First Communion (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Tomás Rivera
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The 1940's and 1950's
- Setting: Southwestern United States
- Principal Characters: The narrator, His parents, His godfather, A priest, A nun, A couple
- Genres: Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, Memory, Sex or sexuality, Sin or Original sin, 1940’s, Religion, Southwest, Catholics or Catholic Church, Rites or ceremonies, Voyeurism
- Locales: Southwest (U.S.)
The Story
The narrator recalls the time when, as a young boy, he was excited the night before his first Holy Communion. This was to be a memorable day in his life, not because he would get a godfather and would be able to have all the sweet treats that he could eat after the ceremony but because of what he was to see in the window of the tailor shop next to the church.
He recalls how he could not sleep the night before his first Communion because he was trying to remember all of his sins. He had been taught that it was blasphemous to go to Communion without confessing...
[The entire page is 1433 words long]
