First Confession

4 Pages 1031 Words

Eyes of A Child

Children see the world with different eyes than those of adults. In a situation where an adult might see a chance for failure, a child might sense an opportunity. Where adults see a person of a different race, culture, religion, or sexuality, a child will see a chance to make a new friend. Adults see shades of gray, while children see different colors of the rainbow. Because of their optimism and resiliency, children have a better grasp of the world than adults do.
Adults regret their past, worry about their future, and have no time to enjoy the present. In “First Confession,” by Frank O’Connor, there is a character named Ryan who speaks about God to children before they get out of school every day. Ryan is an old woman about the age of Jackie’s Grandmother according to Jackie, and she is a God-fearing woman who attempts to instill the apprehension of God into children so that they will save themselves from mortal sin. She talks about the eternal flames of hell, the consequences of performing a poor confession, and the importance of searching one’s conscious to determine whether one is living a righteous lifestyle or not. Because of her anecdotes of gloom and doom, Jackie is terrified to perform his first communion. Ryan sees God as a vengeful figure, someone who will smite evil off of the face of this Earth without mercy. Through Ryan’s descriptions, God is an inhuman, cold, and demanding master who will not have any compassion for wrongdoers, regardless of their age. “All eternity! Just think of that! A whole lifetime goes by and it’s nothing, not even a drop in the ocean of your sufferings.”(O’Connor, p.311). Through Ryan’s descriptions, God is an inhuman, cold, and demanding master who will not have any compassion for wrongdoers, regardless of their age.
Every adult has been a child before, and sometimes, a person, place or thing allows him or her to feel like one again....