Poverty In Angela's Ashes

5. How is life for the McCourts when Malachy brings home his wages? How do things change when he doesn’t?

“In awhile there are voices downstairs and there is talk of tea, sherry, lemonade, buns, and isn’t that child the loveliest little fella in the world, little Alphie, foreign name but still an’ all still an’ all not a sound outta him the whole time he’s that good-natured God bless him sure he’ll live forever with the sweetness that’s in him the little dope spittin’ image of his mother his father his grandma his little brothers dead an’ gone”(182).

There are many books, written by numerous authors, containing similar themes and elements. Two such stories fitting that description are Angela’s Ashes and The Street. The former takes place in Ireland and is written by Frank McCourt; the latter is set in New York and is written by Ann Petry. The characters seem like they would not have much, if anything, in common. Frank McCourt’s main character is a child, born into a large, impoverished family; Petry’s is a single mother trying to get by. Additionally, their geographical locations and the cultures in each place vary greatly. However, their stories are similar in the fact that both characters have relating struggles. The primary theme of each of their stories is close to identical. Both

"If you're going through hell keep going."-Winston Churchill. Perseverance is key to achieving your goals, if you want to achieve something you can't just give up, you have to persevere and work to achieve it. Whether a person's goals be deemed morally right by society, such as overcoming oppression like Lutie Johnson, or morally wrong by society, such as stealing like the narrator of Angela's Ashes, perseverance is needed to reach them. After reading a section from Angela's Ashes and The Street I have come to the conclusion that they both have a strong theme that perseverance is the key to reaching your goals. They both achieve this theme through their use of characters, settings, and events.

In this paper, I will analyze the Marxist connections between Angela’s Ashes and a quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The memoir written by Frank McCourt, focuses on social class and economic issues endured by his family in America and Ireland. While analyzing McCourt’s memoir, I will pay attention to Marxist concepts including: alienation, religion, and revolution.

“It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.”

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Thus begins the highly celebrated memoir by the name of Angela's Ashes, written by Frank McCourt. In this book Frank McCourt writes about his childhood, how his parents meet in New York and then decide to return to Ireland. He describes what it is like to be at the bottom of that city's tough social hierarchy, giving vivid descriptions of how class imposes severe limitations and restrictions. It is this topic, this theme, to which I will

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.

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”

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

Although life presents you with many obstacles, if you continue to persevere, eventually you will achieve success. Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt, is a good example of this. Frank is constantly limited by his poverty. We watch him stick with his goals and eventually accomplish them in the end. He also watches his mother continually try to stretch the family budget in order to get meager amounts of food. Death is also very prevalent in this book as Frank and his family have to adjust to the death of loved ones.

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.

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 the to provide for themselves. Often times Malachy would spend the majority of his paychecks on feeding his addiction, rather than feeding his children. Due to his father’s constant absence, Frank had to step up and take on more responsibilities in his 1household. Frank was working a full-time job to provide for his family by the time he was fourteen. Malachy was a very proud man and a very loving father, when he wasn’t drinking. He was generous and would eat just a small amount so that his family would have more to eat when food was scarce. “Food is a shock to the system”, (24)

The story aids in convincing society of the negatives of the Bourgeoisie, as they are portrayed this way in the piece of literature through the sisters’ self-importance and sense of entitlement. Moreover, the hard working and virtuous Beauty embodies the positive aspects of the Proletariat in the text. Furthermore, the merchant’s wealth directly affects his importance in the story. This story is one of the many examples of an allegory used to promote an author's viewpoint as it is seen as a romantic story on the surface, but underneath, shows the importance of wealth and presence of class within society. This story can prove that readers must broaden their scope in order to examine all aspects of a text and analyze them in a way to draw true

She wants wealth and good social status that she does not and can not have. She feels depressed every time she thinks about wealth or visits her "rich friend [Mrs. Forrestier], a comrade from convent days, whom she did not want to see anymore because she suffered so much