Parabolic Drift

"He felt that he should have a woman, not for the sake of the
pleasure in her, but to prove that he didn't believe in sin
since he practiced what was called it" (62).
Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952)

Points for Reflection

The Bible: Luke 15:11-32

1. How does it shape your understanding of the younger son's request (v.12) to learn that this tale is told at a time when a child's inheritance was normally bequeathed upon the parent's death?
2. Under what conditions does the younger son envision his return to his father, having now spent all the money he was given (v.17-19)?
3. Is the father's extravagant response to his lost son's return irrational? How does this moment (v.20-24) compare with the parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14)?
4. Is the older son's response to the party being thrown for his brother just (v.25-30)?
5. What kind of love is being implicitly recommended by this parable?

Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952), chps 3-7

1. How pivotal are characters’ acts of looking, gazing, and staring within this story’s structure?
2. What about Haze’s appearance, posture, and behavior suggests he is torn between competing impulses?
3. What particular elements of Christian thought does Haze Motes appear to reject?
4. What narrative functions do physical disabilities serve in Flannery O’Connor’s tale?
5. The narrator tells us no one is looking at the night sky in the opening of chapter three.  Does this “no one” include Hazel himself?
6. What drives Enoch Emery in the first part of the story? Putting aside the whole issue of the “mystery” in the museum, what does he appear to desire most?
7. What words do O’Connor’s characters use most often when cursing?  Why might this be?
8. Do Haze and Enoch share a similar religious background?
9. Is Asa Hawks a blind seer? Does he articulate truths that others ignore?
10. Why did Hazel, long ago, temporarily disable himself by placing rocks in his shoes (36)?
11. Why is Haze so fascinated by and intent on following the blind preacher, initially? Does Haze’s slowly accumulating knowledge about Asa Hawks lessen, or heighten, his compulsion to know and understand the man behind the dark glasses?
12. Does Enoch's "blood" lead him towards truth?
13. Does Haze think himself clean?
14. Recall O’Connor’s description of Hazel’s youthful thoughts about Jesus (11-12), and his confrontation with his mother following his first experience at a carnival peep show (35-36).  Did the young Haze absorb Christian notions about redemption along with convictions concerning guilt?
15. Why does Haze purchase the car he does, despite his awareness of its poor condition?
16. Why might O’Connor describe Mrs. Watt as “so well-adjusted that she didn't have to think any more," and then turn around and describe Haze, driving off in his used car, as “going forward, thinking nothing and sweating” (34, 41, emphases added)?
17. Why is Haze intent on sinning while in Taulkinham?
18. Why did the young Haze temporarily disable himself by placing rocks in his shoes (36)?
19. Why did Asa Hawks not open his eyes when quick lime was streaking down his face?
20. Does O’Connor intend to make Hazel’s attraction to Mrs. Leora Watts easily justifiable (17-18)?  Why does Hazel eventually leave her (62)?
21. What do you make of Sabbath Hawk’s odd tales/parables concerning sin (28, 69)?  Are these intended to be merely shocking and comic?  Is there any moral truth locked away inside them?
22. Does O’Connor share Haze’s prejudice (72) towards African Americans and the disabled?
23. Why might O’Connor pack all of chapter three’s contents into a single, long chapter?
24. Why might O’Connor dress both the woman at the pool and the waitress at the Frosty Bottle in imperfectly white clothing?
    

Soft Self-Portrait with Fried Bacon (1941)
oil on canvas
Salvador Dalí

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu