The First Confession Rhetorical Analysis

In Frank O’Conner’s, the “First Confession”, the author leads the reader down a comical path of childhood mischief, and innocence. The author’s tone and style is depicted in the story of children, Jackie and Nora, through sibling rivalry, comical views of childhood “sins” and actions, and resolution by confession and conversations with the priest. O’Conner uses lighthearted tone and humorous style within the passage and uses contrast of honesty and hypocrisy as basis of the story. The lighthearted tone is exemplified by the experiences of the children, especially the main character or protagonist, Jackie. O’Conner shows childhood conflicts within the family that on a child’s scale seem large, when in fact they are minor in the scope of things. Jackie was not fond of the fact that his grandmother had to move in to the house with his family and stated “Relations in the one house are a strain at the best of times, but, to make matters worse, my grandmother was a real old countrywoman and quite unsuited to the life in town.” He …show more content…
Childhood honesty and innocence can be seen through the eyes of Jackie. Jackie believes every word that people tell him and ends up telling all of his sins to the priest thinking that honesty would keep him from eternal damnation. Examples of hypocrisy would be his sister Nora. Due to his sister’s actions and attitude, he begins to ponder that people act differently outside of the church rather than in church. Jackie even begins to wonder if everyone in the church puts on a “face” while there but acts terrible outside of the doors as his sister does. The comical part is that Nora finds out he only got “Three Hail Mary’s” for all the sins he had committed and stated “some people have all the luck! ‘Tis no advantage to anybody trying to be good. I might as just as well be a sinner like you.” Nora in truth acted worse than he did, yet ironically did not view her actions as