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