Wise Blood is Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, and it is concerned with the journey of a young man named Hazel Motes. At the beginning of the narrative, Motes is traveling to Taulkinham, Tennessee, after fighting for four years in World War II. Before his military service, Motes had always intended to become a preacher like his grandfather before him, but his war experiences cause Motes to become an anti-religious nihilist.

After arriving in Taulkinham, Motes encounters a young man named Enoch Emery, who immediately annoy s him. Motes also encounters the blind beggar preacher, Asa Hawks, and becomes completely obsessed with him. He follows Hawks around and harasses him about his beliefs; Hawks retorts that only Jesus can save Motes from the path he is traveling.

Motes buys a used Essex from a car dealership and the car becomes not only his home and his church, but his whole life. The car allows Motes to wander around Taulkinham and preach his vision of a new church, the Church Without Christ. Motes increasingly spends him time preaching his ideals of a new (nonexistent) Jesus, but no one in Taulkinham is interested in what he has to say.

One day, Enoch Emery takes Motes to the Taulkinham museum to show him an ancient corpse, but Motes doesn’t care for the exhibit and storms off in a fit of rage. Enoch eventually decides that he will steal the corpse for Motes to use as his “new jesus” in his Church Without Christ, though he has no idea why he is compelled to do this. Motes ends up throwing the corpse against a wall and destroying it.

One day, a man named Onnie Jay Holy walks by one of Motes’s preaching sessions and is greatly impressed. As a talented orator, he begins to gather a crowd and tell them that Motes is the prophet. Motes denounces Onnie Jay as a farce and the two have a violent confrontation. Onnie swears that he will find his own prophet and will put Motes’ church out of business, but Motes eventually runs over Onnie’s new prophet in his car, killing him. 

Soon after this, a policeman pulls Motes’ Essex over because he doesn’t like Motes’ face. The officer pushes Motes’ car over a cliff, which not only destroys the car but all of Motes’ dreams as well. After this, Motes blinds himself and takes to walking around Taulkinham with glass and rocks stuffed in his shoes. He wanders out into an icy rain storm and is found several days later lying exhausted in a ditch. One of the officers who finds him whacks Motes in the head with his baton, and Motes dies shortly thereafter. As the novel closes, it’s not readily apparent whether Motes has attained redemption or not.