First+Confession


 * Names: Samantha Adams, Dan McPherson, and Brittney Ray

Synopsis: Jackie's Grandmother moves into the house hold after his Grandfather dies. The grandmother lives on edge. Woman around Gran's age prepare for first confession. She threatens bad confession, where as if you do not perform confession properally you will burn in hell. Gran "ruins" his confession. The sister plays off his guilt. Then the sister goes through confession, and is hipocritical. The boy gets up on ledge for hand-resting and folls out of confessional. The sister then begins to scold him, but the preist defends him and Scolds Nora (the sister). The boys tells the preist that he wants to kill his grandmother. The boy goes into detail of why he doesn't like his grandmother to the preist. He says the same about his sister. Presist guides him toward tolerance and forgiveness. The sister resents the boy because of the Preists favor for him.**

O'Connor, also, pokes fun at the Cathloic religion throughout the story. When Jackie is learning about why he should present his first confession, an older woman tells a story about a man who burns marks in the priest's bed because he gave a bad confession.**
 * Analysis: Its a charming story about a young boy and his family as they prepare for his first confession. The story demonstrates the roles of various family members as well as the reversal of these roles by the end of the story. This switch of roles is illistrated by the way that Nora, the narrator's sister, is jealous of the fact that the preist favors Jackie after Jackie was jealous of the favoritism that his grandmother showed Nora. Throughout the story is evidence of the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland at the time. Despite its sometimes overbearing presence, Jackie describes the time as well as the priest in a very positive light. The end of the story, Nora acts with jealousy after seeing her brother leave the church talking to the priest-an honer she had never experienced. This clearly exemplefies how ingrained respect for religious elders and figures in their lives.