Wise Blood Imagery

In addition to Hazel, Enoch Emery also denies his true self throughout Wise Blood. He expresses his hatred for animals in several scenes of the novel, most notably the scene where he takes Hazel to the zoo. Inside the zoo, Enoch stops at every cage and insults the animals. “They don’t do nothing but sit there all day and stink,” he said about two bears sitting in a cage (O’Connor 89). However, despite his hating animals, he literally becomes one later in the novel. On page 182, Enoch shakes the hand of a man in a gorilla suit promoting a movie. He does so with the intention of telling the man off, but instead he is enamored with how soft and warm the hand is. He also realizes that it is the first time anyone had given him their hand since he moved to the city (O’Connor). This moves Enoch deeply, and he concludes that he does not wish to hold the gorilla any longer but instead be him. Following this instinct, he later kills the man inside the gorilla costume and steals the suit, running up to people and shaking their hands (O’Connor 197-198). This supports the novel’s theme because it is the result of Enoch preparing for an event he does not yet understand. Michael Bolt writes in his article “Nervous Shadow Walking Backwards”: Elusive Desire in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood,” that Enoch sees becoming Gonga the Gorilla as a way to combine both parts of his personality, the part that he considers human and his animalistic wise blood (95). Enoch’s wise blood leads him to make

When You look at an animal, you can sometimes see a person in them. It’s like when a dog starts to look like his owner, or when an animal represents a symbol, like with the Bald Eagle and Freedom. Well in Gary D. Schmidt’s book, Okay for Now, he uses animals, like birds, in John Audubon's book to represent different characters in the book like Doug, his mom, and his dad.

Ishmael Beah has been through just about everything a soldier in can experience while in war, and he wants to show how war is not a good solution. If we do not take what he says into account, loved ones may be taken from us and have to experience what he once did as a soldier. Or worse, our loved ones could be killed by one of the many destructions caused by war. The blood shed on the battlefields of war could be our own if people don’t listen to what Beah is trying to tell about war. Beah uses the image of blood throughout this book to show why war is not a good answer. He could have lessened the image of blood if he wanted his take on war to be portrayed differently. Blood was chosen as the image because the main purpose of war is to prevent future blood shed from occurring, but it really just creates more casualties and more blood shed. By looking at the way Beah portrays the image of blood in “A Long Way Gone”, one can see that his view on war is not a positive one, which is important because the way Beah depicts war is vital to Beah’s story and the overall tone of the book.

Who would have thought tax plans were so interesting? No one does, but hey, let’s talk about why Dave Barry’s short story, “Mutant Fleas Terrorize Midwest”. In this short story, it consists of sarcasm, satire, and hyperbole along with other types of humor to create a masterpiece, which is this story. This whole story is mockingly making fun of the people who will believe anything that’s posted on the internet. So, in this story, by Dave Barry, uses the humorous elements of satire, hyperbole, and comic characters, to make a great story about a reporter investigating if mutant fleas are fact or fiction.

The characters’ actions throughout Wise Blood provide the novel’s most obvious examples of irony and fate over free will. Early in the novel, Hazel comes across a blind, begging preacher named Asa Hawkes. Hazel then considers him his rival for the rest of the novel, constantly spying on him and harassing him in his apartment. However, following in his enemy’s footsteps, Hazel later blinds himself to prove a point, just as the preacher had tried to do several years earlier (O’Connor 216). Hazel, throughout his entire childhood, feared God and His punishments because of his hyper-religious grandfather (O’Connor 14). This led him to pursue preaching as a career. However, during his time in the army, Hazel began to hate Christ, and allowed his army mates to convince him that there is no God or tangible soul. O’Connor even writes that Hazel “took a long time to believe them because he wanted to believe them” (O’Connor 18). This leads to Hazel becoming a passionate atheist by the end of his four years in the army, but when Hazel moves from the army to Taulkinham, he meets Asa Hawkes, who tries to bring him back to God. Hazel attempts to debate religious matters with Hawkes several times in the novel but loses verbal arguments every time. When searching for a different way to surpass Hawkes, Hazel discovers that he is not actually blind and finds his way to prove himself superior (O’Connor 162). Sringley writes in her article “Penance and Love in Wise Blood: Seeing

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” by Pearl Poet sends a very strong message to the audience regarding the similarities that human beings have with animals, something that is often ignored. While it is undeniable that in terms of wisdom and characteristics, human beings are very much more dynamic and superior than any other animal, it is also a fact that there are many cases that can be named where other living beings displayed considerable similarities with human beings. In this work, the author tried to portray those similarities by stressing on the human and animal instincts and how each of these living beings try their best to save themselves from grave dangers. It is very much evident from this storyline that in terms of

The affection for the horse is present from the very beginning: “What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them.” (p.6) McCarthy uses blood here once again to create this association with men and beast which later on in the text indicates that there is no difference between the two; humans are horses. The love for Alejandra becomes the true representation of this similarity in which she described more like a horse than a young lady: “She passed five feet away and turned her fineboned face and looked full at him…just the slightest lifting of the long black hair.” (p. 109) The blood that ran through her was like that

Finally, the protagonist of the story has the most notable battle within his conscience. Hazel Motes preaches against redemption and the need for atonement, yet cleansing and torturing himself by the end of the novel. The doctrine of the Church of Christ Without Christ, for example, is “there’s only one truth and that is that there’s no truth!” (O’Connor 165). This bold statement from Haze outright denies Christianity and the belief system with which he was taught, yet he seemingly stands firm in it. This rebellion, in turn, results in Haze’s isolation from other humans. In “Penance and Love in Wise Blood: Seeing Redemption,” Susan Srigley describes the alienation of Haze, saying, “…Hazel Motes tries to construct a reality that is not only independent of God, but by consequence, other human beings as well” (96). Through starting his church, Haze is able to voice his inner rebellion to those who choose to hear his message. After years of isolation away from his spiritual side, Haze’s inner angst boils over, and he slanders anything or anyone associated with the faith he once knew.

Probably one of the most important uses of animal imagery in the book comes early on, when McMurphy describes the group sessions as a “pecking party”. McMurphy explains a pecking party to Acutes as:

The animals in this story are closely related to the characters, especially the character of Robert. Rodwell acknowledges Robert's close union with animals when he draws Robert in his sketchbook as "the only human form" among sketches of animals (155). When Robert sees the drawing, he notices that "the shading [is]

These oblivious views change when he comes to several realizations about creatures as non-thinking, and in his first contact with the reasoning- and brutality- of humans. It is then, after returning to his cave, that he has one key revelation concerning perception and its influence upon existence.

In an effort to redeem himself from Rowena’s death, Robert’s goal is to save life, any life, even if it is the life of an animal. To Robert, animals symbolize innocence. He views them as innocent bystanders in a world full of violence and madness. He feels a special connection to them, especially to his totems of horses and dogs. So when Robert is forced to put down the ill horses, this is utterly emotionally heart-breaking. Again he is faced with the murder of innocence. This time, he is the one responsible for such a horrid action. This kind of situation can shape anyone’s character

Throughout the entire novel, the religion of the remaining humans on Earth, Mercerism, puts a large amount of emphasis on animals. Animals are seen as a way to show your humanity, that you are truly human and not a special or an android. Animals were also a way to show your economic status so some individuals would go as far as to have an electric animal in order to maintain

At the novels completion, Marlow has altered every belief he had formerly held. From a caterpillar at the commencement, cocooning while in the depths and darkness’ of Africa, and flying away from his previous convictions and assertions, Marlow evolves throughout the novel.

The animal’s behaviors subsequent to the zebra’s death not only reflect animal instinct but portray human-like traits as well. In the story, the