Wise Blood (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Flannery O’Connor
- First Published: 1952
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The 1940’s
- Setting: The American South
- Principal Characters: Hazel Motes, Enoch Emery, Asa Hawks, Sabbath Lily Hawks, Hoover Shoates, Mrs. Flood
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: South or Southerners, Blindness or blind persons, 1940’s, Religion, Christianity, Preaching, Corruption, Martyrs or martyrdom, Prophecy or prophets, Zoos, Fanaticism
- Locales: South (U.S.), Alabama
Form and Content
Wise Blood chronicles the last few months of Hazel Motes’s life, beginning with his leaving the army and moving to the city and ending with his death there. His pilgrimage dramatizes his attempt to disprove the religion of his grandfather, an itinerant backwoods preacher. Two images—one of his grandfather preaching from the hood of his old car and another of a ragged Christ who stalks him from behind trees—have haunted him so thoroughly that Hazel feels compelled to test God.
From the beginning of the novel, Hazel concentrates on making a...
[The entire page is 2142 words long]
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