The Partridge Festival

Flannery O’Connor penned “The Partridge Festival” in early 1961. Like many of her other stories, certain elements reflect her life in Milledgeville. For instance, Calhoun’s aunts, Bessie and Mattie, mirror two of O’Connor’s aunts, Mary and Katie Cline, Mrs. O’Connor’s sisters who invited O’Connor’s family to live with them at the Cline mansion when they first moved to Milledgeville. The city of Partridge reflects Milledgeville, with the Quincy asylum of the story echoing Quincy State Hospital, located only a few miles outside Milledgeville. The story’s main inspiration derives from a tragic event that took place in Milledgeville at the end of April 1953, several years before O’Connor wrote “The Partridge Festival.” According to biographer Brad Gooch, Milledgeville organized a weeklong celebration for its sesquicentennial, “catering exclusively to the white population” and enlivening “nostalgia for [the town’s] antebellum glory days” that featured “a pageant climaxing with the Secession Convention; the printing of a half-million dollars’ worth of Confederate twenty-dollar bills; a tour of antebellum homes, including the Cline Mansion; men forced to grow whiskers and sideburn chops, and women to wear hoop skirts” (234). As a result of Milledgeville’s townspeople throwing the grocer, Marion Stembridge, into makeshift stocks for refusing to “grow whiskers,” Stembridge retaliated by shooting “two of the town’s most prominent lawyers” (234) before shooting himself. The event left an imprint on O’Connor that resulted in “The Partridge Festival,” published in the Catholic journal Critic in March 1961.

Little literary scholarship addresses “The Partridge Festival,” much less the story’s religious implications, contributing to scholar Suzanne Morrow Paulson’s conclusion that “The Partridge Festival” is simply “a neglected story” (135). However, significant Christian imagery abounds in “The Partridge Festival,” particularly through the role of Singleton as a devil-figure. O’Connor proclaims in a letter to a friend that “I am all for Singleton in this, devil though I rightly consider him to be” (The Habit of Being, 443). Acknowledging O’Connor’s use of numerous characters to represent Satan throughout her fiction, scholar Preston M. Browning proposes that “no American author since Hawthorne has made such extensive use of the devil” (33) as O’Connor, which leads to Browning’s conclusion that “the devil, or the demonic, seems to be not only an indispensable feature of this writer’s fictional technique but also an integral element of her theology as well” (34). Therefore, O’Connor’s use of Singleton as one of her characteristic devil-figures creates Christian imagery throughout “The Partridge Festival” that initiates O’Connor’s warning to readers against deception, specifically by Satan. Singleton deceives Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth through their perceptions of him as honorable and Christ-like, representing Satan’s greatest deception in the Bible of impersonating Jesus. Ultimately, O’Connor blatantly reveals Singleton as a devil-figure when Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth visit Singleton at Quincy State Hospital. As a result, the main roles of Calhoun, Mary Elizabeth, and Singleton invite an interpretation of “The Partridge Festival” as an allegory for the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man in Genesis. Overall, however, the story conveys O’Connor’s purpose in warning readers against the deception of Satan, extensively presenting a Christian message.

Although Singleton is the apparent devil-figure in the “The Partridge Festival,” Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth first interpret him to be honorable and Christ-like. While at the barber shop, Calhoun agitatedly tells the barber that Singleton is “suffering. He’s the scapegoat. He’s laden with the sins of the community. Sacrificed for the guilt of others” (“Partridge,” 431). After Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth decide to visit Singleton at Quincy, Calhoun determines that seeing Singleton “would be a torturing experience, but it might be [Calhoun’s] salvation” (337) and that “he was certain that the sight of Singleton was going to effect a change in him, that after this visit, some strange tranquility he had not before conceived of would be his” (440). In elevating Singleton to the level of Christ, Calhoun references key aspects of Jesus’s ministry, including Jesus’s suffering as a result of shouldering the sins of the world and the subsequent salvation that transforms believers. Peter and John, two of Jesus’s closest disciples, write that “Christ suffered in the flesh” (1 Pet. 4.1 ESV) as “the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world” (1 John 2.2 NLT). As a result, God gives salvation through Jesus, “his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3.16 NLT). The apostle Paul then describes the transformative power of salvation through Jesus by telling people that “once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!” (Eph. 5.8 NLT). Therefore, Calhoun’s initial perceptions of Singleton portray him as honorable and Christ-like.

Mary Elizabeth’s conclusions about Singleton also construct him as Christ-like. When Calhoun first asks Mary Elizabeth her opinion of Singleton, she blatantly calls him “a Christ-figure” (“Partridge,” 435). On the way to Quincy, she further parallels Singleton with Jesus’s crucifixion by saying that “you have to prove to yourself that you can stand there and watch a man be crucified” (438) and that “Christ only had to take it three hours” (439). While sharing a final meal with his disciples, Jesus tells them that “the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago” (Matt. 26.24 NLT). While all four Gospels record Jesus’ crucifixion, Mark writes, “It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him” (Mark 15.25), and “at three o’clock [...] Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last” (Mark 15.34, 37 NLT), which shows Jesus’s suffering through his crucifixion (and remedies Mary Elizabeth’s error). Therefore, Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth both initially perceive Singleton to be Christ-like.

However, Singleton emulates Satan as a true devil-figure, who, as numerous Biblical verses chronicle, deceives people by impersonating Jesus. For instance, Revelation characterizes Satan as “the one deceiving the whole world” (Rev. 12.9 NLT). Discussing his return to earth, Jesus warns his disciples that “many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many” (Matt. 24.5 NLT). Therefore, Paul describes that before Jesus returns to earth, Satan specifically, as “the one who brings destruction,” will “exalt himself and [...] even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God” (2 Thes. 2.3-4 NLT). Similarly, Paul concludes to the Corinthians that “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11.14 NLT). Therefore, first presenting Singleton as Christ-like ironically establishes him later as an echo of Satan, thereby highlighting the intensity of Singleton’s character as a devil-figure.

In addition to his murders, O’Connor blatantly depicts Singleton as a devil-figure when Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth arrive at Quincy. As they approach the entrance to the hospital, they notice that “the letters QUINCY STATE HOSPITAL were cut in a concrete arch,” and Mary Elizabeth mutters, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here” (“Partridge,” 439). This quotation derives from Inferno, one of the three sections in Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, which describes his nine circles of Hell, where the torture and suffering associated with Hell intensify with each subsequent circle. “All hope abandon ye who enter here” (Alighieri) is the final line of the long inscription over the entrance to Dante’s Hell, thereby characterizing Quincy as Hell. Calhoun first describes the cluster of buildings making up the hospital as “like a rich growth of warts” (“Partridge,” 439), the vile imagery further depicting Hell. Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth’s car rolling “effortlessly through” the concrete arch evokes Jesus’s Parable of the Narrow Gate, where he tells his followers that “you can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it” (Matt. 7.13-14 NLT). The wide gate to Hell manifests in the wide concrete arch leading to Quincy. The car’s ability to easily pass through the arch thereby equates Quincy with Hell. While Satan mostly resides on earth as “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4.4 ESV), Singleton’s residency at Quincy as the echo of Hell still parallels Singleton with Satan. The Final Judgement records that Satan will ultimately reside in Hell, saying that “the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur” (Rev. 20.10 NLT). As a result, Singleton’s residency at Quincy clearly affirms him as a devil-figure.

Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth’s interaction with Singleton at Quincy further confirms his Satanic identity. Before they meet him, Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth first hear “a steady monotonous cursing [that] broke the silence around it with a machine-like regularity. [...] It was from him the curses were coming” (“Partridge,” 442). Paul speaks against cursing when he instructs the church at Ephesus not to “use foul or abusive language” (Eph. 4.29), thereby evoking the words foul and abusive as the first potential descriptors of Singleton. Calhoun also describes “the penetrating gleam in” Singleton’s eyes as having “a slight reptilian quality” (442), which parallels Singleton to Satan in the form of the serpent from Genesis 3. Singleton shocks Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth most when, after escaping the grasp of his attendants to hungrily sit next to Mary Elizabeth, Singleton “kicked off his shoes and leaped between [the attendants] onto the table, sending the empty vase shattering to the floor. ‘Look girl!’ he shrilled and began to pull the hospital gown over his head” (443). Jesus condemns lust when he tells his disciples that “anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5.28 NLT). In the context of Singleton’s lustful display, the Bible reveals that “craving for physical pleasure,” such as in the form of lust, is “not from the Father, but [is] from this world” (1 John 2.16 NLT), noting that “the world around us is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5.19 NLT). Therefore, in addition to his foul language and reptilian eyes, Singleton’s sexual outburst confirms his identity as a devil-figure. O’Connor shows Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth’s shock when they “dashed out [of] the room,” when Calhoun “drove [the car] away as if his heart were the motor and would never go fast enough,” and when, after Calhoun stops the car, “they sat silently, looking at nothing” (“Partridge,” 443). Therefore, Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth’s shock encapsulates O’Connor’s warning against Satan’s deception.

Describing Singleton’s reptilian eyes that echo Satan as the serpent in Genesis 3 invites an interpretation of “The Partridge Festival” as an allegory for the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man. Within the frame of Genesis 3, Partridge, as the story’s primary setting, represents the Garden of Eden; one of Partridge’s most prominent figures, Calhoun’s great-grandfather, represents God; Calhoun and Mary Elizabeth represent Adam and Eve; and Singleton, as the story’s devil-figure, represents the serpent. Calhoun’s aunts capture Calhoun as Adam and his great-grandfather as God when they tell Calhoun that he “look[s] very like Father” (422), “the most forward-looking [master] merchant Partridge ever had” who would “either have been one of the prominent men shot or he would have been the one to subdue the maniac” (423). The aunts’ observation that Calhoun and his great-grandfather look alike evokes the Bible’s claim that God creates Adam “in his own image” (Gen. 1.27 NLT). Similarly, in the same way that Calhoun’s aunts refer to his great-grandfather as “Father,” numerous Bible verses define God as the “Father” of humankind, such as when God says that “I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters” (2 Cor. 6.18 NLT). At the end of the story, when Calhoun sees his great-grandfather reflected in Mary Elizabeth’s glasses, he describes the reflection as “the face whose gift of life had pushed straight forward to the future to raise festival after festival” (“Partridge,” 444). The great-grandfather’s “gift of life” matches God’s “free gift of [...] eternal life through Christ” (Rom. 6.23 ESV) represented by Jesus’s ministry as well as his creation of the world. Literary scholar Robert Brinkmeyer adds that when Calhoun sees the reflection, he realizes that his great-grandfather embodies his “true inner self” (155). Therefore, through the great-grandfather’s powerful establishment within Partridge and his influence over Calhoun, who greatly resembles him, the great-grandfather mirrors God, and Calhoun mirrors Adam in Genesis.

Similarly, Mary Elizabeth echoes Eve, and Singleton echoes the serpent in Genesis 3. O’Connor first describes Mary Elizabeth as “a girl in the next yard, who sat cross-legged under a tree” (“Partridge,” 421), paralleling the setting of the interaction between Eve and the serpent in Genesis 3, which takes place among the fruit trees in the Garden of Eden. The way that Singleton cajoles Mary Elizabeth mirrors the smooth persuasion of the serpent to Eve. At Quincy, for instance, Singleton attempts to coax Mary Elizabeth by saying that “‘it’s not every girl gets a chance at me,’ Singleton said. ‘Listen here, sister, I’m well-fixed. There’s nobody in Partridge I can’t skin. [...] You and me are two of a kind’” (443). Similarly, after Eve tells the serpent of God’s instruction to not eat fruit from the tree in the center of the Garden, he beguiles Eve by saying that “‘you won’t die! [...] God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.’ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her” (Gen. 3.4-6 NLT). At the story’s conclusion, Calhoun notes that in their shock, Mary Elizabeth’s “face seemed to mirror the nakedness of the sky” (“Partridge,” 444), which aligns with the moment directly after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit when “their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness” (Gen. 3.7 NLT). As a result, Mary Elizabeth and Singleton mirror Eve and the serpent respectively, in the same way that the great-grandfather mirrors God, and Calhoun mirrors Adam. Ultimately, the potential allegorizing of “The Partridge Festival” to Genesis 3 maintains, along with Singleton’s clear identification as the story’s devil-figure, O’Connor’s message in warning readers against deception, specifically by Satan.

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. 1472. Translated by H. F. Cary, e-book ed., Project Gutenberg, 2005. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1008/pg1008.html.

Brinkmeyer, Robert H., Jr. The Art and Vision of Flannery O’Connor. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State UP, 1993.

Browning, Preston M., Jr. “Flannery O’Connor and the Demonic.” Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, spring 1973, pp. 29-41. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26279133.

ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version. Translated by Crossway, ESV text ed., Wheaton, Crossway Bibles, 2011.

Gooch, Brad. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor. New York, Little, Brown, 2009.

Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Translated by Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Tyndale House Publishers, 2015.

O’Connor, Flannery. The Habit of Being. Edited by Sally Fitzgerald, New York City, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.

---. “The Partridge Festival.” The Complete Stories, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971, pp. 421-44.

Paulson, Suzanne Morrow. “Apocalypse of Self, Resurrection of the Double: Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away.” Flannery O’Connor: New Perspectives, edited by Sura P. Rath and Mary Neff Shaw, Athens, U of Georgia P, 1997, pp. 121-38.