Black Bird

The novel's opening section features Horace's ritual summoning of a demon in order to permanently transform himself into a Black Bird; this symbol represents Horace's desire to escape the narrow-minded and homophobic conditions of the Cross family and his hometown of Tims Creek. Black Birds are a common feature of Southern Gothic literature, thus representing A Visitation of Spirits as a novel of this genre.

Horace's Double

Horace's hallucination of his alternative self represents his psychosis and the split between the identity he attempts to withhold, and that of his true homosexual self. Horace's double appears dressed in a flamboyant theater costume . This figure represents Horace's homosexuality, presented as ironically applying makeup, while the real Horace is the one who pretends to be another person. Horace shoots his alternative self in the graveyard, representing his complete loss of identity and foreshadowing of his imminent suicide...