Wise Blood characters

Also known as Haze

Appears from the start

A young veteran returning to Tennessee after military service. Raised in a family of severe preachers, he is determined to reject Christian belief, yet he remains consumed by the religious language and fears he argues against. His dark suit and hat make strangers take him for a preacher, an identity he firmly denies.

First appears in chapter 3

A lonely eighteen-year-old who works at the city zoo and attaches himself to Hazel. He insists that his blood gives him special intuitions and repeatedly seeks friendship and purpose from people who show little interest in him.

First appears in chapter 3

An itinerant street preacher who presents himself as having blinded his own eyes in an act of faith. He distributes religious leaflets with his teenage daughter and becomes an object of Hazel's angry fascination.

First appears in chapter 3

Asa Hawks's fifteen-year-old daughter, who accompanies him through Taulkinham and watches Hazel with open curiosity. Although she repeats her father's religious claims, her manner is practical, provocative, and alert to opportunities for escape and attention.

First appears in chapter 2

A prostitute Hazel visits soon after arriving in Taulkinham. She receives his declarations and questions with weary directness, refusing the spiritual significance he tries to attach to the encounter.

Also known as Onnie Jay Holy

First appears in chapter 8

A slick promoter who recognizes that Hazel's street preaching might be turned into a profitable organization. Calling himself Onnie Jay Holy, he offers simplified doctrines, publicity, and a membership plan, treating belief and unbelief alike as products to sell.

First appears in chapter 10

A gaunt man hired by Hoover Shoats to imitate Hazel and preach for money when Hazel refuses to cooperate. His clothing and manner are arranged to make him a recognizable substitute for the founder of the Church Without Christ.

First appears in chapter 13

Hazel's landlady, an older widow attentive to money and wary of being cheated. When Hazel returns to her house physically altered and living with severe discipline, she studies his strange habits with suspicion and curiosity.

First appears in chapter 12

A performer making a publicity appearance in a gorilla costume. To Enoch, the stranger's public performance appears to offer the recognition and transformation he has been seeking.

First appears in chapter 13

A patrolman who stops Hazel on a country road and treats the condition of his car as sufficient reason to remove it from traffic. His casual exercise of authority leaves Hazel without the vehicle he had treated as his independence and refuge.