Wise Blood

Wise Blood is Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, and it is concerned with the journey of a young man named Hazel Motes. At the beginning of the narrative, Motes is traveling to Taulkinham, Tennessee, after fighting for four years in World War II. Before his military service, Motes had always intended to become a preacher like his grandfather before him, but his war experiences cause Motes to become an anti-religious nihilist.

After arriving in Taulkinham, Motes encounters a young man named Enoch Emery, who immediately annoy s him. Motes also encounters the blind beggar preacher, Asa Hawks, and becomes completely obsessed with him. He follows Hawks around and harasses him about his beliefs; Hawks retorts that only Jesus can save Motes from the path he is traveling.

Motes buys a used Essex from a car dealership and the car becomes not only his home and his church, but his whole life. The car allows Motes to wander around Taulkinham and preach his vision of a new church, the Church Without Christ. Motes increasingly spends him time preaching his ideals of a new (nonexistent) Jesus, but no one in Taulkinham is interested in what he has to say.