Angelas Ashes Essay 5

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

In this both heart wrenching and slightly humorous memoir, journalist Jeannette Walls tells the bittersweet story of her rather dysfunctional and poverty stricken upbringing. Walls grows up in a family trailed by the ubiquitous presence of hunger and broken homes. Throughout the memoir she recounts memories of moving from one dilapidated neighborhood to another with her three other siblings, insanely "free sprinted" mother, and incredibly intelligent yet alcoholic father. The author focuses on her unconventional childhood with parents who were too lazy and self-absorbed to obtain decent jobs. Although Walls's childhood gushes with heartbreaking tales of searching through dumpsters for food, she remains as unbitter as possible and

     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.

Though the family did not turn to violence like the Misfit, they still had their own set of issues. The other members of the family seem to be embodiments of society’s most self-interested and materialistic. O’Connor illustrates that with each generation of this family, there were no positive role models. Each generation had no effective parent to exhibit the correct way to function in society. Each generation then was stuck in

He knows his mother is having a hard time and tries his best to do all

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

In Angela's Ashes, the theme of struggling to get through life's obstacles is shown using character. In paragraph 4, McCourt writes, "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 table with plates of sliced bread pounds of butter jars of jam smells of fried eggs... the mother crisp and clean in her apron everyone washed and the Sacred Heart of Jesus looking down on them from the wall suffering and sad but still happy with all that food and light and good Catholics at their breakfast." This quote shows, that the protagonist has been peering into the houses of the rich and realizes that the rich has everything they want and more. This theme shows that the main character is jealous of the rich lifestyle because they have more struggles than the rich do. In addition, this theme is also presented using events. In paragraph 5, "In a second I have

| This is how he starts out the book and it is in a way introducing you to one of the worst childhoods that you can have. It also shows you that you can go beyond your childhood and become something or do something with your life. I think it is kind of weird that one of the worst childhood to have is Irish because that would not have been the first one on my list.

According to Elizabeth Lowell, “Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.” Sometimes what every situation needs is an outsider to flip the script and create a new outlook on everything. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” the speaker, Merricat, is an outsider of society on many levels, such as mental health, gender, and that she is an upper class citizen in a poor area. Although Merricat is mentally unstable, her outsider’s perspective criticizes the social standard for women in the 1960s, indicating that social roles, marriage, and the patriarchy are not necessary aspects in life such as it is not necessary to have the same outlook on life as others.

The improving times were not just a change for American, but also for the Irish. The improvement of the economic status of the Irish Americans helped boost family lift and esprit. Most Irish American families when first arriving in America had little or no money, thus forcing them to settle in the urban centers of the Northeast. Within the cities, families were close and revolved around the church, where they practiced catholic views and preaching against contraception; therefore, many Irish Catholics had very large families. Consequently, the economic rise of the Irish immigrants provided families with the money to feed and clothe their large families. In addition, many Irish Americans could now afford to send their children to parish schools, something many could not do while oppressed in

Writer, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle, provides an insight into the fanciful and shocking life of growing up poor and nomadic with faux-grandiose parents in America. With her memoir, Wall's purpose was to acknowledge and overcome the difficulties that came with her unusual upbringing. Her nostalgic but bitter tone leaves the reader with an odd taste in their mouth. In some memories, the author invites her audience to look back on with fondness; others are viewed through bulletproof glass and outrage.

Although Frankie indirectly suffers due to his father’s actions, the two can enjoy their time together. This relationship implores the reader to frame the world as Frankie does because doing so allows one to improve his/her life. The fact that the overarching theme of the passage is love allows one to conclude that the author has achieved the goals of Faulkner’s mission because the reader can endure and prevail by following McCourt’s message.

A man and a child, father and son, are alone against an inclement nature while pushing a cart filled with tools, blankets, and things that they have found along the way to the south. About ten years before the world had been reduced to ashes by an apocalyptic disaster, which it is not known whether it was caused by a natural event or the foolishness of human beings. The world is reduced to a single color, gray, that of the ashes covering all that is left, that of hearts and minds, clouded by the pain of the loss and the terror of solitude. All that is left of the humankind is a few tenacious survivors struggling unceasingly against hunger and cold, and those who have lost any trace of humanity giving free vent to the lowest instincts of oppression and violence. But in the novel “The Road,” Cormac McCarthy paints a vivid and dramatic picture of the catastrophic consequences of a cataclysm that are nothing more than an excuse to minimize the outer contingencies with the sole purpose to bring up what is really dear to his heart, the relationship between a father and a son. They have been deliberately left unnamed for the whole story to epitomize the archetypes of the man and the child, a hymn to paternity, and to unconditional love. In a world reduced to the essentials, McCarthy aims not merely to explore the complexities of the relationship between the two, which in fact remains

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.

The Theme of Religion in Angela’s Ashes Throughout the novel, religion is presented as being of extreme importance in Irish society, influencing the beliefs and actions of the characters. I will attempt to highlight the several factors which I believe make up the presentation of religion in “Angela’s Ashes”. From the beginning of the book, religion is said to make up a large part of the unhappy childhood Frank suffered. The following quote shows the extent of Frank’s sentiments: “Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood, is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood”