Wise Blood

The next day, Motes gets off his train at one of its numerous stops to grab some fresh air, but fails to re-board the train before it leaves and has to wait six hours for the next train to Taulkinham. He finally arrives at the city in the late afternoon, and he is immediately met with the flashing neon signs of local businesses. Motes slowly and aimlessly wanders into town with his duffel bag on his shoulder, but he returns to the train station when he realizes he has nowhere to go.

Motes steps into the men’s restroom of the train station, and reads an inscription on a stall that claimed that Mrs. Leora Watts had the “friendliest bed in town” (26); beside the inscription is her address. Motes goes outside and hails a taxi to take him to Mrs. Watt’s establishment. The taxi driver mistakes Motes for a preacher, as he is wearing his grandfather’s preacher hat, and he asks Motes why he was heading for Mrs. Watt’s place as she doesn’t normally associate with preachers. Motes simply replies, “I ain’t any preacher. I only seen her name in the toilet” (26).

When the taxi driver reaches Mrs. Watt’s residence, he accepts Motes’ fare and says, “It ain’t only the hat. It’s a look in your face somewheres” (27). Motes only replies, “Listen, get this: I don’t believe in anything” (27). Motes turns to inspect Mrs. Watts’ house and sees that it’s little more than a cozy looking shack. He steps into the building and eventually finds Mrs. Watts lounging on a bed cutting her toenails. Motes sits down next to her and puts his hand on her foot. She pulls him closer, but he tells her, “I come for the usual business” (32).

Mrs. Watts tells Motes to make himself at home, and they stare at each other for a while before Motes explains, “What I mean to have you know is this: I’m no goddamn preacher” (32). The chapter ends with Mrs. Watts putting her hand on Motes’ face and telling him “That’s okay son. Momma don’t mind if you ain’t a preacher” (32). 

On his second night in Taulkinham, Motes wanders out into the city to explore its nightlife. He quickly comes upon a crowd amassed around a salesman who is demonstrating a peeling machine. The salesman singles out a young man in the crowd named Enoch Emery and Motes looks on. Shortly thereafter, a blind man approaches the crowd and begins begging for money: “Help a blind preacher. If you won’t repent, give up a nickel” (36).

The salesman’s crowd begins to disperse in an attempt to avoid the beggar, and this enrages the salesman who begins screaming at him. The beggar’s young daughter is with him, and she approaches Motes and puts a pamphlet in his hands that reads “Jesus Calls You.” The little girl tries to buy a peeler machine, but she doesn’t have enough money. The salesman eventually scares the beggar and his daughter off, and they begin walking away. Motes thrusts two dollars into the salesman’s hand, grabs a peeler, and starts running after the preacher and his daughter.

As Motes runs after the preacher and his daughter, the young man Enoch Emery catches up to him and begins to tell Motes about himself. When Motes finally catches up with the beggar, he tries to give the little girl the peeler but she claims she doesn’t want it. The preacher threatens to hit her if she refuses the machine, so she begrudgingly accepts the gift. She tells her father that she saw Motes rip up the “Jesus Calls You” card she had given him, and the preacher tells Motes, “[Y]ou can’t run away from Jesus. Jesus is a fact” (46).

The preacher is preparing to hand out “Jesus Calls You” pamphlets and he grasps Motes’ arm, tells him to repent, and asks him to help hand out pamphlets. Motes draws the blind man closer and says, “Listen, I’m as clean as you are … I don’t believe in sin, take your hand off me” (48). Motes grabs the preacher’s pamphlets from him and runs to the top of some stairs where people are exiting a building.

Motes himself begins preaching to the crowd: “I’m going to preach a new church—the church of truth without Jesus Christ Crucified. It won’t cost you nothing to join my church” (51). Motes leaves the area when the blind man calls out to him: “Hawks, Hawks, my name is Asa Hawks when you try to follow me again” (52). As Motes travels home to Mrs. Watt’s place, Enoch follows him despite the fact that Motes repeatedly tells him to get lost.

When Motes arrives home, he thinks back to a time when his father brought him to a peepshow. They stepped inside a tent to see a scantily clad woman moving about in a coffin. Motes was terrified and he quickly ran home. The chapter ends with a description of how the young Motes then filled his shoes with rocks and wandered into the woods in an attempt to appease God.