Wise Blood

Unlike previous chapters, this chapter opens from the perspective of Enoch Emery. The chapter begins as Enoch is finishing his shift at the City Forest Park. As he does every day after finishing work, Enoch travels further into the park to visit its swimming pool. He thinks about the mystery he has discovered in the park; he has been waiting to reveal it to the right person and feels sure that he will know them once he sees them.

One day, when Enoch is at the mystery spot, he sees a “rat-colored” car with a single occupant. He watches as Motes exits the vehicle, and then goes and sits down on a slope overlooking the park’s swimming pool. Enoch slips out of his mystery spot and stealthily approaches Motes, who is watching a woman sunbathing at the pool. When the woman removes her top, Enoch yelps with excitement, causing Motes to start running back to his car.

Enoch follows Motes up the slope, and Motes says he’s been looking for him. Motes asks Enoch if he knows where Asa Hawks and his daughter live, as he means to pay them a visit. Enoch tells Motes that he won’t tell him Hawks’ address unless he comes with him to his mystery spot; Motes agrees. En route, they stop at a store called the Frosty Bottle so that Enoch can get a drink. He orders a milkshake from the store’s employee, Maude, managing to antagonize her in the process.

Maude tells Motes, “You’re a nice boy … I always know a clean boy when I see one” (86). Enoch finishes his milkshake and turns to leave, but he is interrupted by Motes who twice repeats “I AM clean” (87). The two men leave, and Enoch says that they most visit the zoo animals first before going to the spot. Motes is very agitated but he continues on in the hope of getting Hawks’ address.

As they walk through the zoo, Enoch makes disrespectful comments to the animals. After a while, Enoch is ready to leave, but he finds Motes staring into a cage at an owl. Enoch tries to get him to leave, but Motes stares at the owl and again says, “I AM clean” (91). After this, the two finally leave for the mystery spot.

They walk down a slope through thick bushes and come to a large gray building. A series of letters are printed over the building’s columns: MVESEVM. The two sneak into the building; in one of its back rooms there are many black cases. Enoch brings Motes over to a case that contains ancient human remains. Motes demands the address from Enoch one last time, but finally storms out of the building. When, Enoch leaves, Motes hits him in the head with a rock and loses consciousness. When he comes to, Motes is gone. 

The chapter begins with Motes driving around in his Essex in an attempt to find out where Asa Hawks and his daughter live. He eventually finds them, and follows them in his car for four blocks before making a mental note of the small, box-like house they live in. Motes then parks in front of a movie theater and stands by the entrance. As people approach the building to buy tickets, Motes asks them, “Where has the blood you think you been redeemed by touched you” (99).

When a boy tells him that he believes in the “Church of Christ,” Motes states that “I preach the Church Without Christ. I’m member and preacher to that church where the blind don’t see and the lame don’t walk” (100). Motes continues to plead his case to passersby, but eventually he leaves in his Essex when a theater attendant threatens to call the police. He returns to Mrs. Watt’s house.

In the morning, Motes goes to the housing complex where Asa Hawks lives and pays three dollars to rent a room. He then knocks on Hawks’ front door, which Hawks and his daughter answer. Motes tells them, “I’ve started my own church. The Church Without Christ. I preach on the street” (103). Hawks eventually slams the door in Motes’ face and he leaves.

At this point in the narrative, the viewpoint switches to that of Hawks and his daughter. They watch Motes leave from the window, and Hawks’ daughter tells him that she is infatuated with Motes. She asks her dad not to “run him off. Tell him how you blinded yourself for Jesus” (106). The narrative quickly shifts back to Motes, who muses on his intention to seduce Hawks’ daughter. 

Later that night, Motes returns to Hawks’ room and asks him, “If Jesus cured blind men, how come you don’t get Him to cure you” (107). Hawks retorts that Jesus intentionally blinded Paul. Hawks goes on to explain that he blinded himself with lime to prove that Christ had redeemed him, and he hands Motes a newspaper report on the incident. Motes storms off with the article, but not before handing Hawks’ daughter a note that expresses his “desire” for her.

Motes leaves and takes his car to a local mechanic shop. There he asks a mechanic to fix his car horn and his leaky gas tank. The mechanic checks out his car and says that it’s beyond repair. Motes leaves and goes to another shop, where the mechanic says to leave it with him overnight, claiming he is the best mechanic in town.