Bill O'Connell
Ms. Weaver
World literature
March 30, 2015
Life in the 1930's anywhere was not as glorious as life today, but one country to focus on is Ireland. Not having good transportation, housing, and resources was a good source of death in a lot of places in that time period, but Ireland was especially important. Ireland was and is still considered a very poor country but today isn't as bad as then. Disease was a very big cause of death with the lack of medical supplies and affected young children the most. A story that would show Ireland's poverty would be Angela's ashes, the book I chose for this research project. It shows what life was really like in Ireland in the 1930's and how poverty impacted people's life.
Small children in Ireland had it the worst because they were most susceptible to diseases as there immune system was not fully developed yet to fight them off. Adults had a hard time finding jobs and some had to take unsafe trains to work far from home to work in poor conditions. The parents had the most pressure on them as they had to provide for the children and keep them healthy. Frank McCourt the books author, narrator and main character watched 3 of his siblings die of diseases. Many reasons for diseases was the country's climate which is usually always damp and
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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
Frank was in the war and got shot in his leg which makes him incapable to walk. The Georgia Flu, caused all the power to be out in the world, making life for Frank a struggle. Frank and his brother Jeevan have stayed in his apartment the whole time and never left because it will be very hard for Frank to live out in the new world and incapable to get him out of the apartment with no electricity. This is when Frank made a moral decision about committing suicide to give Jeevan a better life. “I think there’s just survival out there, Jeevan. I think you should go out there and try to
The book, “The Irish Way” by James R. Barrett is a masterpiece written to describe the life of Irish immigrants who went to start new lives in America after conditions at home became un-accommodative. Widespread insecurity, callous English colonizers and the ghost of great famine still lingering on and on in their lives, made this ethnic group be convinced that home was longer a home anymore. They descended in United States of America in large numbers. James R. Barrett in his book notes that these people were the first group of immigrants to settle in America. According to him, there were a number of several ethnic groups that have arrived in America. It was, however, the mass exodus of Irish people during and after the great
The purpose of my paper is to show how the Scotch-Irish culture came to be in the United States. There were several things that led the Scotch-Irish to make the perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to America including famine and high rents. It is estimated that 40-55,000 Scotch Irish arrived in America from 1763 to 1775. (Everyculture) The Scotch-Irish is one of the strongest cultures in the United States and their influence has been generous.
The Irish people would have freight, terror, death and eventually peace with these changes. The potato famine started with blight being discovered by European farmers. The Irish government started to export potatoes and grains to continental Europe to help the Europeans avoid a famine (Smith, 2011). By the end of August of 1845, Ireland was freighted to find out that blight had found its way to their produce (Smith, 2011). The blight in Ireland set off a chain of events that led to the Irish people dying in more ways to get out of Ireland. The government started trying to feed their people by importing corn and grains for food (Smith, 2011). This was not enough to help the young, old and sick. Many of theIrish people were led to complete financial ruin. By the end of 1851 more than a million Irish had died due to hunger and disease exacerbated by malnutrition(Smith, 2011).The only answer for many Irish families was to take a risk and get on a coffin boat and flee to another country. North America was a safe haven for many Irish people. They dreamed of the life they would live in the U.S.A. Nearly 1 million people arrived in many cities which include New York, and Boston (Smith, 2011). When the Irish people arrived, it was a sad reality they did not think they would face. The conditions were despicable. Many families were moved into small rooms with no sanitation, ventilation, day light or electricity (Smith, 2011). The families were charged about $1.50 per week to live in extreme poverty (Smith, 2011). This led to unsanitary conditions for the communities. Diseases were able to thrive in those conditions and one of the more common disease was cholera . The Irish people usually stayed in close proximity to each other and would make a small Irish community. The Irish community strived to make money. They were only hired for unskilled jobs
Unlike presidents, state governors tend to fade in the memories of citizens. Overtime, despite many accomplishments and two terms, John Ireland has joined the long-lost list of forgotten governors. The mention of his name fails to incite anything but blank expressions from Texas citizens. In light of his influence on one of Texas ' most famed buildings, it might seem as though his name might ring a couple of bells, but no such luck. Clearly, John Ireland has been forgotten for too long. What did this man do for Texas and why should he be remembered? Time to find out.
Ireland poverty was a very common situation and there are two perspectives in the way people saw or lived the poor life, in the “Modest Proposal” by “Jonathan Swift”, Swift tried to help those who were living the life of being poor and trying to figure out ways to decrease the percentage of those who are poor. In another perspective like Frank McCourt in “Angela's Ashes” by “Frank McCourt”, he lived in the ireland poverty and talked about how he struggled to survive.
As one could tell from Michael’s inability to pay for secondary education, and the fact that he had to work on his farm to help feed his family from the age of nine, it is clear that Ireland was a poor country. Michael grew up in the time of America’s Great Depression, although he did not live in America at the time. Nonetheless, America’s depression had an international effect, affecting almost every country in the world, and Ireland was no exception. At the beginning of the Great Depression, the United States began to cut down on the number of immigrants they were letting into the country, because of their high unemployment rate. Once Ireland had less emigration, its unemployment rates began to rise as well, and therefore had a negative effect
The Nazis were very cruel to the Jews, and sadly the Frank family experienced torture,starvation,and working too hard.the concentration camps were disgusting, they had disease,lice,and many other effects.
Nineteenth-century Ireland was the most densely populated country in Europe: in 1800, its population was 4.5 million, and by 1841, it had risen to eight million (Kinealy 15). Yet much of this population existed in condition of sorrow and misery lay in the dependence of the peasantry on just one staple crop, the potato; in western countries like Mayo and Galway, nine-tenths of the people ate nothing else (MacManus 602). Here was a disaster waiting to happen, made worst by the rapid rise in population in the first half of the century which forced the peasants to subsist on smaller plots of land (O Grada, The Great Irish Famine 63).
The turmoil of the second decade of the twentieth century gave way to a greater sense of peace and stability in the third, with a peace treaty signed between Ireland and Britain in December of 1921 and Home Rule finally established for most of the Irish isle (Ferriter, n.d.). At the same time, this new society did not lead to instant prosperity, and indeed poverty remained a major and growing problem in Ireland during this decade (Ferriter, n.d.). Economic and social problems that persisted during this decade certainly could have been pushes to increased immigration.
The Irish Potato Famine was a period of starvation, disease and emigration, and was known as one of the biggest tragedies from 1845 to 1847. Many people depended on potato crops to survive; however [comma] the potato crops acquired blight, a disease that caused the potatoes to rot while still in the ground. No good crops could be grown for two years [comma] causing Irish tenant farmers unable to pay rent and was forced off their land causing over 21,000 people to die of starvation. The Irish Potato Famine caused many people to leave Ireland to seek work overseas in areas such as England and America. The Irish Potato Famine had a big impact on the history and the economy of Ireland.
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.
In 1845 a crop disease known as ‘blight’ would be introduced to Ireland. It was a disease that would cause potatoes to rot while they grew. It was from guano, which was part of a fertilizer that was imported from South America. The contaminated fertilizer was also distributed to other countries in Europe such as France, Germany, The Netherlands, and England. It was responsible for thousands of deaths in these countries but was soon eliminated, as these countries were not as dependent on the potato as the Irish were.
Answer: According Frank’s experience he felt uneasiness in the family. He worked as a handyman.
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