Frank O'Connor's the First Confession

652 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Do a reflection about self development

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 the story, Nora, was blinded by her own ignorance. She was very dishonest, but hid it all behind an innocent look and nice smile. Every Friday her grandmother would get pension pay. She would suck up every penny she could from the grandma. She would pick on Jackie for her own entertainment. When it was her turn for confession, she was in and out in a matter of seconds. "Her eyes were lowered, her head was bowed, and her hands were joined very low down on her stomach, and she walked up the aisle to the side altar looking like a saint." (333). All before this confession, Nora was torturing Jackie on the walk in. She was very devious. She went from one personality to another, covering up her evil doings. Her dishonesty was recognized by the priest though. He wasn't fooled by her charm or devious ways. Nora had herself fooled. She was a sinner herself, yet she considered herself a saint. She looked down upon Jackie, and saw him as the sinner. She was truly blinded by her own ignorance of what is right and wrong. According to her beliefs though, she'll be paying fo...

... middle of paper ...

.... She looks down upon other people, blinded by her own ignorance. She accuses other people of being sinners, when in fact she is the one doing all the sinning. She gets away with a lot of wrong doings and really shouldn't be. Her grandmother sides with her in every incidence. The grandmother looks down on Jackie and thinks he's a bad grandson. She would reward Jackie with a scolding and Nora with pennies. Jackie seemed to be the only character that was not blinded by his ignorance. He feared confession, but it paid off after all. His honesty and loyalty were recognized by the priest. He realized that sometimes people let their ignorance get in the way of what's right and what's wrong. If only more people in society today could be more honest and caring. We wouldn't be caught up in everything that is going on, and we could live our lives in a more peaceful manner.

Show More
Related

  • Character Analysis: Jeannette Walls

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jeannette was angry at her grandmother for not accepting her having a black friend. She wanted her parents support to justify that all people are the same however her parents really needed a place to stay and would rather not back up their daughter than challenge Erma in fear of being kicked out. Jeannette realized how people become hypocrites and having to be forced to go against their own beliefs.

    Read More

  • False Accusations in Doubt by John Patrick Shanley

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... If anyone is being accused of molesting a child, the reputation that they’ve got will be ruined forever. There’s no going back, she leaves him with nothing, other than a dirty slate, whether or not he is guilty. This nun gets her way, and her certainty drove her to believe something that was never proved to be true. Her authority and the wall she’s created between herself and everyone else makes her credible. His compassion was mistaken for something that he didn’t do. She had the upper hand, with her manipulation skills. The Sisters are her puppets as she remained in control of her parish. Father Flynn’s leave does affect Sister Aloysius, her certainty vanishes but the only thing that somewhat puts her at ease, is that she wants to believe that his leave, was his confession. Sister Aloysius has doubts that crush her in the ending scene. She caused her own demise

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Queens Girl In The World

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    The plot, Jackie navigates the life of a preteen in New York during the 1960s. This plot begins late in Jackie’s life since her story begins 12 years prior which is when she was born but begins at the most present moment in the play which is the now. Although all of the characters are being depicted through one phenomenal actress, the characters are limited to her parents, Perespone and her family, and the friends she makes along the way. As well as the scenes and locales are fairly limited all of the scenes take place on a geographic scale in New York, and on Erickson Street or Manhattan at her private school. This shown the privileges of a small set reaffirms the focus and tightness of the

    Read More

  • Born Sinner in Flight by Sherman Alexie

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Born Sinner Aren’t we all sinners? We all have committed acts of violence at some points in our lives, and our answer we are human, we are wired that way or it is our instinct. People have a habit of hurting one another and it comes naturally to them. After reading Flight by Sherman Alexie, violence is a prominent theme throughout the novel. This idea of aggression is represented in many different ways, shapes, and forms.

    Read More

  • Redemption Theme in Cathedral by Raymond Carter

    1957 Words  | 4 Pages

    Redemption can be explained as gaining possession of something in exchange for payment. In order to achieve something, one must do something in return. The end result of redemption may be unknown to the person and what their payment is may be a sacrifice. This motif is relayed in the short story, “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver, by a man who gains new vision from an unlikely source.

    Read More

  • Carnal Knowledge by Boyle

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story “Carnal Knowledge”, by T. Coraghessan Boyle, Jim is the main character who loves to eat meat. He would love nothing more than to enjoy a dinner of “Beef, mutton, pork, venison, dripping burgers, and greasy ribs”. (1107) However, Jim’s cravings for “Kentucky Fried or Chicken McNuggets” were no match for Alena Jorgensen. (1108) Alena is an obsessive animal rights activist whom Jim met while laying on the beach feeling sorry for himself. When a person has feelings of depression and loneliness it can be very easy for another person to come into their life and change their whole persona.

    Read More

  • Good Man Is Hard To Find Misfit

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    She is a manipulator when it comes to any aspect of her life. Ideally, the grandmother was selfish and care about herself. For instance, when the author has her saying “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (O’Connor). The author let it be known at that second that the grandmother was only thinking about herself. As if she was traveling with a group of strangers. Throughout the story, the grandmother shows that she can be dishonest towards her family. “She woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (O’Conner). The grandmother did this to manipulate the situation causing the ride to be delayed. Thus, she was lying to the children about the secret panel in the house. Therefore, she caused chaos in the car. The author made it seem that the grandmother was very content with that she has caused. Even when she realized that the location of the house that she was referring to was not up that road at all. But she remained quiet or did she know this along. She was quick to judge and tell someone what not to do. But she never turned her eye on herself. That she was selfish and dishonest to her

    Read More

  • Armond Boudreaux's 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find'

    425 Words  | 1 Pages

    I knew the grandmother was not a good human because she tried to save herself while her entire family was being murdered, and also she is an old southern belle. Besides, she considered herself to be a Christian, and was judging the Misfits did not help her character either. Author Flannery O’Connor does a great job of leaving the readers speechless and curious at the same time in the short article “ A Good Man is Hard to Find.”

    Read More

  • Social Realism In Maggie

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    At the beginning of the short story Maggie's family is introduced, from her scrappy little brother Jimmie, to her short lived brother Tommie, her alcoholic mentally-abusive mother Mary, and her brutish father. Jimmie's friend Pete is introduced and becomes a mirror image of Jimmie later on in the book. They both are portrayed as Don Juans, the seducers of young women who treat women as objects rather than people. Maggie's father is as short-lived as her brother Tommie. However, he becomes a negative social factor in Maggie's life. Maggie’s mother was an essential symbol of hypocrisy and pessimism throughout the book, from her drinking to her last comment in the book “I'll Forgive Her” (Crane).

    Read More

  • Without Conscience by Robert D. Hare

    1924 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.

    Read More

  • The Man I Killed, By Tim O’Brien

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    Usually when someone is murdered, people expect the murderer to feel culpable. This though, is not the case in war. When in war, a soldier is taught that the enemy deserves to die, for no other reason than that they are the nation’s enemy. When Tim O’Brien kills a man during the Vietnam War, he is shocked that the man is not the buff, wicked, and terrifying enemy he was expecting. This realization overwhelms him in guilt. O’Brien’s guilt has him so fixated on the life of his victim that his own presence in the story—as protagonist and narrator—fades to the black. Since he doesn’t use the first person to explain his guilt and confusion, he negotiates his feelings by operating in fantasy—by imagining an entire life for his victim, from his boyhood and his family to his feeling about the war and about the Americans. In The Man I Killed, Tim O’Brien explores the truth of The Vietnam War by vividly describing the dead body and the imagined life of the man he has killed to question the morality of killing in a war that seems to have no point to him.

    Read More

  • Confessions, by Saint Augustine

    5013 Words  | 11 Pages

    In the Confessions, by Saint Augustine, Augustine addressed himself articulately and passionately to the persistent questions that stirred the minds and hearts of men since time began. The Confessions tells a story in the form of a long conversion with God. Through this conversion to Catholic Christianity, Augustine encounters many aspects of love. These forms of love help guide him towards an ultimate relationship with God. His restless heart finally finds peace and rest in God at the end of The Confessions.

    Read More

  • Essay

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    The grandmother is the central character. She is round and static. She is static because her basic unchanging trait is that “the grandmother is a figure of grace and dignity.” The grandmother is polite to strangers and sympathetic to the poor” (Hendricks). An example of the grandmother's actions that show that she is trying to convince the Misfit to live a conventional life is when she says, “Think how wonderful it would be to settle down and live a comfortable life and not having to think about somebody chasing you all the time” (Hendricks).

    Read More

  • The Mysterious Misfit

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...anger that The Misfit reveals throughout the story draws sympathy from the grandmother and even from the reader. He believes that if he had actually witnessed Jesus firsthand raising the dead he would be a complete believer and a better person: “I wisht I had of been there. It ain’t right I wasn’t there because if I had of been there I would of known and I wouldn’t be like I am now” (267). The Misfit’s strong and consistent beliefs are what seem to guide his actions and when the grandmother recognizes his strength she finally recognizes her weaknesses and undergoes a sudden change of heart, reaching out to the man who killed those she loved and is about to kill her. That final act of kindness by the grandmother may have struck home with The Misfit who, after declaring that there is no pleasure but meanness, decides “It’s no real pleasure in life” (267).

    Read More

  • Analysis of Garbriel Garcia Marquez

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story “ Artificial Roses” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Marquez explores guilt, and its relationship with the church, as well as in the family structure. In the story there are two main characters. Mina, a young woman, who makes a living by creating roses, out of paper and wires, and her blind grandmother. The first thing you learn about the pair is that they share a room. There is an obvious sense from Mina that she feels her personal space is invaded by her blind grandmother. As noted in the film old women are the ones who tell the stories, and have “magical powers.” But Mina is unaware of her grandmothers power of perception, and in the story Mina learns that her grandmother is quite aware of Mina’s actions. The story is essentially a battle of wits, and undeniable guilt, between the two.

    Read More

More about Frank O'Connor's the First Confession

Open Document