First Confession

by

Frank O’Connor

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Gran is Jackie’s father’s mother. She is “a real old-country woman” with manners that disgust Jackie and displease Jackie’s mother: she eats potatoes with her hands, drinks beer at dinner, and walks around the house with bare feet. Jackie is mortified by her lapses of etiquette, but she seems to have done nothing to deserve Jackie’s violent wrath towards her. In fact, she seems potentially generous: she cooks dinner when the children’s mother isn’t home and shares part of her pension with Nora, who is kind to her.

Gran Quotes in First Confession

The First Confession quotes below are all either spoken by Gran or refer to Gran. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Catholicism, Judgment and Hypocrisy Theme Icon
).
First Confession Quotes

…to make matters worse, my grandmother was a real old country woman and quite unsuited to life in town. She had a fat, wrinkled old face, and to Mother’s great indignation, went round the house in bare feet—the boots had her crippled, she said.

Related Characters: Jackie (speaker), Gran, Mother
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:

Nora, my sister, just sucked up to the old woman for the penny she got every Friday out of the old-age pension, a thing I could not do. I was too honest, that was my trouble; and when I was playing with Bill Connell…I made excuses not to let him come into the house…

Related Characters: Jackie (speaker), Nora, Gran
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:

“Oh a horrible death!” he said with great satisfaction. “Lots of the fellows I saw killed their grandmothers too, but they all said ‘twas never worth it.”

Related Characters: The Priest (speaker), Jackie, Gran
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
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Gran Quotes in First Confession

The First Confession quotes below are all either spoken by Gran or refer to Gran. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Catholicism, Judgment and Hypocrisy Theme Icon
).
First Confession Quotes

…to make matters worse, my grandmother was a real old country woman and quite unsuited to life in town. She had a fat, wrinkled old face, and to Mother’s great indignation, went round the house in bare feet—the boots had her crippled, she said.

Related Characters: Jackie (speaker), Gran, Mother
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:

Nora, my sister, just sucked up to the old woman for the penny she got every Friday out of the old-age pension, a thing I could not do. I was too honest, that was my trouble; and when I was playing with Bill Connell…I made excuses not to let him come into the house…

Related Characters: Jackie (speaker), Nora, Gran
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:

“Oh a horrible death!” he said with great satisfaction. “Lots of the fellows I saw killed their grandmothers too, but they all said ‘twas never worth it.”

Related Characters: The Priest (speaker), Jackie, Gran
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis: