Matthew Bridge, Limerick
ANGELA’S ASHES
BY FRANK McCOURT
Frank McCourt
• Born in NYC in 1930
• NYC to Ireland, back
to NYC @ 19
• H.S. English teacher
• Pulitzer Prize 1997 for
Angela’s Ashes
Frank McCourt’s books
• Angela’s Ashes -1996
• T’is - 1999
• Teacher Man - 2005
Genre: The Memoir
• What is a memoir? A memoir is a piece of
autobiographical writing, usually shorter in nature than a
comprehensive autobiography. The memoir, especially
as it is being used in publishing today, often tries to
capture certain highlights or meaningful moments in
one's past, often including a contemplation of the
meaning of that event at the time of the writing of the
memoir. The memoir may be more emotional and
concerned with capturing particular scenes, or a series
of events, rather than documenting every fact of a
person's life
http://www.inkspell.homestead.com/memoir.html
Memoir: Expectations
• The intimacy of the memoir immediately
gives the reader a sense or an expectation
of a narrative of human experience and
emotion.
• More than just facts strung together, a
reader expects a memoir to portray
emotional events and personally
significant experiences
Excerpts from Angela’s Ashes
• “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. People everywhere brag and whimper about the
woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish
version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the
pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests;
bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did
to us for eight hundred long years. Above all- we were wet."
(McCourt 11)
IRELAND
Events in Irish History
• 1916 - Easter Rising
• 1919-1921 Armed
Rebellion
• 1922 - Irish Civil War
• Civil War begun after
Michael Collins
accepts British terms
• Ireland split Northern Protestant
and Southern
Catholic
Setting
• Limerick
• Strong Catholic
history
• 1934 - depths of The
Great Depression
McCourt Family
• Angela, Malachy
• Frank, Malachy Jr.,
Eugene, Oliver,
Margaret, Michael,
Alphie
More Family
Toome in County Antrim =
Malachy McCourt’s
Family
Grandma Sheehan
Angela
Pat
(Ab Sheehan)
Aunt Aggie
Limerick = Angela’s Family
Malachy McCourt
(Angela’s husband)
Pa Keating
Aggie’s Husband
Frank
Malachy, Jr.
Oliver
Eugene
Margaret
Themes in Angela’s Ashes
Angela’s Ashes is biographical in nature.
It falls into a genre called “life writing”.
McCourt takes creative licence to highlight
key points of his life. The following themes
can be scene in the book:
Class Struggle (Poverty)
Hunger
Fatherly failure and irresponsibility
Poverty
The theme of poverty is pervasive. In Limerick,
poverty is accepted as a fact of life; although
there is a charitable society and a rudimentary
system of public assistance, neither does much
to lift the poor out of their misery. For the
McCourts, the dole money is never sufficient.
When they first settle in Limerick, Malachy
receives a mere nineteen shillings a week, for a
family of six. "Just enough for all of us to starve
on," says Angela. The family often goes hungry.
• Not only is food scarce; living conditions are
appalling. The McCourts must deal with fleas,
rats, flies, and lice. There is only one lavatory for
the whole lane of eleven families, and it is
directly outside their door. In summer the stench
is unbearable.
Hunger
• The McCourts never have enough food to eat,
and the food they do manage to procure is scant
and unsatisfying. Hunger is mentioned over and
over again until it becomes a haunting presence
in the narrative. Frank’s father often drinks away
the money the family needs for food, and comes
home wailing about the plight of Ireland and the
Irish.
• Frank’s hunger is more than practical; it
becomes a metaphor for his desire to leave
Ireland and seek new opportunity.
Fatherly Irresponsibility
• Malachy is a study in alcoholism, laziness,
and false pride.
• His habit of spending the family’s tiny
income on beer, leads to disaster and
ultimately breaks up the family.
• Though the book is named after Frank’s
mother, much of the book deals with the
fatherhood of Malachy.
Style
• Angela's Ashes is narrated in the first
person, and apart from the first part of
chapter one, it is told in the present tense.
The present tense narration serves the
author's purpose well as it conveys the
immediacy of the child's experience and
avoids giving the impression, as a past
tense might, that the story is being told by
an adult reflecting on his childhood.
Language
• The language used
throughout is colloquial
and earthy. Slang,
Irishisms, and vulgar
expressions are used
frequently, and these
convey the way people
really talked in Limerick
during the author's
childhood. Having a "fine
fist," for example, means
that a person has good
handwriting. To go
"beyond the beyonds" is
to behave in an
outrageous manner.
Questions for Discussion
• What is so unusual about the trip that the
McCourt’s take to leave America and return to
Ireland?
• How does the children’s brotherhood help to
make up for the inadequacies of the father?
• What does the author mean when he says the
only thing worse than growing up Irish is growing
up Irish Catholic? What role does religion play in
the novel?
• Why do you think the book is titled Angela’s
Ashes?