Greenleaf by Flannery O'Connor excerpt

Greenleaf by Flannery O'Connor excerpt
Flannery O'Connor's "Greenleaf"
Commentary by Karen Bernardo

In Flannery O'Connor's short story "Greenleaf," the author depicts an embittered and self-centered old woman who is incapable of seeing the grace present in those she does not consider her social equals. Mrs. May's false pride is typical of many of the characters in O'Connor's work, and if there is a common humanistic moral in O'Connor's stories, it is that those who think too well of themselves generally get their just desserts in the end. However, Flannery O'Connor was not trying to give her stories a humanistic moral; she did not consider herself a humanist at all, but first and foremost a evangelist of the Roman Catholic faith.

In "Greenleaf," the major conflict is between the self-righteous Mrs. May and her handyman, Mr. Greenleaf. Mrs. May embodies all the characteristics Americans (and not coincidentally, Protestants) have traditionally held dear: she thinks that if she behaves respectably, she is blameless in the sight of God; she thinks that one's social standing has something to do with one's degree of righteousness. Of course, O'Connor believed quite the opposite; she felt that people like Mrs. May is shut out from a proper relationship to God, not because Mrs. May is knowingly evil, but because she is morally smug; she thinks she has within herself everything she needs to be "good."

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