"Greenleaf" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...

published in 1956 in ''

The Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, US, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ' ...

'', and later appeared in her short story collection ''

Everything That Rises Must Converge ''Everything That Rises Must Converge'' is a collection of short stories written by Flannery O'Connor during the final decade of her life. The collection's eponymous story derives its name from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The collecti ...

'' that was published in 1965 after her death in August 1964. The work garnered the author's first

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

first prize in 1957.

Plot summary

Mrs. May owns a farm on which she hires Mr. Greenleaf to work because her sons are not interested in farm work. To her dismay, both live at home and are unmarried. One sells insurance to

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

while the other is a scholar and teacher at a university. Both Mrs. May and Mr. Greenleaf's wife, Mrs. Greenleaf, consider themselves

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

. Mrs. May, however, has a somewhat smug morality based upon outward success, while Mrs. Greenleaf secretly practices

faith healing Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...

and recognizes herself as a sinner. When no one is nearby, Mrs. Greenleaf prays aloud that Jesus "stab her in the heart," implying that she must change her sinful heart. The Greenleafs' twin sons are decorated

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veterans who both own farms. Considered successful, they are married to French women whom they met during the war, and they each have three children. When a bull belonging to Mr. Greenleaf's boys escapes onto Mrs. May's property, she orders Mr. Greenleaf to shoot it. She drives Mr. Greenleaf to a pasture to shoot the bull, and while Mr. Greenleaf is chasing it, the bull escapes into the woods. After becoming impatient, Mrs. May honks the car horn, and the bull runs out of the woods, goring her in the heart just as Mr. Greenleaf reappears. Some writers suggest that the bull symbolizes

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

.Whitt, Margaret Earley
''Understanding Flannery O'Connor''
Univ of South Carolina Press, 1997.

References

Short stories by Flannery O'Connor 1956 short stories {{1950s-story-stub