Greenleaf by Flannery O'Connor

GREENLEAF by: Flannery O'Connor
Brooke Grossfeld

Ode to The Bull

Ode to the Bull

You are so strong

What you represent is beyond strong

You live your life

Live it in pain

You struggle to make your point

Of what to is Wrong

Ode to the Bull

What do you mean

Who are youl

Will you ever go away



Ode to the Bull

You have faih

Dont let anyone get in your way

You may be gone

But your sporit lives on

You never really go away



Ode to the Bul


Plot, Themes, and Other Facts



“Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor is a short story about an old lady named Mrs. May. Mrs. May is a cold hearted, racist farm women. She has two sons who are not alike, the only thing they have in common is that they are lazy. Their names are Wesley and Scofield. Mrs. May owns a farm and has a black man named Mr. Greenleaf working on it for her. He has two kids who he makes do all the work and a wife. The sons are named O.T. and E.T. The Greenleaf boys and the May boys are very different in which Mrs. May's boys are malicious and spoiled while the Greenleaf boys are very hardworking and kind.
The story starts off with Mrs. May waking up to a bull in her farm and she didn’t know how it got there so she had asked Mr. Greenleaf to get rid of it. Mr. Greenleaf however could got get rid of the bull, because of O.T. and E.T. So Mrs. May decided to go to the Greenleaf boys farm and tell them to come get there bull because she was tired of it. The boys were not there and a farm worker said that the boys did not want the bull. Now, Mrs. May got very upset because she knew that the boys expected her to have to kill the bull. Now she was going to make Mr. Greenleaf kill the bull. The two got in Mrs. May’s car to go kill the bull in a giant area. The Mrs. May waited for Mr. Greenleaf to kill the bull, but the bull ran away into the woods. It was at this point, the climax that Mrs. May waited on her cars hood. She realized 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. After what seemed like an eternity the bull cam running towards her running into her with its horns and killing her. Mr. Greenleaf then shot the bull. Mrs. May is bent over the bull looking like she is whispering something into the bulls ear, somewhat of an apology. And that is how the story ends.


The story is set in the Deep South in the 1950’s
On a plantation in decline
There are two families in the story… the Mays(white) and the Greenleaf’s(black)

Themes:
Racism
Family
Sexuality (repressed desire)—taboo
Religion
Repressed Desire

Allegory—literal meaning and symbolic meaning

There is a bull—allegory
Represents black people
Mr. Greenleaf
Male Sexuality

Dark, Sardonic humor
Justice at the end

Racism
Quotes: Blackened him and in the dark he began to here a tear in the hedge. Presently they passed and he appeared again in the same spot-348
I’ve worked, I have not wallowed…..367
My Own Definition: Discriminating against someone who is different from you because They think that, that person is not as good as they are. Or that they
Are bad because of their heritage.
Relation to Other Key Concepts: Racism relates to family, because if you are black there is no way of getting out of being black, you are born that way and people who are raised to discriminate against others continue to pass that on. Which racism is taboo, no body wants to admit if they are racist and no one likes to talk about it. It relates to sexuality because that is also something taboo and people can have repressed desire to want somebody they can’t have.
Family
Quotes: Property entailed so that if they married, they could not leave it to their wives-352
The people who will always be there for you no matter what. You Will always be there for them. My Own Definition: They are the people who will never leave. You and will continue to support you no matter what. In some cases they think what you believe or do is wrong and they will no longer support
You.
How it Relates to Other Key Concepts: Family relates to racism because you are born that way and if someone is mean to you because you are different only makes you want to work so much harder to be looked up upon which can be repressed desire. Which can be taboo because racist people usually don’t like to admit that a black person is doing a “white persons job”
Sexuality
Quotes: She had been having shiftless people’s hogs root up her oats, their mules wallow on her lawn, and their scrub bulls breed her cows. If this was one not put up now, he would be over the dance, ruining her herd before morning-349
Like some patient g-d came down to woo her-348
My Own Definition: Something personal but it helps define you. To engage in Sexual activity with someone you love, or someone you just met. Religion Something personal, something you believe in. Faith,Hope loves. A way to relieve yourself from pain or sadness. It brings
People together.
How it Relates to Other Key Concepts: Sexuality is taboo because most people don’t really like to talk about it, they think it is impressing. This relates to repressed desire because a person of color could like a white person and because of racism they cannot have them. This relates to family because a white persons family… who is racist, won’t want someone of color in the family.
Repressed Desire
Quotes: He detached himself from the can slowly-365
Spring is here-365
My Own Definition: Something you want but you can’t have. People Will judge you or think differently if they know. Its something you
Really want. You can have it, but it will be challenging.
How It Relates to Other Concepts: Repressed desire can relate to taboo because a lot of times it’s something hard to get and people will judge you for it, but you cannot have it and people don’t like to talk about it. Taboo relates to racism because people don’t like to talk about it and are afraid to admit they are racist. Racist relates to family because it usually runs in family. Which relates to sexuality because if someone in the family of a racist wants to get with a black person the family will not allow it?
Taboo

Quotes: Employment when no one else would have him-349
Your dead and gone and then I’m going to marry me some nice fat farm girl that can take over this place-351
My Own Definition: Something everybody knows, everyone thinks about, but is scared
To talk about.
How It Relates to other Concepts: Taboo relates to sexuality because a lot of times people get impressed to talk about sexuality with others. This relates to family because people are sometimes afraid their family will judge them about it. Which relates to racism because a lot of times racist people are judgmental in which they think black people are not as good or as smart as they are? Which relates to repressed desire because black people want to get away from that image and stay strong and prove everyone else that they are just as good.





http://www.addictinggames.com/sudoku.html


http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZYjUTirxbWw


Here I have a link to a game of Sudoku because for one, the setting in this game is a farm setting, just like in the book it is a farm setting. Also because in this game, every number(piece)fits into a certain spot and you have to find that spot. Just like in life every piece of the puzzle goes together. It has its own spot. And Mrs. May had to slowly find that spot of being nice, of being compassionate to others. Of not neglecting the empty spaces that her heart had. Her empty spaces were everything that was wrong with her. Just like in this game, you cant neglect the empty spots or else you will not win. In the end Mrs. May ran out of time and lost, she lost her life.

I also have a video of a black bull, it is to show how big it is compared to a man.
Please click on the link if you wish to play or watch the video. The games "html" was not working with the
"html" of my blog. I am sorry



Brooklynn Out

"The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway

"The Killers"

Character List

George- "Bright Boy" Waiter.

Max-One of the killers. Goes to Henry's Lunch Room

Al- The other killer

Nick Adams- Young man. Customer

Sam- Chef, referred to as "nigger"

Ole Anderson- used to be a professional heavy weight.

Mrs. Bell-looks after the place

Summary

This story takes place in a town called Summit, probably Illinois. It starts off with two men, Max and Al who go to eat at Henry's lunch room. They go to order some food, but their waiter, George, tells them that what they want is dinner. The two men try to order several times but what they want is dinner. It is five o-clock and dinner is to be served at six. The two men end up ordering lunch. They are waiting to ambush a man named Ole Anderson. Once he doesn't show up Max and Al tie up the chef, Nick, and the waiter. Ole Anderson doesn't show up at all. The two men leave and untie the three men. Nick decides to go and warn Ole Anderson. When he gets there Mrs. Belle answers the door and directs Nick upstairs. Ole Anderson didn't say much, he just stared at the wall and said he didn't feel well. He knew about the killers and was laying low. Nick ended up leaving, went back to the lunch room and said he was going to leave town.

The climax of the story is when Nick, Sam, and George were tied up and the two hit men were deciding what to do with them. This was important because the reader didn't know weather Ole Anderson would come in and be killed or not. Also, the reader did not know what was going to happen to the three men.

Themes and Meaning

COMING OF AGE

I think that there are several reasons. For one coming of age is a theme. Nick starts off as an innocent young man from a small town who doesn't have a lot of experience. He is just someone eating at the restaurant. Then the two hit men come in and show him a whole new realm of evil. They show him that there could be killers, evil. The two hit men don't even know Ole, nor does he know them. After this whole experience, Nick leaves, showing that he is to old to stay in this small town. He wants to go out and explore so he is not sheltered. He leaves, thus showing he is moving on with his life, he is of age to leave.

RACISM

Another theme is racism. Sam, is a black chef and he is reffed to as a horrible name, it shows that because of this, he can be extremely talented and gifted but he can never put any of this to use. It shows how bad racism is, that they are looked down upon.

EFFECTS ON THE MIND

The last theme is running and how it effects you. The running is both physical and mental. Ole has been running from these men for a very long time, he is worn out. His will to live is gone, he has given up. He is plain, just like the wall. Everything is gone, and all there is left is the nothingness, just like the wall. It also shows that you can not run away from life.

Questions

Did the three people who were tied up have to do with anything with numerology?

What did the two hit men passing through the arc-light and cross street represent?

Why did Nick really want to leave, what did that represent?

Game
I put in this game to show that avoiding life IS possible, but it ends up getting hard and harder. The scissorsrepresents the killers and the string represents Ole.

String Avoider

Reader Response


I liked this story, it had a good plot. The beginning was a bit slow and some parts were a little hard to follow. Some of the themes were hard to find but over all it was good. This story was exciting, I liked it.




Note


I did not go full out for this blog, because it is my first blog. I would like to get all of your responses on what you would like to see. Maybe music, videos, more pictures. Also what type of music would you like..if any. "In" music


Brooklynn Out