Wise Blood is labled under the genre of Southern Gothic. As described on Wikipedia, Southern Gothic is "grotesque" and "disturbing". I would say that this assessment is very accurate. On the surface Wise Blood seems to be a very radical story that doesn’t really make a point. When I was reading it through I was enjoying the writing style of Flannery O’Connor yet I was almost disturbed with the plot. O’Connor made the book very visual with the use of metaphors and similes.
"She had theseyer brown glasses and her hair was so thin it looked like ham gravy trickling over her skull." (pg 47)
For me, this is one of the more disgusting images from the book. Yet my imagination can paint a picture with great detail of a girl with hair that looks like brown gray.
If I had to give someone just the outline of the story they would probably think I was insane for reading such a book. Yet I enjoyed the book. Why? I guess the shock value of the book really kept my attention. Also the underlying message I think is very important. O’Connor, a Catholic, creates a story about a man, Hazel Motes, who wants to start his own church, "The Church Without Christ". To me that is very humorous that a religious woman is using a character that is promoting such an idea.
However as a reader I felt sympathy for Hazel Motes even though his character is very crude. But he has passion for what he believes in and he isn’t corrupted by the standards of the society. So what O’Connor is really doing is making fun of the religion of indifference. I think that once you look past the character as he is written on the page and really try to figure out what O’Connor is trying to do with her story, the story then becomes something much more than a grotesque novel.