Wise Blood: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Since Hazel moved in, Asa Hawks has been hiding from him behind the bolted door of his room. Hawks is often drunk, and doesn’t want to face Hazel’s curious gaze. Hazel doesn’t understand why a preacher wouldn’t want to save his lost soul. Instead of seeing Hawks, Hazel is stuck with Sabbath, who now follows him around. He has abandoned seducing her, and now tries to protect himself from her persistent attempts to sneak into his bed, sometimes late at night. On one occasion she comes with a candle, wearing a nightgown, and he threatens her with a chair. Hawks presses his daughter to continue, however, as he plans to leave soon.

Hazel’s plans have failed—he still has no followers in the Church Without Christ, except for one sixteen-year-old who asked to go with him to a whorehouse. After they had gone, the boy said that they were both guilty of a mortal sin, and he could not join Hazel’s church because he was a Lapsed Catholic. Hazel, who enjoyed the whorehouse much less than the boy, shouts that there is no such thing as sin or redemption, but the boy just shrugs and asks Hazel if he wants to return the next night.

Two nights later, another disciple appears, following Hazel to all four picture shows while he preaches. He is dressed “like an ex-preacher turned cowboy,” with an “honest look that fitted into his face like false teeth.” He keeps winking at Hazel. As the last few people disperse at the end of the night, with Hazel telling them that blasphemy is the only way to the truth, the man steps up and calls them back. He begins a charming, and down-to-earth address. He asks the crowd if they know what it’s like to not have a friend in the world, and one man responds that it “ain’t no worsen havinum that would put a knife your back when you wasn’t looking.”

The man starts to draw a larger crowd, promising to recount what Hazel’s ideas have done for him. Meanwhile Hazel stands motionless and confused. The man introduces himself as Onnie Jay Holy. He continues to work the crowd, telling them that two months ago he was another man, lonesome and lost. He tells them that everyone is born sweet, but then something happens that drives that love inside, and we all become lonely and sick. He was this way, he says, and just needed someone to help him bring out the sweetness—he needed Hazel, the Prophet. Two months ago, he says, he met Hazel, and it changed his life.

At this point Hazel interrupts to say that Onnie Jay Holy is “not true,” telling everyone that he had never seen the man before that night. No one listens to him, though—they are all taken by Onnie’s humble manner. Onnie tells them they can trust the church because there’s nothing foreign in it, and you don’t have to believe anything you don’t understand—it’s up-to-date, a church based on their personal interpretations of the Bible. Hazel interjects, calling him a liar, but Onnie talks over him, pointing out a baby in the crowd and appealing to them on behalf of its inner sweetness to join the “Holy Church of Christ Without Christ,” which will cost them only a dollar.

Hazel tries to shout that you can’t know the truth for money, but Onnie Jay Holy immediately twists this into an endorsement of how cheap their church is—barely costing anything. He begins to write down names of the gathered listeners, but Hazel jumps into the car, attempting to start it. Onnie tells him to wait, but he begins to slowly drive away. The car stalls repeatedly, though, so Onnie can easily catch up and get in with Hazel. He’s clearly angry at having lost the money of the assembled group. Onnie then turns on the charm again, telling Hazel that he reminds him of Jesus Christ and Abraham Lincoln. Hazel is outraged, repeating that Onnie “ain’t true.” Onnie replies that he is a real radio preacher, and Hazel stops the car, telling him to get out.

Onnie persists as Hazel tries to start the malfunctioning car, telling him that he needs an “artist-type” to help him run the Church. He tries to get Hazel to reveal the location of the new jesus, asking repeatedly as Hazel begins to push the car forward. Onnie helps him get it to a parking space. Hazel decides to spend the night in the car, and gets in the back, closing the fringed shades and ignoring Onnie’s questions. Finally when Onnie offers to pay him, Hazel tells him that there is no “new jesus,” that it was only a “way to say a thing.” This causes the smile to “more or less slither” off Onnie’s face.

Hazel repeats himself to the transformed Onnie (who now reveals his real name, Hoover Shoats), and tries to close the car door around his head. Frustrated, Hazel slams the door, catching Shoats’ thumb. Shoats howls in pain, and then returns to threaten Hazel, declaring that he will find his own new jesus, that he can buy “Prophets for peanuts,” and that he will out-preach Hazel. From the behind the curtain Hazel hits the car's broken horn, which releases a strangled sound.

Shoats leaves after a final threat, and then Hazel falls asleep and has a nightmare in the car’s backseat. He dreams that he has been buried alive and is waiting on nothing, that various people are eyeing him through the window—he recognizes Enoch, and then the woman with two little boys, who tries to climb into the car with him. He expects to see Asa Hawks come, but he never does. Waking up, Hazel tries the starter, and the car runs as if nothing were wrong.

Hazel drives home, and then decides to pick the lock on Asa Hawks’ door. He does so, and then he crosses the dark room to Hawks’ bed, his heart pounding. Hazel squats down and strikes a match close to his face, causing Hawks to open his eyes. The two make eye contact while the light of the match lasts, with Hazel’s eyes opening “onto a deeper blankness.” Hawks then jabs at him, saying that now Hazel can leave him alone. Hazel’s expressionless face moves back under his white hat.