In the story “First Confession” Jackie is a likeable character. Jackie is a young boy that hates his sister and his grandmother. Even with his mother siding with him, the other members of his family sides with the grandmother. Jackie is a likeable character because he is a gullible character. Jackie falls for the story that the old woman, Ryan, tells him. Ryan told Jackie that she once knew a priest that woke up one night to find a person there wanting to have a confession. When the priest got dressed the man disappeared. Ryan said that the man disappeared because he had made a bad confession. Jackie believes in Ryan’s story as it left “a shocking impression” on him. Because of Ryan’s stories about hell and confessions, it made Jackie “scared to death” of doing a confession. This makes Jackie a likeable character because he gets tricked easily by other people’s story. Jackie believes what Ryan is saying and it makes him scared of going to a confession which portrays him as a vulnerable child. …show more content…
When Jackie goes to the confession he tells the priest everything. Jackie tells the priest that he has sinned. Not leaving out one detail he tells the priest that he tried to kill his grandmother, saying that he hated her so much that “I’d have to kill her.”. He also confesses that he tried to kill his sister Nora too. Seeing the honesty in Jackie and being a child, the priest tells Jackie a story about people killing their grandmothers and how they all said “ ‘Twas never worth it.” In the end, Jackie got away with only 3 Hail Marys. This makes Jackie a likeable character because he is honest. People like the honesty of a child making Jackie a likeable character. Throughout the story Jackie is depicted as a likeable character. His vulnerability to other people 's words and his honesty shows characteristics of a likeable