Flannery O'Conner's "Wise Blood"
...s would never let him forget he was redeemed. What did the sinner think there was to be gained? Jesus would have him in the end.”(p.10) Hazel was taught a Jesus that was “soul-hungry” and Hazel decided for himself that the only was to avoid this Jesus was to altogether avoid sin. Hazel was of the state of mind that to escape sin was to escape redemption and ultimately the need for Jesus. When Hazel was 18 years old he was required to enter the army. Hazel saw entering the army as the government’s way of tricking him into the temptation that would lead him into sin. Hazel, however, felt that he was stronger then this temptation and trusted in himself to stay “clean.” Hazel was longing for the moment to prove to his fellow soldiers that he was no going to let them corrupt him and damn his soul. When a group of soldiers invited Hazel to a brothel, Hazel took the opportunity to express his view on sin and corruption. The soldiers’ response to Hazel, however, had a greater impact on him. “His friends told him that nobody was interested in his goddamn soul…They told him he didn’t have any soul.”(p.11) Hazel’s experience in the army led to his rejection of the idea that he needs to avoid sin. “He took a long time to believe them because he wanted to believe them. All he wanted was to believe them and get rid of it once and for all, and he saw the opportunity here to get rid of it without corruption, to be converted to nothing instead of to evil.”(p.11) Hazel was converted to the idea that there was no need to avoid sin because there was nothing to avoid. Sin did not exist because there was no fall. In order for Hazel to prove that he believed in no sin Hazel decides to partake in it. Hazel visits a whore Leora Watts whose address he found on a bathroom wall. Hazel was taking a complete turn of beliefs from when he refused to go to the brothel with the soldiers. Hazel says “If I was in sin I was in it before I ever committed any. There’s no change come in me. I don’t believe in sin…Nothing matters but Jesus don’t exist.”(p.27) Hazel’s experience in the army caused his beliefs to change from a desire to avoid sin in order to evade Jesus to a belief that neither Jesus nor sin existed. Haze often says “I am clean” However, it becomes clear through Hazel’s actions that he is not satisfied with the belief of nothing. Hazel did not like that there is no Jesus, no sin, nor anything to aspire to. Hazel is obviously looking for “something”. Hazel becomes obsessed with a “blind” preacher Asa Hawkes and appears to be upset that Asa does not wish to preach to him. Asa’s inability to follow through with his promise to blind himself for Jesus almost reinforces Hazel’s belief that Jesus is nothing. Hazel soon begins to adopt his grandfather’s style of forceful preaching on the streets as he teaches the “Church without Christ” upon his own car to show others the truth that there is no need for salvation because there is nothing to be saved from. Temporarily Hazel’s car and preaching seems to be the “something “that he had been searching for. To Hazel his car only proves that he has no need f...