Fear and Violence Theme Analysis

“First Confession” focuses on a young boy, Jackie, who struggles to make sense of morality and guilt as he is initiated into the rituals of the Catholic Church. Throughout the story, characters like Jackie’s father, his teacher Mrs. Ryan, and the priest instill fear in Jackie using violence, intimidation, and threatening imagery (such as the man bursting into flames when he gives a “bad Confession”). Yet none of this encourages Jackie to behave morally; it only makes him guilty and terrified, rather than encouraging him to feel genuine remorse or learn a lesson from his bad behavior. By showing that violence and the threat of violence only teach children to be fearful, dishonest, and violent themselves, O’Connor suggests that violence is counterproductive when trying to encourage moral behavior.

Jackie is afraid of the violent consequences with which adults threaten him, such as being beaten by his father or burnt in hellfire—yet these threats do not teach him the lessons that the adults mean to impart. When Jackie is disgusted with Gran’s manners, for example, he hides under the table with a breadknife to threaten anyone who tries to make him eat with her—a violent reaction to his grandmother’s kindness in making him dinner. Later, when his father beats him to teach him to be polite to Gran, Jackie concludes that the beating was “all because of that old woman!” Not only has his father’s violent punishment failed to make him examine his own behavior and learn to be kinder, but his father’s violence has reinforced Jackie’s own violence, making him think that beatings and threats are the way to get what you want.

Jackie also faces the threat of violent punishment at school. To teach the children to make a full Confession to the priest, Jackie’s teacher Mrs. Ryan tells a story of a man who fails to confess all his sins, dies and goes to hell, and then comes back to try to rectify his Confession. However, before he can confess, he burns up in front of the priest, leaving singe marks on the priest’s furniture. This story terrifies Jackie, making him “scared to death of Confession.” But the violent threat implied by the story does not achieve its desired end of making sure Jackie will confess all his sins. Even as he fears dying and leaving burn marks on his mother’s furniture, he still doesn’t think he can confess all his sins to the priest because he feels that his sins are too severe. The violent threats and imagery he associates with the church don’t teach him that being honest during Confession will give him relief and closeness with God. Rather, it terrifies him and makes him feel like he’ll face something unpleasant whether or not he makes a full Confession, undermining his ability to connect with his faith.

Ultimately, during Jackie’s first Confession, he makes a full Confession to the priest only because the priest is kind to him. When Jackie falls out of the Confessional and Nora slaps him, the priest takes pity on this child who is clearly confused and humiliated. Because of this, and because of the priest’s disarming suggestion that it’s normal for Jackie to have sinned quite a lot, Jackie surprises himself by feeling comfortable confessing to all of his sins. This first instance of kindness in the story shows its power to gently and positively shape a child’s mind, as opposed to scaring them into submission with threats of violence. After all, both the priest and Mrs. Ryan want Jackie to make a full Confession, but while Mrs. Ryan’s scary stories failed to produce a full Confession, the priest’s kindness succeeded.

However, while the priest’s kindness influences Jackie to make a full Confession, he ultimately does not use that influence to teach Jackie right and wrong. When Jackie confesses to plotting to kill his grandmother, the priest does not explain to Jackie that Gran’s mistakes—like his when he fell out of the Confessional—were innocent and deserving of the same kindness and forgiveness that the priest has shown him. Instead, the priest discourages Jackie from killing his grandmother not because it’s wrong and she deserves better, but because Jackie would be hanged if he kills his grandmother. Once again, this is a threat of violence meant to coerce Jackie into moral behavior, and like the earlier threats of violence from Jackie’s father and Mrs. Ryan, it does not teach Jackie to be good; it teaches him that he is right to hate his grandmother. From his first Confession, Jackie does not learn the Christian principle of divine forgiveness and mercy for everyone who atones for their sins. Instead, he learns another backward lesson—that he alone deserves the priest’s kindness, and others (like Nora) deserve to be violently punished.

The priest’s kindness is a powerful force in Jackie’s life that could have taught him to be kinder to others and to take responsibility for his own actions. However, the priest follows his gentle words with more discussions of violence and implicit threats, and Jackie ultimately only learns to be more confident in his hateful and violent attitudes toward others. The story shows how a little kindness can have a powerful effect in a child’s life, but threats of violence can twist even that positive effect into something ugly.