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Angela's Ashes Analysis

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In an excerpt from his award-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt uses defiant details and stern dialogue in order to establish a contemptuous tone toward Irish society. While recovering from a bout of typhoid at an Irish hospital, ten-year old Frank befriends fellow patient Patricia Madigan. Although their caretakers discourage talking and laughter among patients, fearing it could cause “serious damage to … [one’s] internal apparatus,” and place a high emphasis on prayer and giving thanks to God, Patricia and Frank prefer to share jokes and poetry behind the nurse’s back (McCourt qtd. in Studysync 456). Frank reveals that “[e]very day … [he] can’t wait for the doctors and nurses to leave … [him] alone so … [he] can learn a new verse”

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