How important is the first paragraph?

The first paragraph establishes clarity about the
narrator’s sense of guilt, but it shows him to be unsure about his own motivations for
the narrative to follow. He is therefore ambiguous because he assumes that “some
intellect” in the future may be able to interpret the causes of his actions, and
therefore could show that they stemmed form “nothing more than an ordinary succession of
very natural causes and effects.” It is a model for writers to follow in which it
contains almost the entire exposition but leaves out enough information for readers to
want to know more. This could be something that students could follow in
developing their own essays.