Essay on Analysis of Angela's Ashes Narrated by Frank McCourt

It was very sad to read about his experiences at this school because he had a love for reading. Although he was encouraged by a few teachers (Mr. and Mrs. Hannon and Mr. Timoney), after his time at this school in Limerick, he was deeply discouraged from receiving any further education. The headmasters of Leamy’s National School believed in using physical discipline to encourage their desired behaviors. “They hit you with the sticks on the shoulders, the back, the legs, and, especially, the hands” (80). It seemed as if there was nothing Frank could do to avoid being hit. Everything a student did required discipline. “They hit you if you’re late, if you have a leaky nib on your pen, if you laugh, if you talk, and if you don’t know things” (80). Leamy’s aimed to build strong and tough men and women. They would beat you and expect no excuses or tears. “You deserve it. Don’t be a baby.” (81). This school serves as an influential antagonist in Angela’s Ashes because the amount of discouragement he obtained from staff members at this school was an overwhelming and immense obstacle Frank had to overcome. He didn’t let this atrocious school experience stop him from accomplishing his goal of coming to

Frank needs something to protect. Cee, his dearly loved sister, take up this role for most of the novel. Concurrently, Frank satisfies his troubled need to care for someone and loves his sister. Willingly, Frank admits, “I’ve had only two regular women. I liked the small breakable thing inside each one. Wherever their personality, smarts, or looks, something soft lay in each…A little V…that I could break with a forefinger if I wanted to. But never did” (67-68), Frank expresses his obsession with weakness. Frank denotes this weakness as a small child to whom he is the parent. He handles it cautiously, cares for it, and provides a home for it. He needs it to feel needed, which happens to be a reoccurring theme throughout the novel. “When…I caught my reflection in a store window, I thought it was somebody else. Some dirty pitiful-looking guy…Right then, I decided to clean up” (69). In this moment, Frank’s search of his relationship with Lily begins from a forceful self-hatred that has presented itself since his deployment to Korea. After his relationship with Lily fades and

Angela was forced to marry Bayardo San Roman ever since he asked her to marry her. It never gave Angela the chance to know Bayardo San Roman. On page 20 it states, “It was Angela Vicario who didn't want to marry him.” She clearly did not love Bayardo, and did not want to marry him. Angela’s mother, Pura Vicario said, "Love can be learned too." Pura wants her daughter to marry Bayardo, and learn to love him.

     Throughout Frank’s childhood, there were very few times when feeding the family was not a challenge. Even when Frank’s father was working, he would very often drink his paycheck instead of bringing it home to his family. Frank remembers a time when his father did bring home his paycheck, and took notice at how proud his mother was when she was finally able to pay the man for her groceries. She was able to “hold her head up again because there’s nothing worse in the world than to owe and be beholden to anyone”(23). This is where Frank learns that the ability to pay brings dignity and self-respect. He draws a connection, that when he has food, his family is prospering. Later on in life, when Frank begins to earn his own wages, he loves the feeling of independence, and dreams of providing for a family of his own. He works for Mr. Hannon, delivering coal, and makes many of the other boys jealous of him. He doesn’t mind when the boys harass him though, because he “has the job” and Mr. Hannon tells him he’s “powerful”(264). Frank connects having a job with being powerful. This shows how Frank was able to overcome the struggles of hunger and actually taught him the value of hard work.

Angela takes “only the time necessary to say the name” (47) and arguably Santiago has been chosen simply by random fate; any male’s name would suffice, suggesting in a patriarchal society valuing a women strictly for virginity, all males share the blame. Angela’s appearance versus her reality is complex because while she has undeniably corrupt qualities, an admirable goodness shines through; the narrator acknowledges

In McCourt's memoir, "Angela's Ashes", he uses the characters, settings, and events to develop the theme. In the quote, "We don't laugh long, there is no more bread and we're hungry, the four of us" (McCourt 1). In this quote, it is explaining how McCourt and his siblings constantly struggle with hunger due to poverty. This quote assists in developing the theme by adding in the starvation of the McCourt family which intensifies the theme of perseverance through hardhips. An example of events developing the theme is exemplified through the quote, " I can't shove all that under my jersey. Oh, God. Should I take the whole box? The people passing by pay me no attention. I might as well take the whole box. My mother would say 'you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.' I life the box and try to look like a messenger boy making a delivery and no one says a word" (McCourt 2). This quote tells the reader the lengths McCourt was willing to go to in order to provide for his family. This develops the theme by showing how McCourt perservered through difficult times in his childhood. " You can look in people's windows and see how cozy it is in their kitchens with fires glowing or ranges black and hot everything bright in the electric light cups and saucers on the tables with plates of sliced bread pounds of butter jars of jam smells of fried eggs and rashers

Imagine a memoir with skillfully alternating chapters between two characters that have distinct differences. It 's what sets James McBride 's chronicle from your average, everyday book as this story as he packs a healthy amount of content such as issues of race, religion, and identity into one paperback. Published in February 1998, it maintained the New York Times bestseller list for over 2 Years, won the 1997 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Literary Excellence, was an ALA Notable Book of the Year, and has sold more than 1.5 million copies. It has been published in 16 languages and in more than 20 countries. It is an autobiography that sort of strays away from the common formula, however it still retains the core welcoming feeling you get when you can relate to the characters. McBride recognizes what a wonder his mother is when she raised 12 kids and gets her to open her secretive past.

1. How does Frank provide for his family while Angela is sick in bed? Are his actions justified?

Memoirs, and writing in general, reveal a truth about the author. Oftentimes, said truth is revealed intentionally. Universal truths such as struggle, endurance, and agony help authors influence their audiences. These truths cause the readers to become cognizant of and appreciate the authors. It is a writer’s duty to write from the heart—to write about the good and bad sides of a story. Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood fails to use universal truths and instead presents a very superficial presentation of its author’s life. J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis display the unconventional upbringing of Vance in order to give the audience a better understanding of the writer. Pure honesty

Maybe that’s what I was born to put on the page, he thought.” This proves the importance of relaying the thoughts and experiences of their lines. Secondly, another main point of the article is that Frank was embarrassed about his poverty stricken, abandon filled life. McCourt said, “’When you have nothing—no TV, no radio, no music—you have only the language. So you use it. We were street kids—we saw the absurdity and laughed at it. And we were fools; we were always dreaming. Bacon and eggs—we dreamed of that’” (Kornbluth, 200). He doesn’t want to have to discuss his past life events, because he thought that it may cause his students to lose respect for him. But, as it turns out, this didn’t happen. The students had come from quite similar situations in their lives and could relate to McCourt’s experiences.

When his father takes him to be an altar boy, he is turned away due to the poverty of his family. This is disturbing to young Frank, and begins thoughts of discontent in his mind. Also, when he goes to look into enrolling in secondary school with his mother at his side, the Christian Brother there slams the door in his face due to his street appearance. Regardless of his high intelligence, he is denied a higher education by the Church based on his economic status. The night before his 16th birthday Frank drinks his first pint and strikes his mother; on attempting to confess to a Jesuit priest, the door is again closed to him: “He says, Go away. You’re drunk. Child like you drunk as a lord ringing for a priest at this hour. Go away or I’ll call the guards…. You’re drunk and you’re not in a proper spirit of repentance (340).” Frank is panicked about the condition of his eternal soul but is forced to remain in a state of sin because of the lack of compassion by this priest. The transformation is complete: Frank is no longer the innocent little child who runs to the Church to unburden his soul, but instead he is a cynical adolescent who has lost his faith in God.

In the novel Angela's Ashes, (1996) by Frank McCourt, a life of poverty is the only life this family knows. It is a memoir about a young boy born in New York City. Frank, born ten months prior to his brother Malachy, was raised in a small apartment with his parents, Angela and Malachy McCourt.

Angela’s Ashes is an autobiographical memoir written by Irish-American author Frank McCourt. McCourt is the oldest of five brothers and one sister. He along with four of his sibling were born in America in Brooklyn, New York and lived there until he was four and then moved back to Ireland because they had a hard time surviving in America. His family and moved back to Ireland in the midst of the Great Depression finding it hard for his father to get a job because of his alcoholism and his Northern manner. Throughout McCourt’s childhood he was caught in the middle of all the hardships his parents endured. Although, his family endured much struggle, that did not stop them from fulfilling his religious duties, such as First Communion. It also did not stop him and his brother, Malachy from going to school to learn more about their religion. In his early teens, he realized that his father had abandoned his mother and his siblings when he said he would go look for a job. At the age of 14, Frank stopped going to school and got odd jobs to help support his mother and siblings. He remembers his childhood as the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. He himself decided to move back to America when he was 18 to get away from the poverty in Ireland.

Márquez uses the character of Angela Vicario to show the power women can possess over the men in their lives. Angela Vicario is arguably the most powerful character in the novel, as she is the one who tells her brothers that it was Santiago who took her virginity, which consequently sets the entire plot of the story in motion. After Angela is returned by Bayardo San Román to her family due to the fact that she is not a virgin, when her brothers ask who it was who took her virginity, Angela “nailed [Santiago’s name] to the wall with her well-aimed dart, like a butterfly with no will whose sentence has always been written” (Márquez 47). The way in which Angela searches for Santiago’s name shows that it may not have been Santiago who had taken

She looks forward to moving away like others in her town. She admits she will not be missed at her job and at nineteen, without the former protection of her older brothers, she is beginning to feel "herself in danger of her father's violence.” This danger she sees is taken away when she meets her suitor, the sailor, Frank who promises her a better life away from these hardships she has faced.