Hazel’s Car Symbol in Wise Blood

Hazel’s broken-down car, purchased for forty dollars, is an important symbol in the novel. On the one hand, it represents home, a place that Hazel can call his own—when he is most frustrated by those around him, he always attempts to escape to his car. On the other, it represents free will, since the mobility that it provides (when it works) offers Hazel the freedom to go wherever he chooses. As he tries to escape his religious destiny, this ever-faulty vehicle of his free will represents the unsuccessful attempts he makes to avoid that destiny, and its ultimate destruction prompts his collapse into repentance. The fact that the car becomes the weapon in Hazel’s murder of Onnie Jay Holy’s hired imposter also suggests that it wasn’t fate that drove Hazel to kill—it was his own free will.

Hazel’s Car Quotes in Wise Blood

The Wise Blood quotes below all refer to the symbol of Hazel’s Car. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Religious Belief, Redemption, and Sin Theme Icon

Haze stayed in his car about an hour and had a bad experience in it: he dreamed he was not dead but only buried. He was not waiting on the Judgment because there was no Judgment, he was waiting on nothing. Various eyes looked through the back oval window at his situation, some with considerable reverence, like the boy from the zoo, and some only to see what they could see… Then a woman with two little boys on either side of her stopped and looked in, grinning. After a second, she pushed the boys out of view and indicated that she would climb in and keep him company for a while, but she couldn’t get through the glass and finally she went off.

Related Characters: Hazel ‘Haze’ Motes, Enoch Emory, The Woman (with the two little boys)

Related Symbols: Hazel’s Car, Coffins

Page Number and Citation: 160

Explanation and Analysis:

The entire possibility of this came from the advantage of having a car—of having something that moved fast, in privacy, to the place you wanted to be. He looked out the window at the Essex. It sat high and square in the pouring rain. He didn’t notice the rain, only the car; if asked he would not have been able to say it was raining.

Related Characters: Hazel ‘Haze’ Motes

Related Symbols: Hazel’s Car

Page Number and Citation: 186

Explanation and Analysis:

Hazel’s Car Symbol Timeline in Wise Blood

The timeline below shows where the symbol Hazel’s Car appears in Wise Blood. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...two good feet. Hazel remembers his grandfather, shouting to the assembled crowd from atop his car. His grandfather would single out Hazel, who resembled him, in the crowd, and ask everyone... (full context)

Hazel wakes up and carefully extracts himself from Mrs. Watts’ bed, having decided to buy a car. He has no... (full context)

...asks to see the owner, the boy claims that he is Slade. Hazel examines the car: its backseat has been replaced by a wooden board, and there are dark green window... (full context)

...in Detroit, using a common slur for African-Americans, as Hazel offers thirty dollars for the car. Hazel kicks the tire, and they settle on fifty. Before they leave the lot, Slade... (full context)

Hazel buys the car for forty dollars, and buys some gasoline as well, which the boy pours from a... (full context)

...drives without thinking, unable to stop or even slow down without having to restart the car. It has begun to rain. Hazel passes long blocks of uniform houses with “ugly dog”... (full context)

The car is stopped now, and the driver of a long oil truck behind Hazel emerges to... (full context)

His reverie is interrupted by the sound of the noisy, rat-colored car passing back and forth, looking for something. Enoch cranes to see it, and recognizes Hazel... (full context)

...shoulder, and Enoch whispers “King Jesus,” as Hazel springs up and heads back to his car. Enoch follows him, shouting. (full context)

Hazel sits sourly in his car, tensed as if about to shout. Enoch asks him how he is, and Hazel responds... (full context)

...is full of words and phrases. This part engages Hazel in small talk about the car, or tries to. Hazel is totally unresponsive, as Enoch tells him about a yellow Ford... (full context)

...Asa Hawks and the young girl. He follows them home, pressing his face against the car window to see their house number. Then Haze drives to the cinema, where a movie... (full context)

Meanwhile Hazel is sitting in his car to think, and he decides to seduce the young girl. If he sees his daughter... (full context)

Hazel murmurs that “nobody with a good car needs to be justified,” and hurries out of the room. He then reopens the door... (full context)

Hazel takes his car to a garage and asks the mechanic to fix the horn and take out the... (full context)

The next day Hazel takes the car out to drive in the country. The sky is blue, with only one cloud, a... (full context)

...and says “I see you” again. Hazel heads back up the road to the unlocked car, but begins to panic when it won’t start. Sabbath comes to the window, and he... (full context)

The man puts a gallon of gas in the car, but it still doesn’t start. He silently examines the engine, not answering when Hazel asks... (full context)

...dogs hear,” and comes upon the figure of Hazel Motes preaching on top of his car. Enoch has not seen Hazel since the day in the park, and now he listens... (full context)

...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... (full context)

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... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...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... (full context)

The next night, Haze parks his car outside the Odeon theater and begins to preach, striking a strange pose atop his car.... (full context)

Hazel drives away in his car and returns to his room, where Sabbath Hawks is waiting in the bed. She stubbornly... (full context)

...another woman and make a new start. All of this is possible because of his car, and the sight of it out the window gives Hazel the energy to finish dressing,... (full context)

...he wants nothing but the truth. He tells her that he is leaving in the car, and that he will go to some other city and preach the Church Without Christ,... (full context)

...thirty-five cents. Three dollars go to the “Prophet” for his services and use of his car. The impostor’s name is Solace Layfield, and he has consumption and six children. He never... (full context)

Hazel’s face watches Shoats and the “Prophet” for an hour, and then his car follows Solace’s while he drops off Shoats and carries on to his own home. As... (full context)

Solace begins to walk away down the middle of the road, and Hazel starts the car, yelling at him to take off the suit. Solace begins to pull it off as... (full context)

...the rear tire might last twenty miles if he goes slow. Hazel responds that the car is just beginning its life, and a bolt of lightning couldn’t stop it. Then he... (full context)

...to see the view, and Hazel assumes he wants to fight. He obligingly drives the car up to the top of the hill, and turns it toward the embankment as the... (full context)

...so that he won’t be any trouble. Hazel dies in the back of the squad car, but the policemen don’t notice, and they deliver his corpse to Mrs. Flood. (full context)

Wise Blood

Flannery O’Connor

Hazel’s Car Symbol Analysis

Hazel’s Car Quotes in Wise Blood

Hazel’s Car Symbol Timeline in Wise Blood