The Family Ranch
The family ranch is symbolically used to represent a challenging and antagonistic environment for Rollo and Mero. Their father who is in charge of the ranch is an alcoholic person. Rollo and Mero feel like they do not have a role model in their upbringing. The ranch is not profitable either because animals and plants die in mysterious ways. The father, at last, decides to give up ranching to be a mailperson. Mero and Rollo are angered by their father's decision to give up ranching and do other things instead of improving the ranch. Their father is also hanging out with a girlfriend which is a sign of disrespect to his sons. After Mero leaves home to start a life elsewhere, Rollo is tired of the range because nothing good is coming out of it. He decides to sell it to the Girl Scouts. Therefore, the ranch is just a symbol of the misfortunes the Corn's family undergoes.
The Half-Skinned Steer
The title of the book itself is symbolically used by the author to represent how nature shows its fury on humanity. The relationship between human beings and nature can be bloody at times as demonstrated by Annie Proulx. The steer is mentioned in the narrations of the girlfriend to the Corn men which is a sign of bad omen. According to the girlfriend's story, Tin butchers the steer and unintentionally fails to remove the skin properly which shows his disrespect to nature. The steer disappears before he finishes slaughtering it. He notes later that the steer is alive and it faults him for its current suffering. Therefore, whenever Tin Head spots the steer, it is a sign of bad omen and he blames it for the misfortunes that have befallen his family.
The Horse
According to Mero, a horse is an animal with uncontrolled sexual desire. The horse is therefore used to represent the old man's girlfriend who has an uncontrolled sexual desire to an extent she is dating an old man. Besides, she is not satisfied with the old man because she starts to flirt with Mero's younger son, Rollo. She goes ahead to get pregnant for Rollo. It is indeed shameful that the girlfriend sleeps with both the father and the son to fulfill her sexual desires. Therefore, the girlfriend and the horse have one similarity which is uncontrolled sexual urges.
The Bloody Steak
The bloody steak represents the things Mero forgoes to pursue his dreams. For instance, he decides to leave his father's ranch to go away from home to be a soldier, business person, and politician. By moving away from home, he relieves himself of bad memories of his father and the ranch. The reader notes that Mero is disgusted when he sees the bloody spot on the steak he buys in a restaurant and from that day he decides not to eat meat again.
