Angela?s Ashes: The Setting Effects The Actions Of The Characters

The first and most important antagonist in Angela’s Ashes is Malachy McCourt. Frank McCourt described his father, Malachy, as “the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and the prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey” (210). While Malachy was an important and influential antagonist in the story, he was not always the best role model for his children. Mr. McCourt was said to be known for abandoning his family for multiple days at a time without warning or any way for them to provide for themselves. Often times Malachy would spend the majority of his paychecks on feeding his addiction, rather than feeding his children.

Since the story uses a certain object, the Jacket, as the meaning of several issues, it primarily focuses on the narrator's poverty-stricken family. First of all, an example of the poverty is demonstrated when the narrator complains that the jacket "was so ugly and big that I knew I'd have to wear it a long time"(paragraph 3). It is clear that his lack of money was a problem in which he

     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.

Malachy’s alcoholism resulted in his inability to take care of his family. When Angela was sick, she was unable to pamper the house so Frank decided to take the role of his parents and take care of his family: “They scream at me and tell me I'm filthy. I try to explain that Mam has the disease and I'm worn out trying to make ends meet, keeping the home fires burning, getting lemonade for Mam and bread for my brothers” (127). This passage shows one of the many examples of Frank’s precocious ability to subsist. Despite his young age, Frank exhausted himself to help his family even if it means dragging his brothers' house to house and implore for extra coal. This event highlights Frank’s substantial willpower to help his family survive in poor conditions. Furthermore, because of Malachy’s lack of adequate income, Frank took it upon himself to obtain a job when he becomes older. When Frank was living with Pa Keating, he was getting ready for his job as a telegram boy. While waiting for his newly washed clothes to dry, he was caught wearing his deceased grandmother’s dress by Aunt Aggie. After hearing of Frank’s preparation for a job, Aunt Aggie replied, “That’s more than your father would do”(McCourt page 308). This passage shows that Frank is more assiduous then his father as shown when he obtains a job. Frank getting a job

In, The Glass Castle, when The Walls family moves to Welch and gets one if not the cheapest house that they could buy, the house was filled with problems and was even more problematic when the roof collapsed “The ceiling in the bedroom had collapsed, and Brian had moved his bed onto the porch. He made walls by nailing boards along the railings, but it leaked pretty badly out there, too, so he still slept under the inflatable raft,”(249). This shows the danger of living in poverty in a first world because Wall’s brother is faced with leaks that could endanger his safety by keeping him up at night and during the winter they could have more of a chance to get hypothermia. In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Kamkwamba’s roof collapsed in his room because of termites and storms, “ My ceiling now sagged in the middle and my floor was covered in dirt and grass. The broken beam had also dumped hundreds of squirming termites onto the floor and across my bed,” (215).This shows that the danger of poverty in third world countries, Kamkwamba, and first world, Wall’s, both have problems with safety because of their houses being dangerous and them being too poor to fix or prevent the damage. This makes the housing while living poor in third world countries similar to the housing when living poor in a first world country because they are both dangerous and easily

Theme is the subject of talk, a topic, or morals that the author is trying to get across to the readers. When reading an excerpt, the theme is not directly stated in the text, so you must dig deeper into the context to understand the morals the author is trying to portray. In both Angela's Ashes and The Street, we can detect a similar theme of struggling to get through life’s obstacles. When reading the two different stories, we can further pick out the theme by using character, events, and the setting.

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

Since Frank spent part of his childhood in America, he learned how the society and working class functioned. Frank looks at America as a classless society where his goals will be realized and his talents would be rewarded, despite his lower-class upbringing. Frank’s first experience with this is presented when Angela goes to the market with no money and the clerk states “… you always pay your bill sooner or later and you can have anything you like in the store” (McCourt 28). I believe that this instance opened Frank’s eyes to how many more opportunities he would have in America than in Ireland. Frank understands at an early age that he will never be able to return to America unless he saves money and escapes the slums because only “rich” people are able to save money. This is proven when Frank says “I'd like to be a Jesuit some day but there's no hope of that when you grow up in a lane. Jesuits are very particular. They don't like poor people. They like people with motor cars who stick out their little fingers when they pick up their teacups” (McCourt 245). Even though Frank is a strong believer that sinning sends you to Hell, he is willing to write life-threatening letters for Mrs. Finucane to her customers who owe her money. Frank is so determined to escape Ireland and to escape the bottomless pit of Ireland’s society class that he would even go against everything he believes

For example, when she mentions that her father keeps getting fired from jobs over and over again on top of page 110. Her father continually gets fired from jobs and he can’t maintain the household with food if he doesn’t receive money. This is one of the reasons why her family lives in poverty because both her parents at times don’t receive income because they don’t have jobs. The second reason her family lives in poverty is her father’s addiction with alcohol. Her dad spends the money that should be used for the household food with drinks, Brian mentions, that “’He spends more than he earns on booze’” (Walls 78). Brian even knows that their father wastes his money on his addiction instead for the family. This shows why their poverty keeps continuing because her father can’t keep a job and when he has money it’s only for his

Frank and his family had it hard, harder than other families because of the amount of children they had. Another big problem was drinking. People would get there paycheck and immediately go to the neighborhood pub and get drunk. It was usually the husband that would do this, which would leave the rest of the family wondering where there husband or father is and they'd be worried. When mom would ask where the money is they'd say the "drank away" the money leaving the family without money, food, and necessities. As many of you know we get pubs from Ireland as well as the beer

"The Causes of Poverty." Looking at History. N.p., 6 May 2008. Web. 20 Aug. 2015.). One third of the family’s income was spent on alcohol, putting more strain on household finances (John, Richard, Br. "The Causes of Poverty." Looking at History. N.p., 6 May 2008. Web. 20 Aug. 2015.). Francie’s father was a weak man who drinks away much of the money he made a waiter (Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a Novel. New York: Harper, 1947. Print.). To make up for his incompetence, Francie’s mother work as a janitor in their apartment building in exchange for rent and cleans some of their neighbors apartments for money (Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a Novel. New York: Harper, 1947. Print.). Francie and her younger brother help out by selling pieces of metal to junkies in their neighborhood (Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a Novel. New York: Harper, 1947.

In the late 1930’s to the early 1940’s, children all across Ireland lived their early years with horrific tragedies and this was no different from the childhood of the author of Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt. In the book, McCourt recalls as what he describes as his “Miserable Irish Catholic childhood” (Chapter 1, Page 1), from the point of view of himself being that Irish child again. In the Eighth chapter of the book McCourt’s memory of his experience during an illness had his childhood self say “It’s lovely to know the world can’t interfere with the inside of your head”. This quote leads to one of the main ideas of the book, the idea that even after going through a frightful childhood like that of McCourt's, he is able to keep a sane mind.

Throughout this story the reader is encouraged to pull for the underdog. Mr. Haskins and his family represent a family met with hardship, an underdog, potentially pulling themselves up from the bottom and ascending towards success. This subject matter would be unknown to a middle class, well to do family, and as Dr. doCarmo explains: “Naturalist works often deal with subjects most comfortable middle-class readers wouldn’t consider part of their ordinary lives” (doCarmo). Most middle class readers have never faced losing everything such as livelihood, money, and home. This automatically captivates them in the beginning of the story. Garland holds the attention of the middle class by reminding the reader of this unknown throughout the story: “It was the memory of this homelessness, and the fear of its coming again, that spurred Timothy Haskins and Nettie, his wife, to such ferocious labor

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.