Wise Blood

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1952

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-14

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Essex

In the early part of the novel, Hazel Motes is almost irrationally obsessed with purchasing the Essex, and once he has it, he becomes infatuated with the car. In one sense, the Essex can be understood as an extension of Motes himself; like Motes’ psyche, the car is extensively damaged. Motes himself comes to wander somewhat aimlessly throughout the whole novel, and it is the Essex that allows him to do so: it is his home, his church, his entire life. In this sense, the Essex enables Motes’ wandering which, in turn, symbolizes his spiritual restlessness. Once the Essex is destroyed by a policeman, so too is Motes’ life. From that point onward, Motes loses the desire to preach about the Church Without Christ, and he resorts to punishing himself: he wraps barbed wire around his chest, walks with glass and stones in his shoes, and blinds himself with lime. The destruction of the Essex represents the destruction of Motes’ dreams.

Coffins

Coffins serve as a symbol of doom in Wise Blood. From the moment Hazel Motes steps off the train into Taulkinham, he is doomed, and coffins appear constantly throughout the narrative to remind readers of this fate. Motes purchases an upper level berth on the train to Taulkinham, which must be sealed during travel. It is a small, flat chamber with no windows, and Motes feels like he is in a coffin. He falls asleep that night and dreams of his grandfather’s coffin. Later in the narrative, after Motes has become obsessed with Asa Hawks, he falls asleep and dreams that he is lying in a coffin with a single window. People pass by and look into the box to see a frozen Motes; Motes waits for Hawks to look in but he never does. This dream suggests that Hawks’ redemptive rhetoric has the potential to save Motes’ soul but his failure to appear represents the failure of Christianity to ease Motes’ suffering.

Eyes/Blindness

In Wise Blood, an interesting symbolic dichotomy emerges between sight and blindness. Hazel Motes is disgusted by the world he sees around him, and he associates sin with Christ and Christianity. Thus to Motes, the eyes serve as a gateway to the banal and carnal world of the flesh. Early on in the novel, when he is first establishing his Church Without Christ, Motes states that he envisions a world where the blind don’t see. This is in direct contrast to the Christian world where Christ can make the blind “see.” As the novel progresses, Hazel comes to understand blindness as a way to escape the Christian world. When he learns that Asa Hawks intentionally blinded himself, Motes becomes intrigued with this act and steals the newspaper clip that records it. Later, when Motes’ car is destroyed, he walks into town and purchases the materials to blind himself in one last, desperate attempt to separate himself from the Christian world. But even in his blindness, Motes is unable to find the truth that he is searching for.