Frank O Conner
Frank O Conner“I decided that, between one thing and another, I must have broken the whole ten commandments, all on account of that old woman, and so far as I could see, so long as she remained in the house I had no hope of ever doing anything else,” (page 189). This quote from the text of “First Confession” by Frank O’Connor exquisitely shows which point of view O’Connor selected for his story. Frank O’Connor chose the first-person point of view to tell his tale. One can determine this by three factors: the use of the word “I”, the use of grammatical voice and the use of conveying the story through the characters. These three techniques are shown vividly throughout O’Connor’s novella.
The use of the word “I” in O’Connor’s short story is in the text continuously with an unquestionable presence. A prime example of the usage of “I” in O’Connor’s tale is first seen in the second paragraph as Jackie talks about his grandmother favoring Nora, his older sister, over him: “Nora, my sister, just sucked up to the old womanÖI was too honest, that was my trouble; and when I was playing around with Bill ConnellÖand saw my grandmother steering up the path with the jug of porter I was mortified. I made excuses not to let him into the house, because I could never be sure what she would be up to when we went in,” (page 188). The application of the word “I” is an obvious and well-known method of the first-person point of view, as well as using another compatible method such as grammatical voice.
Grammatical voice is a conventional technique of guiding the reader through the story using a first-person point of view. This is a type of writing that gives the reader a strong impression of the character’s background. In other words, the author uses specific vocabulary as the character speaks to improve the reader’s understanding of the individual (including his/her feelings, thoughts, attitude and prejudices) without actually stating each characteristic in the text. An excellent example of this is found in O’Connor’s story when Jackie walks through the confessional door: “It was pitch dark and I couldn’t see the priest or anything else. Then I really began to get frightened. In the darkness it was a matter between God and me, and He had all the oddsÖAll I had ever been told about confession got mixed up in my mind, and I knelt to one wallÖI waited a few minutes, but nothing happened, so I tried it on the other wall. Nothing happened there either. He had me spotted all right,” (page 190). This quote shows many characteristics of Jackie without the author writing them down. The first being that he is young in mind because he is sure that God was going to damn him to...
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