In the next section of Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s family hits rock bottom in the United States after Frank’s younger sister, Margaret, dies as an infant. This tragedy nearly drives Frank’s mother insane with grief and causes his father to rely on alcohol more than ever. It is very painful to watch Mr. McCourt revert to his old drinking habits after breaking them while his daughter was alive; his daughter’s life was like a window into the kind of man and father Mr. McCourt could be if he was motivated to stay away from alcohol and work for his family. When Margaret dies, this window is closed. I think that Mrs. McCourt mourns not only for the death of her daughter, but also for the end of the possibility of a good life for her family that disappeared with her daughter’s life.
The family then becomes dysfunctional and lives at the mercy of neighbors, who make meals and take care of the four McCourt children. The McCourt family loses a lot of pride in this period, because of the fact that they are so dependent on the goodwill of others for their survival. Mrs. Leibowitz is one neighbor who helps the McCourt family after Margaret dies. Frankie says that Mrs. Leibowitz “holds my mother in her arms. Shush, now, shush. Babies go like that. It happens, missus” (38). Although Mrs. Leibowitz is very kind to help Mrs. McCourt, having another woman in her house, cooking food for her family and changing her children’s diapers must make Mrs. McCourt feel ashamed and inept.
The McCourts’ loss of pride is only increased by Mrs. McCourt’s cousins, who send the family to Ireland to be taken care of by Mrs. McCourt’s mother. The cousins don’t even bother asking the family if they want to move to Ireland, and pack them onto the ship to Ireland like animals who have become a nuisance. With this action, the cousins made an ethical decision about the McCourt family’s fate. They know that the family is barely surviving on their own, and the cousins decide that the best solution is to send them to Ireland, instead of helping them in New York. While there is nothing wrong with this choice, I think that the way they made decision—without consulting the McCourts at all—was unethical and degrading.
Life in Ireland also treats the family harshly. Mr. McCourt still can’t find a job and the family faces prejudice. The McCourts don’t seem to belong anywhere: in the United States, they were looked down upon for being Irish, and in Ireland, they are discriminated against because they are American. Mr. McCourt in particular is unwelcome almost everywhere he goes, because he is from the infamous north of Ireland. This hinders him in finding a much needed job, because “There is no hope of a laboring man with a North of Ireland accent getting a job in Limerick” (63). This lack of belonging that the McCourts face everywhere they go dampens their morale and takes away their confidence, only exacerbating the shame that they already feel.
In addition to injecting humor into the serious topic of his childhood, Frank McCourt does a fabulous job of telling the story with the innocence that he felt as a six year old. He does not always know what is going on and he is at the mercy of his parents and their economic problems, because he can’t control their decisions or their incomes. Reading about his innocence and helplessness makes me afraid for Frankie and his future.
Work Cited:
McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
*I wanted to underline all the "Angela's Ashes" titles in this post, but blogspot wouldn't let me.
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4 comments:
This is very interesting. It shows that one tragic event can alter a person's life dramatically. The neighbors helping them also show that while bad things happen there are also good people out there that will help you in you time of need. The loss of pride is also a good point because they are forced to depend on other people to live and that can definetly hurt a man's pride.
It's amazing how much the death of this infant completely altered this family's life. The point in your paragraph about the move to Ireland that talks about how they don't fit in in America or in Ireland because they're seen as being "different" and how that keeps them from really functioning in society.
It was funny to read this whole tragic paragraph and then at the very end hear that Frank still writes about it with some humor, it makes you think there's still some hope. I agree with Vivian and abc about how amazing it is that one event such as the death of a child can completely alter the course of ones life. It's also sad to hear that the father has gone back to drinking even though he still has a family and other children.
The comment you made about the young perspective of Frankie through all this turmoil really makes me sad for the boy. It is hard enough to deal with these struggles as a mature adult who is able to comprehend the situation, but when a child is placed in the middle of it all and can barely comprehend the goings on around him, it must leave some emotional scars. The atmosphere at their home is probably stressful and unhappy, making a not-so-perfect place for a child to develop their beliefs and opinions. I think that these hard circumstances will harden the child and make it harder for him to be easy going as an adult.
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