After reading Greenleaf I was left with one question: What does the Bull in Greenleaf represent?
Does it represent as Mrs. May suggested property, and she has a right to dispose of it if the owner doesn’t come by to claim it? Or is there another reason for the Bull in the story. Without the Bull there really wouldn’t be that much of a story. Other than the fact that this man has worked on a farm for the past 15 years. The Farm owner isn’t very found of him, and the reader would learn about the Greenleafs as a whole family unit. However that doesn’t follow the traditional reason for a story to be told. Usually, if I am correct or at least in today’s ‘self-help’ age, a story is supposed to be more than just a source of passing time. So what moral, lesson, or philosophical dilemma are we (the reader) faced with.
The Bull I would suggest represents, as the story suggests ‘a force of nature’. There are different perceptions and strategies in going about something. Well, what business does a Bull have grassing in someone’s yard, and destroying the property non-the less? This Bull was different from the others, Mrs. May was able to notice it immediately from the other Bulls which were hers. Nature, human nature, a force that drives us all to act in certain ways, regardless of whether they are acceptable or not. The Bull grazing in Mrs. May’s field wasn’t wanted, in fact the Bull’s owner was asked to take it away. Then thinking that she could get rid of it herself Mrs. May sought to destroy it, however it seemed to destroy her. Are our innate natural instincts stronger forces in our lives than our rational human faculties?