Monday, November 19, 2007

"Greenleaf" by Flannery O'Connor

Summary: The Story is about an old lady named Mrs. May. She has two boys named Wesley and Scofield. Mrs. May owns a farm and has a man named Mr. Greenleaf working on it for her. The Greenleaf family is a very nice, hard working African American family. But Mrs. May is very racist towards Mr. Greenleaf. But he has been working for her for around 15 years. And Mr. Greenleaf has two boys named O.T. and E.T. And the difference between Mrs. May's boys and the Greenleaf boy's is that the Greenleaf boys are very hard working and Mrs. May's boys are spoiled and cruel. So one day a Bull was found by Mrs. May on her farm. But she did not know were the bull had come from. So she dicided to ask Mr. Greenleaf. And he said he was not sure but he would find out and catch the bull. But after a while the bull was still there and Mrs. May found out that it was the O.T. and E.T. bull. O.T. and E.T. were twin bothers and they owned a farm. So Mrs. May dicided to go to the Greenleaf boys farm and tell them to come get there bull because she was tired of it. But the boys were not there and a worker on the farm said that the boys did not want the bull. So Mrs. May got very upset bcause she knew that the boys expeted her to have to kill the bull. But she dicided that she would make Mr. Greenleaf kill the bull because she knew it would make him very sad. And she thought it might get the Greenleaf boys to come get the bull. But the boys never came so Mrs. May had Mr. Greenleaf take the bull to an area of the farm to shoot the bull. And Mrs. May dicided to folow in her car. But Mr. Greenleaf and the bull rain into a area of many trees and disapeard. So Mrs. May just sat on the hood of her car a waited. And She found that she had fallen in love with the bull. But the bull was really just a symbol that she had fallen in love with Mr. Greenleaf. And after a couple of minutes the bull ran out and stampeded towards her. And then the bull stabed its horn through her chest. And while this was happing Mr. Greenleaf was runing over with his gun and he shot the bull four times in the eye but it was too late and Mrs. May had died with the bull.



Characters:

Mrs. May: Is an old lady that owns the farm that Mr. Greenleaf works on.

Mr. Greenleaf: Is an old man that has been working on Mrs. May's farm for about 15 years.

Wesley: Is the son of Mrs. May.

Scofield: Is the son of Mrs. May.

O.T.: Is the son of Mr. Greenleaf and the owner of the bull.

E.T.: Is the son of Mr. Greenleaf and the owner of the bull.

Themes:

Revenge: Mrs. May is trying to get revange on Mr. Greenleaf because his boys are very hard workers and her boys are lazy. And also she wants revange on the Greenleafs because there bull is on her farm and she trys to make Mr. Greenleaf shoot it.

Racism: Mrs. May is very racist towards Mr. Greenleaf and the Greenleaf family because of the color of there skin. But also its because in a way Mrs. May is very jelous of the Greenleaf family.

Meaning: The meaning of this story is not to try to get revenge on people who have not done anything to you just because you are jelous of them. And also not to fall in love with a bull because they are not freindly animals and they will kill you. And also not to be mean and racist to people because then they might not help you in a time of need.

Conflicts: The main conflict in this story was the bull. Because it caused all the other conflict. The bull was the conflict because it was on Mrs. May's farm and she wanted it off. And then she found out that it was the Greenleaf boys bull and they didnt want it back. So that formed another conflict for Mrs. May. So she tryed to make Mr. Greenleaf shoot it which formed a conflict because he didnt want to kill bull. And then the bull killed Mrs. May while Mr. Greenleaf was trying to kill it. Which he did after it but its horns through Mrs. Greenleaf.

Questions:

Q. What did the bull symbolize in the story.


Q. Why was Mrs. May secretly jelous of the Greenleaf family.


Q. Why was Mrs. May really upset about the bull on her farm.

3 comments:

jewman601 said...

the Greenleafs were white.

Unknown said...

they were black, i think you need to read it again. Thats kind of an important aspect of the story

Marissa_Archer said...

The Greenleafs are white. Mrs May notes that the Greenleaf twins' worker is African American but does not make the distinction when talking about the Greenleafs. Yes, she originally assumed the bull to belong to an African American but that is before she learns that the Greenleafs own it.