In Flannery O'Connor's "Greenleaf," the unpleasant Mrs. May awakens to find a bull chewing on her shrubbery. She considers getting dressed and driving to her handyman Mr. Greenleaf's house in the middle of the night to tell him to tie up the bull, but rejects this idea because she believes Mr. Greenleaf would use the experience as a chance to belittle her sons and glorify his own. Mrs. May detests the entire Greenleaf family, from Mr. Greenleaf who has no common sense, to Mrs. Greenleaf, who spends her days on "prayer healing," to the Greenleaf boys who have married and started a farm of their own while her sons remain unwed and living at home. As she investigates throughout the day, she learns that the escaped bull belongs to the Greenleaf boys. She maliciously tells Mr. Greenleaf he is to shoot his sons' bull. Mr. Greenleaf reluctantly appears to comply, but instead chases the bull into a wooded area. Mrs. May angrily honks her horn, and the bull reappears, charges her, and buries "his head in her lap." As she dies, her face assumes the look of somebody "whose sight has been suddenly restored but who finds the light unbearable.".

             Such shocking, violent endings for small-minded hypocritical characters are not at all unusual for Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor, who uses her novels and short stories to express her belief that redemption, no matter how painful or violent, is available to everyone (Wood 55). Critic Jill Baumgaertner states: "The characters in O'Connor's stories find grace, but between their flights from the City of Destruction and their arrival at the gates of the Heavenly City, they must encounter the trauma of the cross" (18). .

             Mrs. May is a prime character for O'Connor's harsh redemption. She exhibits her lack of faith in a true God in multiple ways throughout the text. First, she believes she can--indeed, must--do for herself rather than trusting in God; second, she rejects the extremely religious Mrs.