Jackie's Surprising Confession

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Walking into church you feel intimidated, especially knowing you must confess all the wrong that has been done. A tiny space, closed off, with one bench so you can sit, and in between you and the person you must tell your deep secrets to is a thin wall. Questioning whether or not everything that has happened was karma for not confessing earlier. In “First Confession,” written by Frank O’Connor, O’Connor presents us with Jackie, a young boy preparing to give his first confession. On the way to confession Jackie is terrified about what he must confess to. Jackie was afraid to confess because he might be looked at as crazy, scared he was going to confess too much, embarrassed to even talk about his sins. Jackie having to confess scared him because he felt as if he was going to look like a crazy child. All the sins Jackie has done, he didn’t want to shock the priest. Such a young boy shouldn’t be sinning as frequently and as inappropriate as Jackie. Jackie was afraid he was going to seem unstable and a safety hazard. Having thoughts about murdering someone is unpleasant and frowned upon. Jackie felt as if he was going to be criticized by the people of the church for everything he did. “Nora, my sister, just sucked up to the old woman for the penny she got every Friday out of the old-age pension,”(361) being jealous of his sister getting more attention from his grandmother really got to Jackie, but he felt by confessing that he would’ve seemed foolish. People would have criticized his jealousy as amateur and not a good reason to hold so much hate inside, at least that’s what Jackie was thinking before confessing to his wrong doings. “Father gave me a flaking; Mother interfered, and for days after that he didn’t speak to me.” (361) When his father sided with Nora that was another reason for Jackie’s anger, and jealousy towards Nora to grow. Jackie must’ve been afraid of
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