Flannery O’Connor and The Peacock By D a v id R . M a y e r Nanzan University, Nagoya Among the many fascinating tales and lore of the peacock which P. Thankappan Nair includes in his article “The Peacock Cult in Asia” is the following quotation: It is an unfortunate tendency of the English mind to seize what seems to it grotesque or ungainly in an unfamiliar object; thus the elephant and the peacock have become almost impossible in English poetry because the one is associated with lumbering heaviness and the other with absurd strutting. The tendency of the Hindu mind on the other hand is to seize on what is pleasing and beautiful in all things and turn to see charm where the English mind sees a deformity and to extract poetry and grace from the ugly.1 Such a decisive description of two ways of looking at things, of the com­ bination of grotesqueness and humor, of the potentiality of beauty in ugliness, aptly applies to the subject matter and the technique of Flannery O ’Connor’s fiction. Through her assortment of unpalatable characters and violent ac­ tions, O ’Connor tries to show grace at work in the world. According to her beliefs Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, has shown that God so loved the world that He became man Himself. Yet this God is not ac­ cepted by men，so they have to be shocked into a recognition of their need for Him and the salvation He offers. Though these themes run throughout her essays and stories，in “The Displaced Person” she beauti­ 1 . Sri Aurobindo as quoted in “The Peacock Cult in Asia,” Asian Folklore Studies, 33 No. 2 (1974)，135. Subsequent references to Nair will be made in the text. In the preparation of this article I am indebted to Fr. Julius Abri, S.V.D., librarian of Shingenkai Shingakko Toshokan，for furnishing Jewish and early Chris­ tian sources; to Fr. Matthias Eder, S.V.D., editor of Asian Folklore Studies, for his comments and access to the Nair article; and to Francis Britto, S.J. and Valentine De Souza, S.J., who at the start of the search provided basic local infor­ mation. 2 DAVID R. MAYER fully illustrates her point by employing the peacock as a “spiritual test”2 and as a correlative of the displaced person who in his goodness is rejected and killed as Christ was. O ’Connor’s well crafted use of the peacock as a symbol can be better appreciated if it is seen in the context 01 the two views so sharply depicted by Sri Aurobindo. A review of the habits of the peacock，beliefs of the people，and the aura of sacredness attached to the peacock in India, involves language and ideas which easily fit into Flannery O ’Connor’s personal observations of the peacock and her religious beliefs about God’s ways of revealing Himself to man. For example, Nair describes the display of the peacock’s tail which is so arranged that the head becomes the focal point amidst the varicolored design. O ’Connor in “The Displaced Person” gives a similar picture of the peacock in which “Tiers of small pregnant suns floated in a green-gold haze over his h e a d .，，3 As I have noted elsewhere, O ’Connor connects this awesome pose with the Catholic veneration of the Eucharist placed in a monstrance.4 Several times Nair mentions that the peacock’s dance foreshadows relief from the hot season by the cooling monsoon rains (pp. 102, 138, 144，151). Thus the peacock becomes a friend of those in need (p. 135) ， quenches the thirst of love (p. 144)，and according to the Kavipriya of Keshav Das gives notice of the union of heaven and earth in the rain，a kind of sharing of two natures: “The peacocks with their shrill cries announce the matings of earth and sky” (p. 148). Like a prophet the peacock foretells future events and warns against the presence of evil by being quick to notice snakes and tigers (p. 153). In Catholic devotions Christ is honored under the symbol of the Sacred Heart, refuge of those who labor and are weary. A similar devotional expression can be found in the following almost prayer-like address to the peacock: When oppressed by the scorching sun, people hanker after your voice. As you are always of a courteous nature, you send your note to please those who are oppressed as a matter of obligation. In response to your note, the clouds shower rains. You have great affection and love towards the people. This may be the reason why you do not fly up in the air, but always prefer to remain on the ground, (p. 143) 2. Stanley Edgar Hyman, Flannery 0 }Connor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1966)，p . 18. 3. The Complete Stories (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971), p. 226. This edition, GS, will be used for all of her short stories. 4. Gf. “Apologia for the Imagination: Flannery O ’Connor’s 4A Temple of the Holy G h o s t，，” Studies in Short F ictio n ,1 1 (Spring 1974), 149. FLANNERY O’CONNOR AND THE PEACOCK 3 With this kind of language the peacock becomes more of a religious symbol. Indeed among the Dravidians the peacock is considered sacred (p. 158). It is the vehicle (the animal a god uses to ride or sit upon) of “Subramania，the supreme god of the Dravidians of Tamil Nadu” (p. 112). As a decoration it is a support of temple lamps; its feathers are sacred temple objects (pp. 149, 109). Related to these ritual uses are a number of folk beliefs and customs which call to mind the Catholic doctrine concerning the effects of Holy Communion (cleansing from sin and the power of Satan, union with Christ, and pledge of immortality). Not only can the peacock’s feathers frighten away demons (p. 161)，but they can work cures, especially in regard to snake bites (p. 109). The peacock eats almost anything, even reptiles; as the vehicle of Subramania, it is pictured with a serpent in its claws (p. 162). The natural enmity of peacock and serpent，of good and evil,5 is more fully related by M ’Clintock and Strong: They run with great swiftness，and where they are serpents do not abound， as they devour the young with great avidity, and it is said，attack with spirit even the cobra de capello when grown to considerable size, arresting its pro­ gress and confusing it by the rapidity and variety of their evolutions around it, till exhausted with fatigue, it is struck on the head and despatched.6 The Indians thought that the peacock was the food of princes (p. 113) and that it was an effective antidote (p. 114), besides having the power of making a person young and immortal (p. 111). The Romans ate the peacock and had the notion that its meat was incorruptible. St. Augustine draws upon this Roman belief to explain why the peacock is a fitting symbol of the Resurrection.7 In Indian art the peacock occurs in scenes of “love，rain，and separa­ tion55 (p. 147). It is the companion of the lover and beloved (p. 138) and is a substitute for the lover in his absence, representing the hope and promise of his return (p. 147). As a vehicle the peacock can represent the glory of the sun (p. 119). These instances are not far removed from Christ portrayed in the Transfiguration (M a tt.17，1-8) or returning as He promised at the Second Coming (Matt. 24, 2フ—31). (The priest in “The Displaced Person” is reminded of these two Christian beliefs when 5. Gf. Gertrude Jobes, Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols (New York: The Scarecrow Press, 1962), pp. 213, 1247. 6. John M ’Clintock and James Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical' Theological， and Ecclesiastical Literature (1877; rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1969), V II ，854. 7. M ’Clintock，VII ，855. 4 DAVID R. MAYER he sees the peacock’s display.) The review，during these pages, of the peacock lore of India with asides about Christian similarities is not meant to suggest a direct link between Hindu and Christian symbolism, but to show the possibilities of the symbol. It lays the foundation for O ’Connor’s unorthodox (from the general English literary tradition) development of the peacock as a symbol of Christ. In her essay “The King of the Birds” Flannery O ’Connor was not unaware of the peacock’s classical associations with the Greek goddess Hera and her Roman counterpart Juno. With her characteristic humor she writes: “I knew that the peacock had been the bird of Hera, the wife 01 z.eus, but since that time it had probably come down in the world — the Florida Market Bulletin advertized three-year-old peafowl at sixty- five dollars a p a ir .，，8 According to the stories，Hera, goddess of wives and protectress of marriage, sent hundred-eyed Argus to watch over Io， mistress of Zeus. Zeus, who had changed Io into a heifer, sent Hermes to kill the many-eyed cowhand. After his death, Hera put the eyes of Argus into the tail of the peacock, a bird sacred to her and symbolic of her jealous pride.9 The eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica adds that “Argus with his countless eyes originally denoted the starry heavens.”10 O'Connor borrows this star image for The Violent Bear It Away.