In “First Confession,” fire, flames, and burning symbolize God’s judgment. Throughout the story, Jackie fears judgment much more than physical punishment. After all, he never seems to particularly fear the slaps and beatings he gets from his family, but he’s terrified that others will believe—perhaps correctly—that he is bad. This is best embodied by the scene in which Mrs. Ryan lights a candle and offers a coin to any student who can hold their hand in the flames for five minutes. Jackie doesn’t volunteer, and it’s not because he’s afraid of the pain of the flames—it’s because he’s worried that he will come across as greedy in front of the whole class if he takes the challenge. The connection between flames and fear of judgment is also clear in Jackie’s reaction to Mrs. Ryan’s story about the man who makes an incomplete Confession, goes to hell, and then returns to try to fix his Confession, but burns up in front of the priest, leaving burn marks on his furniture. What Jackie seems to fear about this story (and what he brings up several times afterwards) is the marks on the furniture, which are visible proof of the man’s sins. Jackie worries that this will happen to him and he’ll leave marks on his mother’s furniture, which would confirm to her that Jackie is bad. In this way, throughout the story, flames seem to have the potential to illuminate Jackie’s sins for all to see, a fate that terrifies him. O’Connor mostly associates these flames with hellfire, but in the Catholic tradition, fire can also symbolize the Holy Spirit and divine inspiration—the positive angle on God’s all-knowing gaze. (For instance, in the Bible, God appears to Moses as a burning bush, and they speak directly to one another.) That Jackie can only see fire as hellfire, and not an opportunity to connect with God, underscores that his first Confession is a missed opportunity to develop a more nuanced and positive relationship with sin and forgiveness, one that might lessen his terror of being judged.
Fire Quotes in First Confession
Then, to crown my misfortunes, I had to make my first confession and Communion. It was an old woman called Ryan who prepared us for these… She may have mentioned the other place as well, but that could only have been by accident, for Hell had the first place in her heart.
“Oh,” he said respectfully, “a big hefty fellow like you must have terrible sins…”
It only stood to reason that a fellow confessing after seven years would have more to tell than people that went every week…It was only what he expected, and the rest was the cackle of old women and girls with their talk of Hell, the Bishop and penitential psalms.
Fire Symbol Timeline in First Confession
