Wise Blood Character Annalysis- Enoch Emery
Wise Blood Character Evaluation Essay: Enoch Emery In the book “Wise Blood” by Flannery O’Connor, Enoch Emery is first introduced into the story in the third chapter when the main character. Emoch runs into the main character Hazel motes on the street in a crowd of people surrounding a man selling potato peelers. Enoch is an eighteen years old and is described as a “damp haired pimpled boy” with “yellow hair and a fox-shaped face. ”(pg. 5) We are quickly shown his lack of intelligence by his terrible grasp on the English language and him only laughing after being mocked by the peeler sales man.
Enoch is an impulsive rude boy, who just does and says what he wants not thinking of the consequences of his actions. He makes new enemies everywhere. Mocking and snickering at waitresses, making inappropriate comments, getting himself called names like “son of a bitch. ” More than anything he is just simple minded. He does these things because he does not think of consequences. He says there are no friendly people in the city, but he probably is just not giving anyone a good reason to be friendly towards him. Enoch is instantly drawn towards Hazel Motes by something he calls “wise blood. He claims he inherited wise blood from his father and that it tells him what to do and where to go. Enoch believes that his wise blood will come in handy to Hazel in his mission to start “The Church Without Christ. ” Hazel just sees Enoch as an insane obsessive teenage boy though and wants nothing to do with him. Enoch tries to tag along with Hazel but is rejected by him immediately. However, soon after Hazel got rid of Enoch, he found himself having to go to his work at the city zoo to fetch him. Thinking that Enoch knew where to find the blind preacher and his daughter, Hazel decided to follow him.
Before Enoch brought Hazel to the preacher he had to show Hazel what he thought was a huge secret. One he could only tell someone who he felt was the chosen one to share it with. This person had to be someone who he felt was pure and not from the city. He immediately knew it to be Hazel and felt he had to find a way to share what he knew with him. Enoch took Hazel to a museum that was through the woods from his work, telling Hazel that he would not tell him where the preacher lived unless Hazel saw what Enoch wanted to show him.
When they got inside Enoch told Hazel to be quiet as to not wake the guard who did not like Enoch very much. When they finally arrived where Enoch wanted to bring Hazel it turned out that what he was showing Hazel was a three foot tall shrunken man in a glass case. “See theter notice,” Enoch said in a church whisper, pointing to a type written card at the man’s foot, “it says he was once as tall as you or me. Some A-rabs did it to him in six months. ” He turned his head cautiously to see Hazel Motes. ” (pg. 94) Enoch believed that this was the new Christ that Hazel was searching to find for his Church Without Christ.
When Hazel saw this however he wanted nothing to do with the shrunken man and stormed out. Although Enoch had told Hazel that he knew where the two of them lived it was a lie. However he went ahead anyway with Hazel, trying to rely on his wise blood to guide him. In the end they ended up not finding the blind preaches house, only filling Hazel with more hatred towards Enoch. Enoch’s blood was telling him that Hazel needed the shrunken man for his church without Christ so he knew he had to steal it from the museum.
Enoch went to the museum with shoe polish covering his face and hands so that if anyone were to see him they would suspect a colored man and not him. Enoch managed to steal the shrunken man without any witnesses. Enoch brought the man home and put him carefully away, afraid to even look at it. He suspected that he would soon be rewarded for his actions. So he sat and waited, but nothing happened. Enoch waited longer, but still nothing happened. Finally he gave up, slamming the door to the cabinet the shrunken man was in, smashing it’s face.
Since nobody saw him steal the shrunken man he could still possibly be a suspect so Enoch put on a hat and a fake beard and headed off to the address that Sabbath Hawks gave him to find Hazel Motes. When he got to the house Sabbath answered Hazel’s door saying that Hazel was ill and persuaded him to leave the package with her, not knowing that it was the shrunken man inside. “My man is sick today and sleeping,” she said, “because he didn’t sleep none last night. What you want? ” “This is for him, it ain’t for you,” Enoch said, handing her the wet bundle. A friend of his gave it to me to give to him. I don’t know what’s in it. ” “I’ll take care of it,” she said. “You needn’t to worry none” (pg. 183) Enoch left slamming the door and despite Enoch’s request not to open it and to deliver it directly to Hazel she brought it to the bathroom and started to tear open the package, despite Enoch’s wishes of her. Later Enoch discovers a line of children waiting to shake hands with a gorilla named Gonga, which is really just a man in a gorilla suit. Enoch, being the simple minded fool that he is, gets in line with all the small children.
The children who are there to see a movie staring Gonga not just to shake hands with a fake gorilla, but Enoch wanted nothing to do with the movie, only wanting to shake the man’s hand and trying each time to strike conversation but then being pushed aside. The man in the Gonga suit ends up telling Enoch to go to hell, this being the first time that anyone from the city reached out their hand to Enoch and then this being the reaction to potential conversation, Enoch was immediately crushed and storms off.
Later Enoch is in a diner and reads that Gonga is going to be at another local theater so he tracks him down. Enoch climbs into the back of the van that Gonga arrived in, hid, and waited for them to leave. Once they finished they loaded up the van and left. Enoch stayed in the van until they came to a stop at a crossing where he jumped out holding the Gonga suit and ran off to the woods where he buries his human clothes and sets off into the night ready to meet people as his new identity of Gonga.
Overjoyed Enoch feels that he is finally being rewarded as he should be. Enoch walks down to the edge of the road where he finds a man and woman sitting on a rock over looking the city. As he tries to greet them they scream and run off. Enoch’s hands drop to his sides and he is left alone in the dark looking out over the city. This is the last we ever hear from him for the rest of the story. One of Enoch’s main roles is “Wise Blood” is comic relief. He is pretty much the only character to bring humor to the story throughout the book.
He is constantly making bad decisions and always trying to insult people everywhere he goes. He is also where the title of the story comes from. Enoch is the only character in the book that actually claims to have “wise blood,” which he claims he inherited from his father who also had it. Enoch is clueless in life and the only important decisions he ever makes are ones he feels like he has no choice but to make since he feels his blood is telling him what to do, and it is almost impossible for him to ignore what the wise blood wants.
