Similarly to the character’s actions and thoughts, the character’s emotions also exemplify Wise Blood’s theme and the novel’s irony. Hazel Motes, when he enters Taulkinham, has already decided to begin his protest on God. He begins by sleeping with a prostitute named Lenora Watts. He sees her address etched inside a men’s bathroom stall, and immediately after hails a taxi to go to her house (O’Connor 26). Once at her house he sleeps with her for the first time. Ms. Watts refers to herself as “momma” several times during Hazel’s first encounter with her, and this sets him on edge (O’Connor 30). Still, he spends the night with her, and even returns to her house again the following day. This experience is even worse for Hazel than the first because,
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Hazel preaches on the many aspects of his new religion, the Church Without Christ, and includes his “new Jesus” in his sermons outside movie theatres, but when Enoch confronts him with his new Jesus, Hazel hates and destroys it. He panics upon seeing Enoch’s new Jesus, and smashes it against a wall in his apartment (O’Connor 188). Enoch, following the instincts of his “wise blood” breaks into a museum and steals a mummy. He considers this mummy the “new Jesus” that Hazel speaks about when he preaches. However, when he takes the mummy to Hazel, Hazel destroys it (O’Connor 188). Hazel preached throughout Wise Blood about people needing to find the “new Jesus.” So, it is ironic that when he is presented with his, he destroys it. It also supports fate over free will because this sets several events in the novel into motion. Such as Sabbath Lily leaving Hazel when she sees that he destroyed the mummy, which she had begun to treat as her child (O’Connor 189). In “Sermon on the Hood of an Essex: Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood,” Glenn Settle discusses the sermons Hazel makes on the hood of his car throughout the novel. He states that, while Hazel believes he is telling the whole truth through his sermons, he is only lying to himself and everyone who listens to him in an effort to convince himself he has no soul or afterlife (190). This could support the novel’s irony in two separate ways, one being Hazel’s lying to himself by preaching the “truth,” and the other being his horror at finding Enoch’s “new Jesus” after preaching that each person should find their
Hazel preaches on the many aspects of his new religion, the Church Without Christ, and includes his “new Jesus” in his sermons outside movie theatres, but when Enoch confronts him with his new Jesus, Hazel hates and destroys it. He panics upon seeing Enoch’s new Jesus, and smashes it against a wall in his apartment (O’Connor 188). Enoch, following the instincts of his “wise blood” breaks into a museum and steals a mummy. He considers this mummy the “new Jesus” that Hazel speaks about when he preaches. However, when he takes the mummy to Hazel, Hazel destroys it (O’Connor 188). Hazel preached throughout Wise Blood about people needing to find the “new Jesus.” So, it is ironic that when he is presented with his, he destroys it. It also supports fate over free will because this sets several events in the novel into motion. Such as Sabbath Lily leaving Hazel when she sees that he destroyed the mummy, which she had begun to treat as her child (O’Connor 189). In “Sermon on the Hood of an Essex: Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood,” Glenn Settle discusses the sermons Hazel makes on the hood of his car throughout the novel. He states that, while Hazel believes he is telling the whole truth through his sermons, he is only lying to himself and everyone who listens to him in an effort to convince himself he has no soul or afterlife (190). This could support the novel’s irony in two separate ways, one being Hazel’s lying to himself by preaching the “truth,” and the other being his horror at finding Enoch’s “new Jesus” after preaching that each person should find their