The Half Skinned Steer Literary Analysis

“The Half-Skinned Steer” – The setting in this story starts out with an old man who is headed back to where he grew up so he can attend his brother’s funeral. As the story progresses, he gets closer to his old home, and the memories of what happened before he left get more intense and come into the narrative closer together. The more miles he puts behind him, the closer he gets to the ranch both physically and mentally. The setting, in this sense, drives the plot as it causes the main character to examine his life and the choices he has made. After the long drive, he says, “For years he believed he had left without hard reason and suffered for it…(but) it had been time for him to find his own territory and his own woman” (528). He realizes that he made the right choice when he left.

I also see the ranch setting as one that is barren and wild, as a contrast to Mero’s current life. It says, “he never circled back to see the old man and Rollo bankrupt and ruined because he knew they were” (520). Mero “made money in boilers and air-duct cleaning, and smart investments…” (520) and we are led to believe that he had a very wealthy and successful life.

“The Caretaker” – The macro-setting in this story is

He buries the hearts there, plants seeds, and when they sprout, “he feels his heart may burst…ground, an unbroken black a week ago, is populated with small dashes of green” (167). The seed sprouts are like the small sprouts of hope he has in his own heart. This is the first time we see him have any happiness since the start of the story. At the end when he eats the melons from his garden, “the sky brims over with light…he is straddling two worlds, the one he came from and the one he is going to” (180). The garden setting marks the season changing, the heart of Joseph changing, and gives birth to wonderful metaphors about the main themes of growing, dying, rooting, living, reaping, and