This story by Frank O'Connor focuses on a little seven year old boy that has conflicts within himself about going to his first confession. The main characters in the story are Jackie a seven-year old boy, an old woman named Ryan, and a priest. Jackie's grandmother comes to live with his family and she is quite different from any women Jackie has been around. She drinks beer, takes snuff, and walks around the house barefoot. To Jackie and his mother this is not very lady like. Jackie will not eat his grandmother's cooking and one time he had to hide under the table while his mother was gone to avoid eating it. He hid under the table with a butter knife yelling and threatening his sister Nora because she tried to get him out from under the table. At Jackie's school there is an old woman named Ryan that tries to educate the students about their first confessions. She tries to scare them into confession. She speaks of hell more often than heaven. She ends up making Jackie scared to death of confession (361). The day that Jackie and the other students are supposed to go to confession Jackie says he is sick. His sister, Nora has to take him on a Saturday and she tries to scare him the whole time they are walking to the church. When Jackie see the priest and tells him this is his first confession the priest tells him to wait until he is done with some of the elders because, the priest says, "The crimes of a lifetime, I don't know will I get rid of you at all today" (363). Jackie gets to talk to the priest one on one for quite awhile and he has a wonderful experience from that. The priest really listens to him and makes him feel much more comfortable about confessing his sins.
             I think this story really shows this little boys conflict within himself. In some way or another everyone influences him. This story shows how the actions and voices of adults can really affect childre
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