First Confession Essay

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Analysis of “First Confession” By Frank O’Connor In the story of “First Confession” Frank O’Connor uses his home land of Ireland as the setting for this story. O’Connor has us look at the story from the boy, Jackie’s, point of view. Jackie is a seven year-old boy who must go to make his first confession before he can take his first communion. He is terrified because Mrs. Ryan, who has taught the school kids about confession, has made Jackie believe he has broken all of the Ten Commandments. Worst of all, he must confess to the priest that he has made plans to kill his paternal grandmother because she favors his sister, Nora, and her lack of city manors is driving him nuts. O’Connor’s success of “First Confession” relies on his characterization, the point if view, and how the story relates to us today. The character of Jackie helps the reader be reminded of himself or herself, and the realization that the world changes. O’Connor uses the character of Gran to show this to us and Jackie. Jackie is the protagonist of the story. He is a dramatic character because he learns in the end that even though he has had morbid thoughts of killing his grandmother and sister, it is not necessary to dwell on those Learning plays an essential role in life. We learn something new everyday. In Frank O'Connor's short story "The First Confession", Jackie, the main character, learns a lesson he'll always remember. After Jackie's first confession, he could now be confident that he was not such a sinner, and that Nora, his sister, was wrong. While people focused on Jackie's own wrong doings, they weren't focusing on their own wrong actions. Sometimes people's ignorance can bring them into a whole different reality. Through certain characters and different incidents, O'Connor stresses his theme that people's ignorance can blind them from their own sins. The main character's sister in

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