Flannery O' Connor began writing Wise Blood, a novel that attacks America's obsession with prosperity and secularized religion, in 1948. Before completing the novel, she published a few of its chapters in various magazines. This was two years before she learned she had lupus. The entire complex novel, her first, was published finally in 1952.

1. Hazel Motes and Enoch Emery both see that obtaining material prosperity is a way for them to accomplish their goals. What do Hazel and Enoch acquire and accomplish, respectively, that symbolizes their prosperity and proves to them that they have "made it?" How do people today prove to others that they have "made it"? Be ready to defend your thoughts.

2. Create a mask for one of the characters from Wise Blood that depicts the character's particular expression in a specific scene from the story. (For example, show Sabbath Lily Hawks at her most...