In Wise Blood, Flannery O'Conner creates a spiritually empty world in which her characters attempt to live lives without morality or religion. Hazel Motes, the protagonist, creates the Church without Christ to escape organized religion altogether. In her novel, Flannery O'Conner explores humanity's need for spiritual truth and purpose. He uses Hazel Motes, Enoch Emery, Asa Hawks, and Mrs. Flood to demonstrate that man cannot find spiritual fulfillment in material prosperity, but only through the redemption of Christ. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay O'Conner illustrates Christ's redemption of humanity through Hazel Motes. He describes Hazel as a “cristiano malgre lui” (a Christian in spite of himself) (Kreyling 71). At the age of twelve, Haze believes he is destined to become a preacher just like his father, but he soon abandons his Christian faith. He convinces himself that he doesn't have a soul and founds the Church without Christ to preach a new Jesus. He, however, is not the only one struggling with religion; indeed, all of O'Conner's characters display a misdirected sense of spiritual purpose, if any at all. He also shares feelings of loneliness and displacement with the other characters. As he returns home from the army, he finds that his family is gone leaving only a "shell...a skeleton" of the house (O'Conner 20). Asa and Sabbath Hawks are also familiar with the sense of displacement, having spent much of their lives moving from place to place as beggars. Such widespread restlessness and dissatisfaction suggests that there is a common search for something greater. Hazel Motes tries to satisfy her emptiness with material goods. This becomes explicit when he buys an old Essex. He points out that the car will be “mostly… a home since he “has nowhere to be” (O'Conner 69). Hazel tries to ease his feeling of loss with the car, but it quickly becomes more than just a house. He boasts that his car can always take him “to the place [he] wanted to be” and believes that owning the car makes him a free individual (O'Conner 186). upon which Hazel builds his church, both literally and figuratively. He would preach the gospel of a false Jesus of his own invention on the roof of the vehicle, and symbolically represents his denial of Christ. He begins to place the wrong trust both in his car that in the new religion, believing that they give him the freedom to live life in any way he chooses. His life reflects his new attitude; he uses the car to kill a man by running him over. He continues to rely on his car as a source of freedom even after a mechanical failure. It is only after receiving free service from an employee that the car starts working again. Instead of turning away from false beliefs with gratitude, undeserved kindness only further provokes his arrogance. “He mumbles to himself, “'I don't need no favors from him'” (O'Conner 124). It is only when he tips over an embankment that he realizes his mistake and the futility of his false religion as the mere embodiment of those who reject the true God. Hazel begins to distance himself from his condition once his car is destroyed . As he looks at the “distance…from his eyes to the empty gray sky that [goes] on into space,” he experiences God's presence in the world in such a powerful way that he stops resisting what he was fleeing from. his whole life: the grace of Christ (O'Conner 211). After receiving the revelation of a new spiritual freedom in Christ, Hazel blinds herself and binds herself with barbed wire to isolate herself from the material world anddeepen that freedom. The author also uses Enoch Emery to show that spiritual happiness cannot be found. outside of the salvation of Christ. He strives to make something great of himself and is drawn to Hazel Mote's Jesusanticipation of becoming a new man. To gain Hazel's favor, Emory steals a corpse from the museum to present as the new Jesus. Sabbath Hawks cradles the fake Jesus in his arms and the entire event becomes a grotesque parody of Jesus' birth in the manger. In the Christless Church religion, the Virgin Mary is a young fifteen-year-old prostitute, the father is Hazel Motes himself, and the baby Jesus is the dwarf corpse. His efforts to achieve his superficial goals are simply pathetic. When he sees Gonga, the Hollywood star, he is inspired once again and fantasizes about the day when he too will have “people waiting to shake his hand” (O'Conner 178). However, to make his dream come true, he steals Gonga's gorilla costume and impersonates him. This reflects the American tendency to solve a problem by only changing its appearance. Instead of becoming a new and improved self, he completely loses his identity in monkey disguise, and his search for fulfillment through superficial means ultimately proves to be a disaster. Flannery O'Conner demonstrates humanity's need for Christ through the life of Asa Hawks. Hawks is a former preacher who vowed to blind himself ten years ago to demonstrate his faith in Jesus Christ. However, his courage failed him and he faked his blindness. He now pretends to be blind, attracting sympathy from others while asking for money. Although he once had good spiritual intentions, he has lost his purpose. Now he lives by feigning blindness so he can beg on street corners. Ironically, despite his spiritual depravity, he provides insight into Hazel's spiritual state. He tells him, “'Listen boy…you can't run from Jesus. Jesus is a fact'” (O'Conner 47). This shows that all humanity actually needs Jesus and that He is a reality from which no one can escape. Indeed, Hazel Motes comes to recognize the need for Christ in her life and becomes the first to step out of the mad search for something greater. The author uses Mrs. Flood to make it clear that no one can find spiritual prosperity in material wealth but through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Mrs. Flood, Hazel's landowner, strives to find satisfaction in material possessions. The self-centered woman plans to marry Hazel so that when he dies, she can take the pension he receives from the government. After all, he never benefited from the taxes he paid year after year. She is bitter because the only thing she paid for went to help those who never deserved help. This just goes to show how greedy and self-centered she is. When Hazel dies before she can carry out her plan, she feels cheated financially. However, he suspects that Hazel knew something she didn't know and that she was also cheated out of something that is not material in nature. Flood is always one to take life at face value. Unable to see beyond the literal vision, he wonders why Hazel blinded himself and walked with rocks in his shoes. Now, his strange self-mutilating actions have a positive effect on her, forcing her to search the spiritual dimensions she prefers to avoid. As she looks into Motes' eyes and closes her eyes, she sees a light in the distance and realizes that she has come to "the beginning of something that could not begin" (O'Conner 236). This final chapter suggests that a new faith is emerging within Mrs. Flood. This possibility has immense implications: if even a being as narrow-minded and corrupt as Mrs. Flood,.