Poisoned Beginnings, Broken Home

Steven, a young man trapped in a squalid apartment with his grotesquely abusive mother (the Hagbeast), is poisoned both physically and emotionally by her. She feeds him revolting food, dominates him with cruelty, and has crippled his only companion, Dog. Steven's world is one of filth, fear, and impotence, where the outside world—seen through TV and windows—seems impossibly distant and perfect. His sense of self is eroded by years of abuse, and he is haunted by the belief that he is fundamentally different and incapable of change.

Meat Plant Initiation

Steven begins work at a meat processing plant, a place of industrialized death and dehumanization. He is introduced to the brutal realities of animal slaughter by Cripps, the foreman, and Gummy, a mutilated worker. The plant is a microcosm of violence and alienation, where the act of killing is routine and numbing. Steven is both repulsed and fascinated, seeing in the slaughterhouse a reflection of his own internal decay and the possibility of transformation through violence.

Lucy's Obsession with Filth

Lucy, Steven's upstairs neighbor, is obsessed with the idea that emotional and psychological trauma manifests as physical poison inside the body. She compulsively searches for this poison in herself and others, using medical videos and self-examination. Her fixation mirrors Steven's own sense of contamination and longing for purification. Their connection is forged through shared alienation and a desperate hope that love or surgery might excise their inner rot.

The Hagbeast's Tyranny

The Hagbeast's domination intensifies as she uses food as a weapon, force-feeding Steven and threatening his only sanctuary. Her grotesque body and habits are described in visceral detail, symbolizing the inescapable, generational nature of trauma. Steven's attempts at resistance are met with humiliation and violence, reinforcing his sense of powerlessness and dependency. The kitchen becomes a battleground where every meal is a test of will.

Dreams of Escape

Steven clings to fantasies of escape, imagining a life of love, family, and belonging modeled on TV shows. He dreams of Lucy as a potential savior, a woman who might help him build a new life. Yet, his fear and self-loathing keep him trapped. The outside world remains terrifying, and his plans for freedom are continually undermined by his own inertia and the Hagbeast's psychological grip.

Cripps and the Slaughtermen

Cripps, the charismatic and sadistic foreman, preaches the gospel of self-realization through killing. He idolizes the slaughtermen, presenting them as men who have transcended weakness by embracing violence. Cripps grooms Steven, suggesting that only by confronting and unleashing his darkest impulses can he become truly free. The slaughterhouse becomes a temple of transformation, where death is both ritual and liberation.

The Ritual of Killing

Steven is drawn deeper into the slaughterhouse's rituals, culminating in a scene where he is sexually assaulted by Cripps during a killing. The act is both traumatic and transformative, blurring the lines between violence, sex, and power. Steven is left physically and emotionally shattered, but also senses the possibility of change—a new strength born from horror. The experience marks a turning point in his willingness to act.

Lucy and Steven Connect

Steven and Lucy's relationship becomes sexual, but is fraught with desperation and dysfunction. Their intimacy is marked by mutual use and a shared belief that love might be a cure for their brokenness. Lucy's self-mutilation and Steven's fantasies of normalcy collide, creating a fragile alliance against the world. Yet, both are haunted by the fear that their poison is inescapable.

Poison for Poison

Inspired by Cripps and emboldened by his experiences, Steven decides to kill the Hagbeast by poisoning her with his own excrement. The act is both a literal and symbolic attempt to reverse the flow of abuse. The mother-son dynamic becomes a grotesque contest of endurance, as each tries to outlast the other's capacity for filth and suffering. The kitchen becomes a site of escalating horror and resistance.

The Cow's Warning

Steven is visited by a talking cow, who warns him that Cripps's philosophy of power through violence is a dead end. The cow reveals the existence of an underground society of escaped cows, who have built their own world beneath the city. The cow urges Steven to reject Cripps's path and consider the consequences of becoming what he hates. This surreal encounter introduces the possibility of alternative forms of rebellion and community.

Descent into Violence

Steven's campaign against the Hagbeast escalates, culminating in a series of increasingly violent and degrading acts. He is forced to confront the reality that killing does not bring the liberation he hoped for, but instead deepens his alienation. The boundaries between victim and perpetrator blur, as Steven becomes both the agent and the product of violence. His sense of self fractures under the weight of his actions.

The Shit-Eating Contest

The contest between Steven and the Hagbeast reaches its climax in a grotesque meal where both are forced to eat each other's excrement. The scene is a literalization of their toxic relationship, a final test of will and endurance. Steven ultimately prevails, but the victory is hollow—he is left physically and emotionally depleted, and the Hagbeast's power lingers even in defeat.

Becoming a Killer

Under Cripps's guidance, Steven is forced to kill Gummy, a fellow worker, in a ritualized act of violence. The murder is both a test and a rite of passage, marking Steven's full initiation into the cult of killing. The act is described in graphic detail, emphasizing the loss of empathy and the emergence of a new, predatory self. Steven feels a surge of power, but also a growing emptiness.

The Cows' Secret Society

Steven is led by the talking cow into the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the city, where a society of escaped cows has established its own order. The cows, traumatized by their experiences in the slaughterhouse, seek revenge against Cripps and the men who tormented them. They enlist Steven as their agent, offering him a new sense of purpose and belonging. The boundaries between human and animal, oppressor and victim, begin to dissolve.

The Hagbeast's End

Steven finally murders the Hagbeast in a scene of extreme violence and degradation, suffocating her with his own feces. The act is both cathartic and horrifying, a culmination of years of abuse and hatred. With her death, Steven believes he has freed himself and can now build the life he has always dreamed of with Lucy. The flat is cleansed of the Hagbeast's presence, and Steven feels a fleeting sense of triumph.

Lucy's Search for Purity

Lucy, unable to escape her obsession with inner poison, descends into self-mutilation and madness. She attempts to excise the imagined stone of filth from her body, ultimately killing herself in the process. Her death shatters Steven's fragile new world, leaving him alone and bereft. The promise of love and family is revealed as an illusion, and the cycle of trauma continues.

The Rise of Steven

With the Hagbeast and Cripps dead, Steven assumes leadership of the underground herd. He orchestrates raids on the surface, leading the cows in acts of violence against humans. The cows, now addicted to killing and human flesh, worship Steven as a messiah. He is both empowered and corrupted by his new role, finding in violence a substitute for the love and belonging he has always craved.

The Cows' Rebellion

The cows, having tasted power and blood, become increasingly aggressive and independent. Steven's control over them is challenged by the Guernsey, a rival cow with its own ambitions. The herd's newfound identity is built on violence and domination, mirroring the human world they once fled. Steven's sense of purpose begins to erode as the cows outgrow their need for him.

The Fall of Cripps

Steven lures Cripps into the underground, where he tortures and kills him in front of the herd. The act is both a personal and collective revenge, a symbolic overthrow of the old order. The cows are transformed by the experience, embracing their new identity as predators. Steven, however, finds that the satisfaction of revenge is fleeting, and the emptiness at his core remains.

The Collapse of Happiness

With Lucy gone and the flat in ruins, Steven is left utterly alone. His attempts to build a family and a sense of belonging have failed, and he is haunted by the ghosts of his past. The City becomes a hostile, alien landscape, and Steven is driven to the brink of madness. The herd, once a source of comfort, now represents only the perpetuation of violence and loss.

The Final Transformation

In the end, Steven is cast out from both human and animal society. He returns to the underground, seeking solace among the cows, but finds only emptiness and repetition. The Guernsey is killed in a final struggle for dominance, and Steven assumes control of the herd once more. Yet, the cycle of violence and alienation continues, and the promise of transformation is revealed as a hollow dream. Steven's story ends in a state of perpetual exile, neither fully human nor fully animal, trapped in the ruins of his own desires.

Characters

Steven

Steven is the protagonist, a young man whose psyche has been shattered by years of abuse at the hands of his mother. He is passive, self-loathing, and obsessed with the idea of normalcy as depicted on television. Steven's journey is one of attempted transformation—from victim to perpetrator, from human to animal, from powerless to powerful. His relationships with Lucy, the Hagbeast, and the cows are all attempts to find belonging and meaning, but each ends in failure or horror. Psychologically, Steven is a study in learned helplessness, trauma, and the corrosive effects of violence. His development is marked by cycles of hope, action, and despair, culminating in a final surrender to the very forces he sought to escape.

The Hagbeast (Steven's Mother)

The Hagbeast is Steven's mother, a figure of grotesque physical and emotional abuse. She embodies the inescapable, generational nature of trauma, using food, filth, and violence to dominate her son. Her relationship with Steven is one of mutual hatred and dependency, a toxic bond that neither can break until her death. Psychologically, she represents the internalized voice of self-loathing and the impossibility of escape from one's origins. Her death is both a liberation and a curse for Steven, as her influence lingers even in absence.

Lucy

Lucy is Steven's neighbor and lover, a woman consumed by the belief that emotional pain manifests as physical poison. Her compulsive self-examination and self-mutilation mirror Steven's own sense of contamination. Their relationship is built on mutual need and the hope that love can cure their brokenness, but ultimately collapses under the weight of their respective traumas. Lucy's psychological profile is one of obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphia, and existential despair. Her suicide is the final blow to Steven's dreams of happiness.

Cripps

Cripps is the foreman at the meat plant, a figure who preaches the gospel of self-realization through killing. He is both mentor and abuser to Steven, initiating him into the cult of violence and sexual domination. Cripps's philosophy is one of nihilistic empowerment, where freedom is achieved by embracing one's darkest impulses. Psychologically, he represents the seductive allure of power and the dangers of unchecked aggression. His death at Steven's hands is both a personal and symbolic overthrow of the old order.

The Guernsey

The Guernsey is a talking cow who becomes Steven's guide and eventual rival in the underground herd. Intelligent and manipulative, the Guernsey seeks to assert its own dominance over the cows, challenging Steven's authority. Its relationship with Steven is marked by mutual suspicion, competition, and a shared understanding of power. Psychologically, the Guernsey represents the animalistic drive for hierarchy and the inevitability of conflict in any society.

Dog

Dog is Steven's only companion, a symbol of unconditional love and loyalty. Crippled by the Hagbeast, Dog's suffering mirrors Steven's own, and its eventual death is a catalyst for Steven's final break with his mother. Dog represents the possibility of innocence and affection in a world otherwise defined by cruelty.

Gummy

Gummy is a worker at the meat plant, disfigured by an encounter with a cow. He serves as both a warning and a victim, ultimately killed by Steven in a ritualized act of violence. Gummy's character highlights the dehumanizing effects of the slaughterhouse and the ease with which victims become perpetrators.

The Roan Cow

The roan cow is a member of the underground herd who becomes particularly attached to Steven. She represents the herd's longing for leadership and transformation, as well as the blurring of boundaries between human and animal. Her relationship with Steven is both sexual and symbolic, embodying the herd's surrender to his guidance.

The Underground Herd

The Underground Herd of escaped cows represents a collective consciousness shaped by trauma and the search for meaning. They are both victims and perpetrators, oscillating between passivity and aggression. Their relationship with Steven is one of dependency and worship, but also of eventual rebellion and self-assertion.

The City

The City is an omnipresent force in the novel, representing the outside world that is both desired and feared by Steven and the other characters. It is a place of unattainable normalcy, constant threat, and ultimate indifference to suffering.

Plot Devices

Grotesque Realism and Body Horror

Stokoe uses graphic descriptions of bodily functions, filth, and violence to externalize the characters' internal states. The recurring motif of poison, shit, and mutilation serves as a metaphor for the inescapable nature of trauma and the futility of attempts at purification. The body becomes a battleground where psychological wounds are made literal.

Cycles of Abuse and Revenge

The narrative structure is built on cycles of abuse, resistance, and revenge. Each character, in turn, becomes both victim and abuser, perpetuating the cycle of violence. The slaughterhouse, the kitchen, and the underground all serve as stages for these rituals, blurring the lines between human and animal, oppressor and oppressed.

Surrealism and Anthropomorphism

The introduction of talking cows and their secret society beneath the city adds a surreal, allegorical dimension to the narrative. The cows' rebellion mirrors the human characters' struggles for autonomy and identity, while also satirizing the search for meaning in a world defined by suffering.

Foreshadowing and Escalation

Stokoe employs foreshadowing to build a sense of impending doom and transformation. Early scenes of abuse and filth hint at the eventual eruption of violence, while the characters' obsessions and compulsions escalate inexorably toward self-destruction. The narrative is structured as a series of increasingly extreme confrontations, each raising the stakes and narrowing the possibilities for escape.

TV and Media as False Salvation

Television functions as both a mirror and a false promise for Steven, offering images of happiness and normalcy that are forever out of reach. The gap between the world on TV and the reality of Steven's life underscores the novel's themes of alienation, longing, and the impossibility of true transformation.

Analysis

Matthew Stokoe's Cows is a brutal, transgressive exploration of trauma, power, and the search for identity in a world defined by filth and violence. Through its relentless depiction of abuse, bodily horror, and the collapse of boundaries between human and animal, the novel interrogates the cycles of suffering that shape individual and collective existence. Steven's journey—from passive victim to violent leader, from human to animal, from seeker of love to agent of destruction—serves as a dark allegory for the ways in which trauma begets trauma, and the impossibility of escaping one's origins. The novel's use of grotesque realism, surreal allegory, and cyclical narrative structure challenges readers to confront the realities of abuse, the seductive allure of power, and the futility of seeking salvation in violence or fantasy. In the end, Cows offers no easy answers or redemption—only the bleak recognition that, in a world built on suffering, the search for purity or belonging may itself be a form of self-destruction.

Last updated: May 21, 2025