Angelas Ashes Summary Essay Research Paper SUMMARY

Angelas Ashes Summary Essay, Research Paper

SUMMARY

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive 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.”

So begins the luminous memoir Angela s Ashes of author Frank

McCourt. Born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and

raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no

money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and

when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy– exasperating, irresponsible

and pleasant– does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can

provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved

Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for

diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the

roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual

cruelty of relatives and neighbors–yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence,

exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

Angela’s Ashes is colored on every page with Frank McCourt’s

astounding humor and compassion. It is a glorious book that bears all the

marks of a classic.

ORAL BOOK REVIEW

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to

survive 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.”

So begins the luminous memoir Angela s Ashes of author Frank

McCourt. Born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and

raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. This novel was the number one New

York Times Bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Also, this book is

now a major motion picture. The sequel to Mr. McCourt s memoir has also

been released and is entitled Tis. My father suggested that I read this

book and this is mainly the reason I chose to read it.

This novel was a memoir about Frank McCourt and all the hardships

that he endured. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children,

since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his

wages. Yet Malachy, exasperating, irresponsible, however somewhat

pleasant, nurtures in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide, a

story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, a great hero who saved

Ireland, and also for the tales of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings

his mother babies. Throughout this novel there are many things which bring

the feeling of sadness to the reader s mind. First of all, there are many deaths

in this novel. In the beginning there are six family members. Suddenly, a

new girl is born Margaret. Margaret excites the entire family because she is

the only girl with brothers Francis, Malachy, Oliver, and Eugene. Soon

Margaret is not well and dies unexpectedly. This tears at Frank s father,

Malachy, who loved the little girl. Next one of the twins is sick, Oliver.

Soon he is also buried and gone. Oliver was the twin of Eugene and soon the

twins are together again in heaven. This three deaths all occur in the first

chapter of the novel, so you can see how death plays a major role in this

story.

Throughout the book you will hear of how Frank s family is very poor

and poverty-stricken. Frank s father Malachy does not work but when he

does get work he drinks all his money in the pubs. The family remains poor

throughout the novel. They wear patched shoes, rags for diapers, and drink

sugar and water when they are hungry. On some nights they are lucky

enough to get a piece of bread. If the day comes when the children receive

meals like meat and potatoes, it is given to them from someone else out of

pity. This novel is set in Brooklyn in the beginning, prior to the first World

War. In the next part of the novel, the family gets up and moves back to

Ireland where they are originally from. Soon they are back in Limerick and

the river Shannon where Frank s mother is originally from. Here, Frank and

his brother Malachy Jr. are enrolled in catholic school. They both learn the

ways of the Catholics and Franky is soon making his first Holy Communion.

The day comes later in the story, when Frank is in the sixth grade, and he

makes his Confirmation. These two things are done in the church and are

acts of catechism and show faith in God. The only good things to Frank

about the Communion and Confirmation are the collections done afterward.

However, Frank never gets to do his collection after his Confirmation because

he feels very sick. He is bed-ridden at his house for over a week until his

doctor can come to see him. Finally, he is diagnosed with Typhoid Fever and

is rushed to the hospital. He spends twelve weeks here, but makes a full

recovery. In the hospital he meets a lovely girl who reads poetry to him

which he thoroughly enjoys. Her name is Patricia Madigan, and Franky

becomes quite fond of her and her poetry. Unfortunately, like so many times

in this novel, Patricia dies. This shows once again how the novel is filled

with death.

Finally, Frank gets out of the hospital and back home. When he

attends school in the fall, he finds that he has been put back to the fifth grade

because he did not complete the sixth. Now, he is eleven and not happy to be

in the same grade as his younger brother Malachy. By the time Franky is

eleven, he has two new siblings. One is named Michael, and the other