!

Wise Blood by Flannery OConnor

Plot synopsis:
In Flannery OConnors Wise Blood, Hazel Haze Motes, the grandson of a preacher, is
has returned from war to find his entire family is dead and his hometown is abandoned. Haze
moves on and takes a train to Taulkinham, where he meets Enoch Emery, an eighteen-year old
boy who has been in Taulkinham for two months. Together, they meet Asa Hawks, a supposedly
blind preacher, and Sabbath Hawks, Asas daughter. Haze is repeatedly mistaken to be a
preacher, due to his hat which gives that impression, even though he is an atheist. He disagrees
with Asa Hawks and is inspired to preach the church of truth without Jesus Christ Crucified.
Enoch attempts to befriend Haze, but is brushed off. Enoch comments how Hazel feels he has
wise blood, but it is actually he who has the wise blood. The novel proceeds to follow Haze
as he settles in Taulkinham and Enoch as he follows his wise blood.
Major Themes:
Truth and identity: The novel largely deals with mistaken identity and detection.
Preachers are portrayed as lying fiends who swindle people out of their money with
the promise of redemption. Haze, who finds himself being called a preacher
repeatedly, finally reaches the urge to act and becomes a preacher himself. As a
preacher, he tells how the truth about preachers is that they lie to gain followers.
Religion and Tradition: Raised by a strict religious family, Hazel is never able to
completely abandon the habits he developed as a child. He feels the need to repent,
and punishes himself, despite lacking a need for redemption. Similarly, Hazel
becomes a preacher to teach about the lies that preachers proclaim.
Animals and instinct: Characters throughout the novel are described as animals,
especially Enoch, who is the most animalistic. He behaves in ways comparable to the
animals he watches in the zoo, and follows his blood instinct more than reasoning
through situations. The one character who is not habitually described as an animal is
Haze, who sees himself as an outsider and distance himself from others. When he
sheds his hat, Sabbath calls him king of the beasts, which also marks the beginning
of his mental decline.
Characterizations:
Hazel Motes was raised religiously and taught to fear God and suffer for
redemption. Growing up, Hazel wished to be a preacher, to emulate his grandfather,
but he loses his religious beliefs during the war. Ironically, he does become a
preacher, but a preaching how Jesus is a lie, not a savior.
Enoch Emery is a creature of habit and follows his wise blood, without selfcontrol. His actions are controlled by his instincts in a very animalistic manner. He
wants to belong in Taulkinham, but his crude behavior makes him an outsider.

!2
Asa Hawks is a preacher, whom Hazel meets when he hands out pamphlets and
attempts to garner donations for himself. He serves as the archetypal blind prophet,
who can see the truth without eyesight. Asa claims that he blinded himself with lime
as a promise to Jesus, which is evident by the scars on his face.
Sabbath Hawks is the daughter of Asa Hawks, which Hazel relates to as he is the
grandson of preacher. Sabbath is aware of the lies that her father preaches, but
continues to help in his mission. She is a bastard child, and has an obsession with
children, and shares multiple stories with Hazel of abandoned or menacing children.
Connections to major works studied at the Mount:
Like Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Hazel punishes himself
physically for his sins. Arthur whips and starves himself, causing himself bodily
harm as an act of repentance to receive redemption for the crime of having a child
with Hester Prynne. Hazel blinds himself as punishment for his actions late in the
book. Both are religiously driven, but Arthur is devoted to God, while Hazel
punishes himself from the habits he developed in his youth rather than his current
beliefs.
In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer satirizes the clergy and religious leaders
for their corruption. In a similar way, OConnor displays the religious preachers as
scammers, who are taking advantage of the resident of Taulkinham. Both authors
display the religious as untrustworthy and dishonest. Their concerns in both The
Canterbury Tales and Wise Blood are their own economic situation rather than the
redemption of the people to home hey preach.