Greenleaf by Flannery O'Connor
"Greenleaf" by Flannery O’Connor is a short story that explores themes of rivalry, envy, and the complexities of human relationships against the backdrop of rural life. The narrative centers on Mrs. May, who operates a dairy farm and is troubled by a stray scrub bull that poses a threat to her cattle. This incident triggers her longstanding resentment towards Mr. Greenleaf, her hired hand, and his successful sons, who contrast sharply with her own unambitious children. As the story unfolds, it highlights Mrs. May's inner turmoil and her perceptions of social status, particularly in relation to motherhood and familial pride.
The climax of the story culminates in a surreal encounter between Mrs. May and the bull, which serves as a dramatic manifestation of her fears and desires. Through vivid imagery and symbolic elements, O'Connor delves into Mrs. May's psyche, ultimately leading to a moment of both horror and revelation. Readers are invited to reflect on the nature of existence and the often-unrecognized tensions that shape human interactions. "Greenleaf" encapsulates O’Connor's characteristic blend of wit and seriousness while prompting contemplation on life's unpredictable and often harsh realities.
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Greenleaf by Flannery O'Connor
First published: 1956
Type of plot: Wit and humor
Time of work: The 1950's
Locale: The rural South
Principal Characters:
Mrs. May , the protagonist and the owner of a dairy farmMr. Greenleaf , her hired manWesley , one of her sons, a teacherScofield , her other son, an insurance salespersonO.T. , andE.T. , Mr. Greenleaf's sons, successful dairy farmersMrs. Greenleaf , the wife of the hired man
The Story
Mrs. May, the owner of a dairy farm, awakes in the night from a strange dream in which something was eating everything she owned, herself, her house, her sons, her farm, all except the home of Mr. Greenleaf, her hired man. She looks out the window and discovers a stray scrub bull chewing on the hedge below her window. She considers dressing and driving down the road to Greenleaf's place to get him to catch the bull, lest it get into the pasture with her cows and corrupt the breeding schedule of her purebred cattle. She decides to put it off until morning, not because she is averse to bothering Mr. Greenleaf in the night but because she anticipates his uncomplimentary remarks about her two grown sons, who should be able to help their mother in such emergencies.
One of the long-standing rivalries between Mrs. May and Mr. Greenleaf during the fifteen years of their association has been the relative merits of their sons. Mr. Greenleaf's twins, O. T. and E. T., married two French girls of good family during the war when they were in the army. As Mrs. May rationalizes their good fortune, "disguised in their uniforms, they could not be told from other people's children. You could tell, of course, when they opened their mouths but they did that seldom." They both "managed to get wounded," so they received pensions and went to agricultural school on veterans' benefits. They had become the owners of a prosperous dairy farm nearby and the heads of flourishing bilingual families. As Mrs. May bleakly predicts, in twenty years their children will be "society!"
Mrs. May is secretly envious of such productive sons because her own give her little satisfaction. Wesley has a heart condition, commutes to a teaching job, and has a vile disposition. Mrs. May pretends that he is an "intellectual." Scofield is loud and vulgar, has gained nothing from his two years as a private during the war, and now sells insurance to African Americans. He is what they call the "policy man," a position of considerable mortification to his mother. Neither son has married, and they both refuse to lift a hand to help with the farmwork.
The next day, Mrs. May finds out that the scrub bull belongs to Mr. Greenleaf's sons, that it can apparently escape from almost any confinement, and that it hates trucks and cars. It has already attacked the twins' pickup, causing considerable damage. Mrs. May drives to the twins' house and delivers an ultimatum: Either they pick up the bull or she will have Mr. Greenleaf shoot it the next day. It is no comfort to her to learn that the twins probably do not want it and will be happy that she must destroy it for them.
The bull visits her again that night, munching away under her window. The sound of the bull tearing at the hedge enters her sleeping consciousness as a menacing dream about the sun piercing through the vegetation that surrounds her cultivated fields. The burning sun seems to burst through the trees and is racing toward her. She wakes in panic.
The next morning, she orders the reluctant Mr. Greenleaf to get his gun; they are going to shoot the bull. Mr. Greenleaf is angry, but he finally gets his weapon and joins her in the truck. They drive into the pasture, where Mrs. May has seen the animal in the distance. Mrs. May thinks with some satisfaction, "He'd like to shoot me instead of the bull." They drive into the pasture. Mrs. May waits at the truck while Greenleaf looks for the bull in the grove of trees at the edge of the pasture.
After a considerable wait, during which Mrs. May dozes as she sits on the bumper of the truck, the bull emerges from the wood, but Mr. Greenleaf is nowhere to be seen. She had been vaguely fantasizing about the bull attacking Mr. Greenleaf in the wood. The situation is curiously like her dream. She is standing in the middle of the pasture ringed by trees, a natural amphitheater, and the bull is racing toward her. She seems mesmerized, unable to move, until the bull has "buried his head in her lap like a wild tormented lover." One horn pierces her heart and the other encircles her waist: "and she had the look of a person whose sight has been suddenly restored but who finds the light unbearable." Mr. Greenleaf, running toward her now from the side, pumps four bullets into the eye of the bull.
Bibliography
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Asals, Frederick. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find": Flannery O'Connor. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1993.
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O'Gorman, Farrell. Peculiar Crossroads: Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Catholic Vision in Postwar Southern Fiction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
Orvell, Miles. Flannery O'Connor: An Introduction. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991.
Paulson, Suzanne Morrow. Flannery O'Connor: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1988.
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Spivey, Ted R. Flannery O'Connor: The Woman, the Thinker, the Visionary. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1995.