Historical Exploration of "Greenleaf"

(English 109 Final Exam Essay)

by Don Rey

     Literature has been a primary form of communication for millennia. It has seen all of history, including both political aspects and ideological aspects. Most writings can be logically placed on a timeline concerning each of these aspects. This is true for the short story "Greenleaf" by Flannery O’Conner. Ideologically, his writing can be placed in a time of questioning society as home, and concern with individuality versus social mores. Politically, "Greenleaf" deals with post-World War I times of overall optimism preceding the Great Depression. Although O’Conner wrote the work in the late nineteen fifties, it corresponds most closely to the ideas and literary movements of the nineteen thirties and to the political ideas and movements of the nineteen twenties.

     In the exposition stage, O’Conner develops the societal and community ranks of the Mays as a family and as individuals. As a family they have somewhat cut off their ties with the community, and therefor with society. They moved to this farm in the country, placing physical as well as social distance between them and the community. They must, however, have some sense of belonging in society because they live off the crop they grow and sell, creating a necessary link between them and the community. Mrs. May sees herself as the driving force of this farm as the individual operator of the farm. She also cares for her family and keeping them together, as her only two sons in their 30s still live with her, although they help her little. Each of her sons has found his place in society with a decent level of success, but also cut themselves off from it by living on the distant farm. In the complication stage, the Greenleafs are described in more social and societal terms as well. As a whole, the reader begins to see the Mays and the Greenleafs as a community of their own. They live closer to each other than they live to the more external community consisting of their county and region. The two families have developed their own society, which they accept sometimes grudgingly as their home. They each live as individuals, but also maintain ties to the local community they call home as well as their regional community. O’Conner deals with these ideas consciously and intentionally.

     Also recognizable in the exposition and complication of the short story is that each of the characters has a sense of optimism in his or her own success. The two families come from a lower class heritage, but have been relatively successful with the little they started out with. For example, both May boys have become somewhat successful in their own pursuits. The Greenleaf twins have an even more successful business, and have been assisted a good deal by the government. Scofield and the Greenleaf twins each served in a war, which is presumably World War I (354). These facts date the political aspects of the text to the times of post-war optimism of the nineteen twenties.

     The crisis develops after repeated attempts to remove the Greenleaf boys’ bull from the Mays’ farm fail and Mrs. May makes a threat to kill the bull. Mrs. May talks and thinks to herself and to her sons about the responsibilities of the Greenleaf boys to take care of their own bull (358). This displays a sense of community in itself. She says in regard to them, "And in twenty years, do you know what those people will be?" and answers herself, "Society" (354). She is making reference to the assumption that twenty years from now the Greenleaf boys, who have learned the ultimate skill of cooperation (with each other and with their family) will also be cooperating with the rest of society. They will have worked their way up from a lower class life to the middle class through their cooperative success. By saying this, Mrs. May also points out that their little community is too small and individual to contribute significantly to society in her eyes. The May boys on the other hand have not learned to cooperate, but compete instead. Their level of success is displayed to the reader as lesser than that of the Greenleaf boys. The different levels of success represent different levels of society in which they all represent as a whole. Society is their home although they live a distance from the rest of the community.

     The relative success of these families demonstrates that the Great Depression has not arrived. There is hope for each of the members of each of the families. The Greenleafs have built up a living from what fifteen years ago was a car trip to a job advertised in the paper (355). Now the Greenleaf family live a decent lifestyle, and their two boys are working their way up to the middle class. This is a demonstration of opportunity, which is characteristic of the nineteen twenties. Each of the characters is still optimistic about their current and future success. Optimism began to perish as the Great Depression set in, so this live optimism dictates that the story happens politically before 1930.

     The complicated climax and resolution shows the individuality between the characters despite their connections socially. Mrs. May points out that she is brining Mr. Greenleaf to kill his sons’ bull. He shows his ties to his son by going very grudgingly with Mrs. May. Her individual persistence forces him along nonetheless (367). When the bull gores Mrs. May, Mr. Greenleaf does shoot the bull repeatedly, effectively displaying his individuality (368). By shooting the bull he has, on a certain level, betrayed his family. In doing this, he also shows he does value the Mays to a certain extent beyond merely their money. This shift that happens demonstrates that there is a sense of social mores among them as a community, but there is also individuality in each of the members of the community.

     The ideological aspects of Flannery O’Conner’s short story relate most closely to those of the 1930s because of the concern during that time with individuality versus social mores and society as home. Politically, it belongs to the timeline in the 1920s, as Greenleaf puts forth two families who are still optimistic despite their lower class stature, and have the opportunities to better their social standings with a little hard work. Although it is written in the 1950s, the finer aspects of the writing pertain more closely to these earlier time periods in America.

Works Cited:

O’Conner, Flannery. "Greenleaf." Best American Short Stories. Ed. John Updike. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000. 348-68.