"I wouldn't milk a cow to save your soul from hell," (O'Connor 356).
Summary
“Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor is a short story depicting the life of two different families in the1950’s. The May’s, white, and the Greenleaf’s, black, the May family consisted of Mrs. May, and her two suns, the Greenleaf family was made up of Mr. and Mrs. Greenleaf and their twin boys. Mrs. Greenleaf was a very spiritual and religious woman.
The story starts off with the May’s, who own a farm, and the Mr. Greenleaf was the “grounds keeper”. Mrs. May states many times in the beginning that the only reason why she still employs Mr. Greenleaf, even though he does not do his job, is he has been with theme for so long. She is constantly dissatisfied with his work, nothing ever gets done the way she wants it.
One night she was in her room and heard a noise from outside and found that there was a stray bull in her fields. She was very concerned that the bull would mess up her breeding schedule for the cows. Although she wanted to resolve the issue right away she was hesitant to call Mr. Greenleaf because she was scared that he would be judge mental. He may have judged her on her boys and why they did not catch the bull. Her boys never helped her, they were lazy. She was very jealous of how well the Greenleaf boys treated their parents and had their own high-tech plantation.
The next morning when he arrived at the plantation and was told about the bull, his response to her was that the bull had been there quite a few days. She was infuriated when she heard this news. She had ordered him to secure the bull, the bull got out, and soon after she found out that the bull belonged to the Greenleaf boys. She paid a visit to the Greenleaf plantation to inform them that they had till that evening to come get the bull and if not it would be killed.
The boys never came to retrieve their bull so the next morning she ordered Mr. Greenleaf to kill the bull. They went out together to kill the bull, after passing all the gates, they both got out of the car. He went in to the bushes and she waited by the car, she spotted the bull and called for Mr. Greenleaf. It was too late by the time he had got to her, the bull had planted his horns in to her stomach and killed her, he then shot the bull and killed it.
Themes:
Many themes where expressed in this story, one of them is Racism. Racism is a very dominant theme especially because of the time period, they called blacks the n-word and made racial slurs, the hatred between the families because of color took place as well, which is why Mrs. May had to repress her desire for Mr. Greenleaf. She could not express her love for him because they were different colors. Family was also another dominant theme but it was also incorporated with irony because it was ironic hoe the May boys could not care less about their mother, the person who gave them life.
Mrs. Greenleaf is a devoutly religious and spiritual person, on the other hand Mrs. May claims to be religious but does not believe in anything. In some parts of the story the bull represented many things like sexuality and taboo. Sexuality is represented after Mrs. May was killed by the description of how the bull laid on her lap. Taboo and innuendo were publicized by the way the May’s treated each other not accepted by society. They are both shown corresponding along with sexuality dealing with the bull, because it is unacceptable by society to have feeling for other races and the description leads to innuendo.
Questions:
What does the bull represent?
Is Mrs. May truly jealous or just wants to have relations with Mr. Greenleaf?
What did the way they die represent?
Why were the May boys’ so disrespectful?
Reader Response:
The story strangely depicts a story of some one that had feelings that they can’t act upon. I found the symbolism in this story to be quite strange. Personally I found the analytical story line to be decent but I would not recommend this story to others, which is not only my view but the view of my entire eleventh grade American literature class.
3 comments:
I usually like reading interpretations of O'Connor's stories, but yours is really off-the-mark.
First, the Greenleaf family is not black. We know this because O'Connor provides a physical description of the sons. Also, other workers who are black are described as such.
Second, seeing a repressed sexuality between May and Greenleaf is laughable at best and
retracts from the real themes in this story, at worst. I found no indication that her emotion towards Mr. Greenleaf reflected this.
Third, using O'Connor's two similes regarding love when May is gored by the bull to show evidence for repressed sexuality is really bizarre. It's more likely that O'Connor used that imagery to shock the reader into considering May to be "lovable."
Fourth, you glossed much too lightly over the most ubiquitous theme in O'Connor's stories, which is religion. How May sees herself in regards to the other characters through her view of religion is key.
Perhaps you'd benefit from a second read.
You may want to read a bit about the author. This short story has nothing to do with romance, but with redemption. Flannery O'Connor was a devout Catholic, an evangelist even. Did you read the description of E.T. and O.T. Greenleaf? They were described as "red-skinned," which is definitely not a trait of one who has black skin. Did you notice the quotes Mrs. Greenleaf kept making during her spirit healing? Such as, "Oh Jesus, stab me in the heart!" The bull had a wreath on it's horns, which resembled a prickly crown. If you have read anything about Jesus and the crucifixion, you would know what this resembles. What happened in the end? Jesus stabbed Mrs. May in the heart. There are many directions to take this, but repressed sexuality?... Definitely not it. Mrs. May wasn't sexually distraught, she was morally smug. She thought she was better than everyone else.
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