The peacock was Flannery’s favorite kind of bird and over time it became associated with her writing. In her essay The King of the Birds, Flannery wrote “Many people, I have found, are congenitally unable to appreciate the sight of a peacock. Once or twice I have been asked what the peacock is “good for”—a question which gets no answer from me because it deserves none” (Mystery & Manners, O’Connor 10). We have two peafowl here at Andalusia, a peacock named Astor and a peahen named Mrs. Shortley, a far cry from the flock of forty peafowl that once roamed the property freely under Flannery’s supervision.
Andalusia Web Tour 