First Confession

In the two minor characters of Mrs. Ryan, the catechism teacher, and the young priest who hears Jackie’s confession the story introduces two opposing representations of Catholicism. Compare and contrast the two to test the following assertion: What makes a person a bad Catholic makes them a good person; what makes a person a good Catholic makes them a bad person.

Why is Jackie so ashamed of his grandmother? Consider how we often make judgments about people based on where they are from.

Using the dramatic showdown over the dinner when Jackie threatens his sister with a bread knife, consider the question: Does the story create any sympathy for the grandmother as a widow without a home, displaced and without any future? Does the fact that we see her through the eyes of a seven-year-old first-person narrator influence our perception of the grandmother?

Examine what is gained—or lost—because of the first-person narration. Are there points in the narration where the reader comes to see the limits of Jackie’s perspective? How would the story be different from, say, the priest’s point of view or perhaps Nora’s or even Gran’s?

What is the definition of sin implied in the story? What does the Catholic Church define as sin? Use Gran, Jackie, Nora, and Mrs. Ryan. Who is the greatest sinner?

Research the history of the sacrament of confession in the Catholic Church. Examine how Jackie comes out of his confession, his ecstasy and his sense of the world being illuminated, and argue that he has (or has not) made a good confession.

Is Jackie as honest as he believes himself to be? Is his honestly more a virtue or a vice?

Nora is perhaps the most intriguing secondary character. We see her entirely from her brother’s perspective, and she is revealed to us through a series of confrontations with Jackie. Does Jackie’s depiction of Nora seem fair? How do you read the closing line?