The bull is symbolically used to reference the feeling of redemption that is desired by one’s religious figure, and the initiative it would take to get it, in the short story “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’ Connor. The author used a simile to help symbolize the bull by writing “…the bull, silvered in the moonlight, stood under it, his head raised as if he listened- like some patient god come down to woo her” in order to convey that while one can desire redemption, one would have to take immeasurable steps before one is granted absolution. This is why the scrub bull is symbolically used as a religious figure to show that one does not have to be pure to be religious. Symbolism is used throughout the text, as when the author writes, “The bull lowered
