First Confession by Frank O' Connor

Jackie (protagonist) is a little boy who finds himself in a not so good situation where he has to go to confession for the first time and is scared. It is told from the town Montenotte which is in an area in Ireland. The antagonist is Nora (his sister) who taunts Jackie and is always telling on him. The conflict of the story revolves around the grandmother who moves in and whom Jackie dislikes a great deal. Unlike Nora, who sucks up to her grandma, Jackie makes his feelings and thoughts known that he does not like her. The climax of the story is when Jackie finally gets to confess his plot to kill his grandmother. The protagonist is soon surprised by the way the priest is so understanding. This is a sign of irony because the thing he was so scared of doing helped him in the long run and was not so scary. Another sign of irony is when Nora is jealous because she was sure Jackie was going to be sent to hell for all he does and he only has to say three Hail Mary’s. There is a lot of humor as well. The way the priest goes along with the story of how he will kill his grandma makes Jackie feel like he really understands where he is coming from. It is told in the first person innocent eye point of view. Nora is a static character in how she is really mean and even after the confession she seems to not have changed. Jackie is a developing character because he seems to have found some relief about what he has done and really feels better. What stood out is the idea that no matter how bad something may seem it is better to let it all out, it might not be as bad as you think it is.


I liked this story because I have a lot of younger cousins and it reminded me of them. It is funny to actually hear what goes on inside their heads and how they make such big deals out of little stuff. What was amusing is how he had his grandmas murder all planned out even how to get rid of the body. It gives an insight on what they think of certain things and situations without trying to sugar coat it like adults do. Nora was kind of a pest at times because she probably did not want her grandma to feel bad and she sucked up to her but the way she did it was what Jackie did not like. What did not help was also the fact that she got him in trouble all the time as well. It was also not nice of her to scare him about confession knowing that it was really not that bad. The priest was very nice. He went along with Jackie and told him of bad people who also wanted to kill their grandma. Jackie felt comfortable with him and told him of how he almost killed his sister with a butter knife and related to him. It was a really cute story and it ended on a good note.