Motes's denial of Christ. The reader first encounters the symbols...