Wise Blood

Hazel Motes is the protagonist of Flannery O’Connor’s novel, Wise Blood. At the beginning of the novel, Motes has just returned home from World War II and his experiences in the war have changed him: he has become extremely cynical and wastes no opportunity to challenge other people’s belief in Christ and his redemptive powers. Ironically, Motes is repeatedly mistaken for a preacher, as he wears his grandfather’s old preacher hat, even as he goes out of his way to express his lack of belief in anything. But Motes seems to struggle between doubt and belief throughout the book, and he becomes obsessed with debating religion with the blind preacher Asa Hawks. Hawks, however, wants nothing to do with him but his disinterest only increases Motes’ determination.

With nothing else to do, Motes establishes the “Church Without Christ” and takes to preaching his anti-religious ideas in the streets of Taulkinham. Unfortunately, except for Enoch Emery, no one is really interested in what he has to say. Even though Enoch is the closest thing Motes has to a disciple, he rejects the young man and anyone else that tries to get close to him, including Sabbath Hawks and Mrs. Flood. The narrative can be understood as Motes’ attempt to escape Christ, though he is never truly successful. The novel culminates in Motes’ acts of self-mutilation: blinding himself, wrapping himself with barbed wire, and wandering the streets of Taulkinham with rocks and glass in his shoes. He claims that his suffering is a form of payment, but that he isn’t trying to pay for anything in particular. At the end of a novel, Motes wanders out into a storm that eventually costs him his life. He dies a lonely and alienated man, and it’s not clear at the novel’s close whether he has successfully achieved redemption or has abandoned the idea altogether.