First Confession Seamus Heaney Persecution: hostility and ill-treatment, esp. because of race or political or religious beliefs. In First Confession by Frank OConnor we have the theme of persecution and the freeing of self. Jackie lives
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Presentation Transcript
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First Confession Seamus Heaney<br>
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Persecution: hostility and ill-treatment, esp. because of race or political or religious beliefs.<br>
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In First Confession by Frank O’Connor we have the theme of persecution and the freeing of self.
Jackie lives with his parents, his sister Nora and his grandmother.
The grandmother is a pivotal character in the story for she will become a large part of Jackie’s first confession.
First Confession begins with a story from Jackie. We are told about his life with his grandmother.
She walks around the house barefoot, and eats her potatoes using her fingers as forks.
Jackie is embarrassed by her and doesn’t like bringing any of his friends into the house when she is there because she is drinking porter.
She also gives Nora a penny every Friday while Jackie gets nothing. Some critics suggest that Jackie’s grandmother is symbolism for an older Ireland.<br>
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The story moves on and we are told that it’s time for Jackie to make his first holy communion. An old woman called Mrs Ryan is teaching Jackie and his class mates about the Ten Commandments and hell.<br>
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She tells the class the story of a man who made a bad confession (not telling the priest the truth) and whose hands burnt the bed of a priest.
Really Mrs Ryan is trying to frighten the children into being good and trying to make sure that they don’t tell the priest a bad confession.
To tell a bad confession in Jackie’s eyes means dying and burning in hell. Also the story of the man’s hands burning the bed of a priest is an example in the story of someone being persecuted.<br>
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This story is one that many people can relate to. It is about confessing your sins to the priest before having your first communion. In this story Jackie (protagonist) is a seven year old boy that is going to be having his first communion.<br>
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Frank uses irony when Nora becomes very jealous of Jackie at the end of the story. One theme of this story could be that everybody has sins and that it is better to recognize our sins and at the end you will feel better with your consciousness.<br>
