Marwa Morsi

First Confession: Questions

1. The story, a recollection of a childhood experience, is told in the past tense from a firstperson point of view. What are the advantages of this narrative technique? How would the story differ if Nora were to tell it?

Having a story set in the form of first person point of view is very important. The first person point of view allows the author express their beliefs more freely. Also the first person perspective gives the author a connection with a reader; which helps the reader understand the author/character and the reader is able to relate to the author or the character in the story. Since this perspective give so much attention to the main character it gives room for bias comments and views; for example if Nora were to narrate the story, she would say the opposite of what Jackie says. Nora finds her grandma being more kind to her than Jackie; so she would go on about how nice her grandma is. Furthermore, instead of Jackie bad-mouthing his sister, Nora be the one talking poorly about her brother. 2. Focus on OConnors use of humor. How does it affect the stories meaning? Cite two passages, and explain how the humor is achieved. OConnors sense of humor has greatly affect the meaning of the story because when Jackie said he wanted to kill his grandmother and the priest replied, Between ourselves, theres a lot of people Id like to do the same to but Id never have the nerve. If OConnor didnt have a dark sense of humor then that line would easily made the Jackie look like a murder or a crazy little boy. The humor doesnt fade away in the story, it continue throughout the passage until the end

of the confession which allows the reader know that there a young innocent boy, who knows nothing about life and who is about to make his first confession; which starts out bad but gets better as the confession progresses due to the understanding of the priest.

3. Characterize Jackie and speculate as to why he is obsessed with making a bad confession. How does this first experience affect his attitude towards the church?

When Jackie faces his first confession; he wants to tell the truth because he knows god is watching him. Jackie troubles himself over making a bad confession because he wants to know the outcome of it after hearing Ryans story. During his first confession, he expresses his distasteful desires to the priest; the priest awards Jackie by giving him candy. This alters Jackies attitude towards the church because he realize the church isnt as bad as he thought it was.

4. Draw a character sketch of the priest. How old is he? Describe his personality traits. How does he react toward Nora and Jackie, the protagonist? Why does he give Jackie such a light penance? The priest was looked up to by Jackie because the priest was lenient towards Jackies mishaps during the confession. However Nora on the other hand was scared of him. He treated Nora unkindly in a way because when Nora hit Jackie, the priest yelled at Nora. The priest humored Jackie when Jackie told him about his sins. Furthermore, the priest tried lessen and relate to Jackies his sins and his life (such as killing his grandmother). He gave Jackie a fluffy penance because he knew that Jackie was still a child who knew to the world and that Jackie didnt shy away from his sins or how bad Jackies confession was ( since it was his first.)

5. Describe the confessional box. What atmosphere does it create? Why does it frighten Jackie but does not seem to frighten Nora? Explain.

For most people, he confession box creates a small and scary place; one of them who feel this way is Jackie. Jackie feared making a confession at the church because it was his first confession and he did not know how to react inside the box. Nora was not frightened because she had done this before, she knew what to expect when she was she walked in the confession box.