Greenleaf by Flannery O’Connor

 Greenleaf by Flannery O’Connor


 

The heroine of this short story is Mrs. May and the plot, the farm and the help recall another story- The Displaced Person. There is help at the farm, where there is a woman in charge, not young anymore and the man working for her is not the hardest working of all, in fact there is more than a similitude between Greenleaf and the hired help in The Displaced Person, Mr. Shortley.

 

From the start, there is a problem with a bull, which will put a tragic twist to the tale at the end. Mrs. May is unhappy because the animal is loose on her property, messing around and mixing with her cows…here I am not sure what the issue is: the bull is of inferior breed and I assume that the resulting calves would not be so desirable, but I am not sure I get the point.

Mrs. May has two sons who fight each other and have deeply disappointed their mother. One of them went into the Army, but came back only a private, as opposed to the twins of Greenleaf, who came back sergeants, married to French women and went on to get an Education, receiving help from the State. It feels like Mrs. May is very envious of her employee and his twins even if the dialogue and even some of her inner thoughts ostentatiously prove otherwise.

On a visit to the twins’ farm, Mrs. May says about the dogs: “you can tell the class of people, by the class of dog”. As the children wait on the porch: “these people can stay looking at you for hours”

There is a lot of humor in this story which has tragic aspects as well. Mrs. May has all the contempt in the world for Mrs. Greenleaf: one time, as she was walking on her property, she was shocked to see Mrs. Greenleaf on the ground, legs and arms apart, shouting : Jesus”! Mrs. May feels that Jesus should be called in the church, not outside and the fact that the woman was screaming this word laying on the ground, made the situation even more disgusting.

The story of the bull, takes an unexpected turn for the worse, in fact worst possible, if unexpected finale. I will not say what happens, so I will not spoil it for the eventual reader who has reached so far.

 

This is a beautiful, funny and sad story.

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