In the book Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, what is Haze's real personality - Essay Example

The character somehow represents the concept of a flawed glass with a hole in the base and that opening in the bottom is causing all of the happiness to drain. Importantly all Hazel cares about is the past. The major message of the story is to encourage humans to let go of the past because they do not live there anymore whereas the importance of human interaction and social activities is also explained. Finally the story tells us we should redeem ourselves first before asking about other’s redemption.

Hazel: A Character Analysis Hazel appears to be an anti-social personality but deep inside he wants to connect with the people. However he has a problem in breaking the ice while having initial social conversations. For instance Mrs. Hitchcock when says “Are you going home” (O'Connor p.3) her objective behind the statement is to break the ice with Hazel. Yet he cannot properly respond to the pleasantry as his mind is occupied to interact with Porter who comes from Hazel’s village. Hazel nevertheless has chosen Porter to have conservation with, who treated him with distastefulness as he says “Nobody lives there anymore”.

The desire to have a social life in Hazel is apparent with his attempt to forge a communication with the porter. But the difficulty lies with the selection criteria that he is using to pick potential friends. In case of Mrs. Hitchcock and the Porter the former person is treating Hazel with warmth and hidden affection. However in comparison Porter has a disregard for him. Despite the disrespect Hazel has chosen Porter for having a talk merely because both of them come from the same location. In the light of few opening pages of the novel it can be established that the base of social interaction should be formulated with mutual respect and geographical location should come with the later number with regard to forming a relationship.

The second incident takes place on a dining car when Hazel is placed with a bunch of hot females, who are adequately attracted to him as well because one of them considers him a quite powerful man from observing his facial muscles to contract while he eats food. Again Hazel runs from this particular social opportunity because his interest in females is negligible. The problem lies not with Hazel’s intention to form social relations as he willingly goes to dining car where lots of people are present.

It is a simple rule of social adventures that states that a person should build relations with those who want his or her in their social circle. But it seems that Hazel defies the above mentioned rule because he is trying to formulate a relationship with a person, who does not have a desire to have him as a friend. Finally Hazel attempts to find a person who has been entirely redeemed as he asks the female in the dining car “Are you redeemed” but fails to understand his own private need for redemption as he needs it the most.

Conclusion This review paper evaluates the role of Hazel in the Novel entitling “Wise Blood” by O’Connor and finds that the central character has a burning desire to have a social life. Importantly throughout the story he appears to be quite attractive to the females and yet he fails to develop any notable relations with them. It is because his full attention focuses on having an interaction with the Porter and he cannot