Wise Blood

Wise Blood Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

We meet the main character Hazel (Haze) Motes who is sitting on a train. He shifts his gaze between the passing scenery and the other end of the car. His seatmate, Mrs. Wally Bee Hitchcock, tries to make conversation but Haze pretty much ignores her. He is holding a stiff black hat and is wearing a new suit, but he has an army duffel at his feet. Mrs. Hitchcock had a hard time looking anywhere except Haze's eyes that are the "color of pecan shells" and seem "like passages leading somewhere" such that she keeps trying to look into them.

Haze has been looking at the porter and he excuses himself to go see him. When he gets there, he hints about his hometown, Eastrod, Tennessee. Then, when the porter does not take the hint, Haze "accuses" him of being from there. The porter says he is from Chicago and continues with his work.

When Haze returns to his seat, Mrs. Hitchcock continues talking and Haze says he is heading to Taulkenham "to do some things [he's] never done before." They then decide to go to the dining car. Mrs. Hitchcock goes in before him and he eventually is seated with three women. The steward keeps winking at the women and gives Haze very slow service. He eventually goes back to his car and asks the porter to help him up to his upper berth. He again confronts the porter about being from Eastrod. The berth reminds him of a coffin and he remembers his grandfather, two younger brothers and father in their coffins. He had been sure that they would not let the coffins close and had even re-opened his brother's coffin after they had closed it.

We then learn a little bit of history about Haze. He leaves home at the age of eighteen to join the army, but vows to return in four months exactly. He wants to return to be a preacher just like his grandfather. When he leaves, he takes only his black Bible and his mother's silver-rimmed reading glasses. (He had attended the county school to learn to read and write, but was taught that it was best to only read the Bible.) When he is first invited "to sin" by his army friends, he tells then that he is from Eastrod, Tennessee and that "he [is] not going to have his soul damned by the government or any foreign place…" His friends tell him he is mistaken because he has no soul. Throughout his travel with the army, Haze takes time to examine his soul and concludes that it truly is not there.

Four years later, the army releases him and he immediately takes a train home. When he arrives at Eastrod, he is surprised to find only the "skeleton" of a house. Inside the house, the only thing that remains is his mother's dresser. He secures it to the floor with wrapping cord and leaves a note in each drawer that says, "this shiffer-robe belongs to Hazel Motes. Do not steal it or you will be hunted down and killed."

Haze, still in the berth, then turns his thoughts to his mother and the look on her face through a crack in her coffin. He gets claustrophobic, hangs his head out of the berth, yells to the porter that he is sick and needs to get out. The porter does not move to help him.