In "Greenleaf" by Flannery O"Connor, there is a major contrast between the two families of the Mays and the Greenleafs. These families are entirely different in many ways. Some of these contrasts are those of religion and social status. .
"Mrs. Greenleaf was large and loose. The yard around her house looked like a dump and her five girls were always filthy- (225). Mrs. May and her family were good Christians who respected religion. The Greenleafs, on the other hand, were different. Mrs. Greenleaf practiced what she called "prayer healing." Mrs. May hears Mrs. Greenleaf screaming the name Jesus over and over once while she is practicing her healings. "Mrs. May felt as furious and helpless as if she had been insulted by a child. "Jesus," she said, drawing herself back, "would be ashamed of you. He would tell you to get up from there this instant and go wash your children's clothes!"" (226). .
The children of the families are also different. Mrs. May sees her two boys as being very successful in life. Scofield is a salesman of insurance, while Wesley is viewed as an intellectual. The Greenleaf boys, O.T. and E.T., were twins who had been shaped by World War II. Both had been Sergeants, wounded in battle, who now lived in a brick duplex home with French wives. Wesley never made it to the army because of a heart condition and Scofield only a Private First Class. The piece of land the Greenleaf twins lived on was one that the government had helped them buy and construct, which Mrs. May viewed only as a beneficial reward from the war. .