Angela's Ashes: Post 3

Young Frank McCourt’s life has taken more turns for the worse in the most recent section of Angela’s Ashes. His younger twin brothers, Eugene and Oliver, die one after the other, which causes his parents a lot of grief. Frankie and his younger brother Malachy begin to attend Leamy’s National School, and his family moves twice to try to escape the memories of Eugene and Oliver that plague them. Also, Frankie’s mother gives birth to a new brother for Frankie, named Michael.

The McCourts continue to face prejudice in Ireland. Frankie is made fun of at school for being from the United States. Upon discovering that Frankie and his brother Malachy are from America, one boy asks them whether they are cowboys or gangsters. When Frankie gets in a fight with the boy, the headmaster of the school says, “You little hooligan…Is that the kind of behavior you brought from America?” (79). Then he punishes him by forcing him to say, “I’m a bad Yank” (79). Frankie is already a quiet and reserved boy who is often overshadowed by his brother, so this makes him feel even worse and decreases his confidence in school. Mr. McCourt also continues to face prejudice for being from the North of Ireland, and is turned down from job opportunities when employers hear his Northern accent. Mr. McCourt copes with this discrimination much differently from Frankie, though: instead of submitting to others’ opinions and letting others get the better of him, Mr. McCourt maintains his pride in his Northern roots. Mrs. McCourt even suggests that he disguise his accent to get a job, but Mr. McCourt refuses and “says he’ll never sink that low” (94).

Although some degree of pride can help people in the McCourts’ situation maintain their dignity, it seems that Mr. McCourt is taking his pride too far. He is so intent on not disgracing himself that he becomes unreasonable and stubborn. For example, Frankie tells the reader, “Even if Dad came he wouldn’t be much use because he never carries anything, parcels, bags, packages. If you carry such things you lose your dignity. That’s what he says” (98). His pride also hurts his family and their efforts to escape from their poverty, because he believes that the family disgraces themselves when they ask for help from charity or pick coal up from the streets. If Mr. McCourt wasn’t as opposed to getting help, their family might have a better chance of improving their very poor living situation.

Because Frankie is still a young boy, he doesn’t have that many major ethical choices to make in his life. However, one decision that Frankie had to make recently in the book came when his father was out drinking in pubs again. Mrs. McCourt had sent Frankie along with his father in an effort to prevent Mr. McCourt from spending all night drinking at the pub. Once at the pub, Mr. McCourt tells Frankie to go home, but Frankie knows that if he does as his father says, it is very likely that his father will be drinking all night long—just the situation Mrs. McCourt wanted to prevent. Frankie says that his father said, “Don’t be disobedient. Go home to your poor mother. I said, No, and he said I was a bad boy and God would be displeased” (83). Despite opposition from his father, Frankie quietly insists on doing the right thing, and finally succeeds in getting his father home early in the evening. This example shows that Frankie had a very clear sense of right and wrong and wasn’t easily influenced by others’ opinions. Even his father, who he admired a lot, couldn’t get Frankie to do what Frankie believed was the wrong thing. Also, Frankie risks making his father mad by staying in the pub, but he stays anyhow, because he knows that motivating his father to come home early from the pub will benefit the entire family. Letting Mr. McCourt stay in the pub would only benefit Mr. McCourt. Clearly, Frankie is concerned with what he can do to help his entire family, rather than just one person. This idea is also supported with countless examples of Frankie making sacrifices to help his family—he frequently runs errands for his mother, collects coal on the street so they can cook dinner, and takes care of his brothers.

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.