The titular half-skinned steer is a manifestation of nature’s wrath, and its bloody, gruesome appearance represents the violent relationship that exists between man and the natural world. The steer is an omen from a fairytale narrated by the girlfriend of Mero’s father, in which a rancher named Tin Head slaughters the steer for food but does not finish skinning the animal due to absentmindedness and a lack of respect for nature. When he eventually remembers to finish the job, however, the steer has disappeared. He locates it soon after, and realizes it is still alive; moreover, looking into its hate-filled eyes, he realizes the steer blames him for its current pain and suffering. The steer, which haunts various characters in the story, also serves as a warning: like Tin Head, characters that disrespect nature are doomed to be punished for their insolence. The half-skinned steer is even able to enact revenge on Mero, who attempted to escape the natural world for decades by leaving his home. Although Mero believes he has eluded nature’s reach by making a life away from his ranch, he is reminded upon his return that the steer, an omen of revenge, has been waiting for his arrival.
The Half-Skinned Steer Quotes in The Half-Skinned Steer
Every year Tin Head butchers one of his steers, and that’s what they’d eat all winter long … he hits the steer a good one with the axe and it drops stun down. He ties up the back legs, hoists it up and sticks it, shoves the tub under to catch the blood. When it’s bled out pretty good he … starts skinning it … and he gets the hide off about halfway and starts thinking about dinner. So he leaves the steer half-skinned there on the ground … but first he cuts out the tongue which is his favorite dish.
Tin Head is just startled to pieces when he don’t see that steer … but way over there in the west on the side of the mountain he sees something moving stiff and slow, stumbling along … it was the steer, never making no sound. And just then it stops and it looks back … Tin Head can see the raw meat of the head and the shoulder muscles … and its red eyes glaring at him, pure teetotal hate like arrows coming at him, and he knows he is done for and all of his kids and their kids is done for.
He walked against the wind, his shoes filled with snow, feeling as easy to tear as a man cut from paper. As he walked he noticed one from the herd inside the fence was keeping pace with him. He walked more slowly and the animal lagged. He stopped and turned. It stopped as well, huffing vapor, regarding him, a strip of snow on its back like a linen runner. It tossed its head and in the howling, wintry light he saw he’d been wrong again, that the half-skinned steer’s red eye had been watching for him all this time.
The Half-Skinned Steer Symbol Timeline in The Half-Skinned Steer
