Flannery O'Connor places the events of the story Wise Blood in Taulkinham, Tennessee, but does not specify exact dates.

Given the events in the story and the time O'Connor wrote it, however, critics set the story sometime in the mid-twentieth century. One event that lends credence to critics' time line for the story is the protagonist's, Hazel Motes, reflection on his stint in the army and the war injury that sent him home. Given the fact that O'Connor wrote the book in the late '40s, and Harcourt published it in 1952, Motes probably served in World War II. The events of the story, then, most likely occur in the latter half of the 1940s.

Historically, in the late 1940s after World War II, Americans enjoyed a surge of population growth and prosperity. By 1950, more than 151 million Americans could take advantage of many innovations that would make...