Line #31 Literature/WiseBlood


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wise_blood.jpg]]
2
3	->''That belief in Christ is to some people a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence. For them Hazel Motes' integrity lies in his trying with such vigor to get rid of the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of his mind. For the author Hazel's integrity lies in his not being able to. ... Free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man.''
4	-->-- '''Flannery O' Connor''', author's note to the second edition
5
6	''Wise Blood'' is a 1952 novel[[note]]four chapters were initially published as short stories in 1948 and 1949[[/note]] by Creator/FlanneryOConnor. In 1979, it was adapted into a film by Creator/JohnHuston.
7
8	Hazel Motes is the grandson of a preacher. After serving in an unspecified war where he didn't so much lose his faith as realize that he never wanted that faith in the first place, he returns to Tennessee. He finds living without Christ to be more complicated than he expected, and that it's harder to give up preaching than it was to renounce Jesus.
9
10	Hazel finds himself standing on the hood of his car and expounding--for everyone with ears to hear--on what he calls the Church Without Christ, where "the deaf don't hear, the blind don't see, the lame don't walk, the dumb don't talk, and the dead stay that way." His only follower is Enoch Emery, an 18-year-old who believes he has "wise blood" that tells him secret things. Enoch thinks modern man needs a new Jesus; his first candidate for the position is Hazel Motes, and his second is a mummy in a local museum. Hazel wants nothing to do with Enoch's search, and finds himself fighting corruption in his nascent anti-church: The evangelist Hoover Shoats snatches Hazel's message, renames it The Holy Church of Christ Without Christ, turns it into a money-making scheme... and gets more followers than Hazel ever did.
11
12	Meanwhile, Hazel associates with Asa Hawks--an itinerant preacher who blinded himself with quicklime to prove his faith--solely so he can rebuff the preacher's attempts to redeem him. And he becomes increasingly frustrated as Asa does nothing of the sort. Hazel's attempt to seduce Sabbath Lily, Asa's daughter, are similarly frustrated when it becomes clear that she's just as interested in seducing Hazel.
13
14	Eventually, in spite of Hazel's best efforts, God's grace finds him and leaves him a changed man. But it's not entirely clear whether or not he was saved by this encounter.
15
16	----
17	!! Provides examples of:
18	* TheAllegedCar: Hazel is quite proud of his car, but the description makes it clear that it's a jalopy.
19	* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Hazel]] is reduced to this at the end of his life.
20	* BerserkButton: Enoch really hates animals, like the ones he sees in the zoo he works for and gets mad when he sees them.
21	* BlackComedy: To put it lightly.
22	* BlindSeer: Intentionally invoked by Asa Hawks. [[spoiler:He's faking on both counts.]]
23	* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: The harder Hazel tries to resist God's calling, the more his life goes off the rails. This is more or less the main theme of the book. (See the quote from O'Connor at the top of the page.)
24	* CarFu: [[spoiler:Hazel kills his doppelganger by running him over with his car.]]
25	* TheComicallySerious: Hazel responds to nearly every confrontation by reciting the nihilistic credo of his church. Brad Dourif is especially good with this in the film version.
26	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The Holy Church of Christ Without Christ
27	* EyeScream: The preferred method of blinding oneself is quicklime in the eyes.
28	* FilleFatale: Sabbath Lily Hawks, albeit an unlikely one.
29	* IdenticalStranger: After Hazel cuts off ties to Hoover's Holy Church of Christ Without Christ, Hoover finds another man who looks a lot like Hazel--and even has a similar car--to act as his "prophet".
30	* MeaningfulName:
31	** Hazel Motes' last name is reminiscent of Jesus' admonition to remove the plank of wood from your own eye before you complain of the mote in your brother's eye. His nickname, "Haze", also suggests blindness.
32	** Asa is a raptor in two senses. He's a thief, and since his last name is Hawks, he's also a bird of prey.
33	* ThePenance: Hazel blinds himself at the end of the book after realizing he could never really escape God and his feelings of being a sinner.
34	* PluckyComicRelief: Hoover Shoates, aka "Oney Jay Holy" as the smooth-talking ConMan apostle to street preachers.
35	* PoliceBrutality: [[spoiler:A policeman catches Hazel driving without a license, so he pushes Hazel's car over an embankment, destroying it. At the end of the novel, two cops find Hazel nearly unconscious in a ditch, and one of them gratuitously knocks him out with his billy club.]]
36	* RageAgainstTheHeavens: The modus operandi of Hazel's Church Without Christ. In his own words:
37	-->'''Hazel:''' Well, I preach the Church Without Christ. I'm member and preacher to that church where the blind don't see and the lame don't walk and what's dead stays that way. Ask me about that church and I'll tell you it's the church that the blood of Jesus don't foul with redemption.
38	* RefusalOfTheCall: Hazel is determined, at his own peril, not to give in to the "ragged figure" who haunts him--the "ragged figure" being Jesus Christ.
39	* SinisterMinister: Asa Hawks, though he's a pretty ineffectual villain.

Context Literature / WiseBlood