Wise Blood (1949) by Flannery O'Connor - Fiction

A throughly grotesque and violent story about a disturbed young man's attempt to outrun a haunting Jesus Christ

When considering whether or not to read anything by Flannery O’Connor it’s important to understand the Southern Gothic literary genre. The peer-reviewed Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature explains that “it include[s] the presence of irrational, horrific, and transgressive thoughts, desires, and impulses; grotesque characters; dark humor, and an overall angst-ridden sense of alienation” (oxfordre.com). Wise Blood fits this description well. What’s perplexing for many readers of O’Connor’s works is that she is a devout Catholic. Wise Blood is rife with fornication and violence. It’s probably nothing we haven’t seen or heard in the year 2021; however, it still has the power to jolt us.

Wise Blood scores high on the creepiness factor. One character, the young man Enoch Emory, has a nasty little habit, “There was one woman who came every Monday who wore a bathing suit that was split on each hip. At first he thought she didn’t know it, and instead of watching openly at the bank, he had crawled into some bushes, snickering to himself, and had watched from there” (76). O’Connor displays more of Enoch’s vile escapades, two of which include a shrunken mummy and a gorilla costume. Of all the characters in Wise Blood Enoch follows his instinctual gut the most which will undoubtedly leave readers questioning his sanity.

The main character, Hazel Motes, is also twisted. The novel’s main conflict revolves around Hazel’s struggling relationship with Jesus Christ. He establishes the Church of God Without Christ and stands atop his car proselytizing to anyone who will listen, “I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else’s, but behind all of them, there’s only one truth and that is that there’s no truth!...No truth behind all truths is what I and this church preach! (165). It doesn’t take a PhD to see the hypocrisy in his theology. But O’Connor hasn’t lost all hope in Hazel Motes. While his intellectual and spiritual pitfalls are on full display, she’s more sympathetic towards social outcasts who commit heinous crimes with sincere convictions than socially well-adjusted people who are blind to their own spiritual depravity. In the middle of an atrocious action Hazel states, “Two things I can’t stand...a man that ain’t true and one that mocks what is” (206). Hazel is a lot of things, but you can’t accuse him of being ingenuine.

Hazel is definitely an irritated and disturbed young man. On a train ride towards the fictionalized town of Eastrod, a polite lady asks him bluntly, “What is the matter with you?” (12). This is a reasonable question considering that while she’s been attempting to make casual conversation he’s only interested in prodding her, “I reckon you think you been redeemed...If you’ve been redeemed...I wouldn’t want to be” (10), and “‘Do you think I believe in Jesus?’...leaning towards her and speaking almost as if he were breathless. ‘Well I wouldn’t even if He existed. Even if He was on this train’” (10).

Try as he might Haze can not escape his melee with Jesus. Traumatic childhood memories of his grandfather preaching fire and brimstone have boiled deep into his psyche. Instead of drawing him closer to Jesus he is instead repulsed. But Christ won’t leave him alone, “he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark where he was not sure of his footing” (16). Jesus ignites feelings of instability, fear, and savageness into Hazel, but Hazel’s still not able to shake Him away.

There are two other important characters: The young lady Lily Sabbath Hawks and her supposedly blind father Asa Hawks. They are also street preachers, but they promote a more traditional saving grace kind of Jesus. But your faith in most of Wise Blood’s characters–even the ones who appear sane–soon dissipates as their duplicity quickly becomes apparent. Hazel becomes obsessed with Asa, wondering how he came to faith. He begs Lily for an answer, “What changed him into a preacher for Jesus?...Was he a very evil-seeming man before he came to believe...or just part way evil-seeking?” (118). He is threading hairs with these questions–more evidence of his truly ironic (dis)belief in Jesus.

Wise Blood may be written by a Christian writer, but I doubt it would be in Joel Osteen or Beth Moore’s book club (I’m not even sure if it would make it onto Oprah’s). It’s gory, violent, and without proper study, seemingly lacking any redeeming Christian ethics. However, this is one reason why more dissertations have been written about O’Connor than almost any other American writer. Wise Blood provokes certain questions pertaining to our personal histories with religion, redemption, and truth. In the Author’s Note O’Conner questions “Does one’s integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for freewill does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man [italics added for emphasis].” Hazel is a conflicted character whose choices are often ironically absurd and his behaviors extreme; however, O’Conner does not seem to condemn him based on these facts. In Part of his redeeming qualities might lie in the fact that he is unable to completely lose faith despite his obscene actions. Divulging into other redeeming facets would be spoiling too much of the plot.

Because O’Conner is a masterclass writer Wise Blood deserves a close read. Small details such as character descriptions play a key factor in recognizing larger themes and motifs. Take the example of eyes and sight. On the train ride Hazel’s inquisitive neighbor notices his striking features, “but his eyes were what held her attention longest. Their settings were so deep that they seemed, to her, almost like passages leading somewhere and she learned halfway across the space that separated the two seats, trying to see into them” (4-5). There are dozens of similar examples which all highlight the relationship between sight, belief, and truth.

What makes O’Conner’s works hard to fully comprehend is exactly what makes her a favorite of English teachers and professors. Wise Blood does have a high level of literary complexity; however, don’t think it’s the sole possession of the lofty pretentious type. If you enjoy the psychologically dark and twisted nature of writers like Stephen King or Dean Koontz you might also enjoy Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood.

April 23, 2021