SOURCE: Cook, Martha E. “Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood: Forms of Entrapment.” In Modern American Fiction: Form of Function, edited by Thomas Daniel Young, pp. 198-212. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

In the following essay, Cook offers a thematic and stylistic analysis of Wise Blood.

On May 18, 1952, the Sunday New York Times had the following as its predominant headline: “20,000 parade on fifth avenue to hail armed forces day.” The major sports headlines proclaimed, “giant rally tops cubs, 9-8; dodgers rout pirates, 12-7.” And the cover story for the Book Review was a large article on George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia by Granville Hicks entitled “george orwell's prelude in spain”; it carried the heading, “the story of an idealist who fought a lost cause, but who never lost faith in mankind.” In such a context of patriotism and tradition, one is surprised that Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood was even...