Wednesday, April 6, 2011

First Confession


 
    First Confession is a short story written by author Frank O’Connor.  This story describes the internal struggles of a seven year old boy, Jackie the protagonist, who has to do his first communion and his first confession. The young boy narrates the story with an innocent eye perspective and a stream of consciousness perception.  He explains how miserable his life has been ever since his grandmother (antagonist) came to live with his family.  The protagonist, Jackie, is presented with a conflict when he is told that all those persons that do a bad confession end up in hell or continually come back from the afterlife and burn other person’s furniture.

    The mood is humorous and playful. The setting seems to be in a small religiously devoted town, maybe a rural place. The theme seems to be something like the truth will set us free. Jackie is convinced he will go to hell if he does a bad confession but at the same time he fears of having to tell his “sins” to a priest.  The protagonist struggles with his own ideas, what he believes is wrong or right, and what seems to be acceptable by society. The author uses irony and hyperboles in a humorous way to make us relate to this young boy. Jackie has to choose between being a hypocrite or lying in his first confession and therefore condemning his soul for eternity.

    This story is witty and comical. The author uses a lighter and subtle approach as he focuses on intense topics. O’Connor talks about the hypocrisy of women, eternal justice, death and religion with a trivial and lighthearted attitude. I believed this story was entertaining and at the same time cynical. The young boy reminds me of Tom Sawyer, always getting in trouble and believing that everything that happens to him is the worst thing on earth.

1 comment:

  1. I like the Tom Sawyer analogy. Thank you for being so detailed.
    10/10

    ReplyDelete