In the last section of Angela’s Ashes, Frankie is now a teenager, and spends most of his time holding down jobs and saving for his fare to go to America. His extreme determination, discipline, and ethics became more apparent than they were when Frankie was younger.
Frankie’s family continues to be very poor, and Frankie is left to fend for himself as he has had to do his entire life. As he grows older, however, Frankie becomes more assertive in standing up for himself. He gets a job first at the post office delivering telegrams and then as a magazine delivery boy, and he saves up money from these jobs for his trip to America. He also has a job writing letters for an old lady named Mrs. Finucane, and takes the liberty of stealing some of her money for himself. He knows that Mrs. Finucane doesn’t need the money herself, and that she is only going to donate it to the church anyhow, so he justifies his actions to himself with these thoughts. Frankie also reminds himself of the ways that others have kept him from succeeding and getting ahead in life as he takes money from the Mrs. Finucane. He explains, “There will be less money for the priests and their Masses but how many Masses does a soul need and surely I’m entitled to a few pounds after the way the Church slammed doors in my face?” (332). Although by common standards, Frankie’s action would be classified as unethical stealing, I don’t think that it can be dismissed as this quite so easily. Frankie knows that what he is doing is wrong, and he regrets having to do it. However, he has also learned over the years that he will not be able to pay for food or save money for his future if he doesn’t steal. In a way, Frankie is forced to fight fire with fire.
Frankie’s ethics are also demonstrated when he works as a telegram delivery boy. He has been strictly instructed by his bosses not to stop delivering telegrams for any reason, and not to do favors for the people that he delivers telegrams to. However, his conscience forces him to help some of the people he encounters. Frankie tells of coming upon people who receive money orders, but are too sick to get out of bed and cash them, or buy themselves food. In these circumstances, Frankie breaks the rules of the post office and helps out the needy people. Frankie describes his situation by saying, “…and there’s a pile of rags on a bed in a corner the pile saying who is it and you say telegram and the pile of rags tells you would you ever go to the shop for me I’m starving with the hunger…”(316). I think that Frankie’s reaction to people in need demonstrates his strong ethics and his compassion for helping others.
By the end of the book, Frankie has accumulated enough money to take a ship to America. He chooses to do this because he believes that he will find a future in America and will be able to move beyond the way of life in Limerick, Ireland. However, he has mixed feelings about his decision. As much as he hated things about Limerick, he knows that he will miss it, simply for its familiarity. Additionally, he sometimes feels like he should have helped out his mother and brothers more, instead of saving his money only for his future. Frankie perseveres with his plan to go to America because he possesses a very determined will to succeed in his life. He has never let anyone, from the discouraging priests at church to his cruel bosses, convince him that he can’t achieve what he wants to in life. The book ends as his boat is arriving in America, and readers feel assured that he will not let any challenge in America get the better of him.
Works Cited:
McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
In the latest section of Angela’s Ashes, many important events happen in the lives of the McCourt family. Frank spends two extended stays at the hospital, first for typhoid fever and then for an infection in his eyes. Mr. McCourt makes a difficult decision to relocate to England, away from his family, and find work in a factory. The plan is that he will send money back to his wife and children in Ireland, but he brings his drinking habits to England with him, and doesn’t send any money to his family. Mrs. McCourt also spends some time in the hospital with pneumonia, and Frank and his three brothers are taken care of by their unpleasant Aunt Aggie. Finally, Frank gets a job helping his neighbor, Mr. Hannon, deliver coal.
Poverty continues to plague the McCourt family. When Mr. McCourt goes to work in England, though, it seems as though this problem might come to an end. The McCourts dare to believe that “surely our troubles will be over” (221). This is because the other poor families in the McCourts’ neighborhood equate a father working in England with boundless happiness. The reader can’t know whether Mrs. McCourt truly believes that Mr. McCourt will be able to hold a steady job in England and earn wages that keep the family satisfied, but perhaps it doesn’t matter if she believes this or not. The mere idea of having enough money raises the McCourts’ spirits and makes them happy for a few days. Mrs. McCourt talks about having “new boots and coats…” (221) and “eggs and rashers on Sunday for breakfast and ham and cabbage and potatoes for dinner” (221) and “electric light” (221). When no money arrives from England, though, the McCourts’ dreams are crushed. Mrs. McCourt is ashamed of her family’s poverty and often laments the fact that other families on their street have more than the McCourts.
However, Frank and his brothers learn that having enough money doesn’t always bring happiness when they stay with Aunt Aggie. Aunt Aggie isn’t rich, but she has a nice house and enough food. When the McCourt boys stay with her, though, she is stingy in sharing with them, and she bullies them constantly. Frank is puzzled over how someone so fortunate could be anything but happy. He says, “I don’t know why she’s always angry. Her flat is warm and dry. She has electric light in the house and her own lavatory in the backyard” (246). The McCourts take actions opposite from Aunt Aggie: though they have less than she, they are generous even to strangers. Mrs. McCourt feeds dinner to women and children who come off the street occasionally, and Frank’s brother Michael brings homeless men to their house to spend the night. On this topic, Frank says that “The bread she gives them always means less for us and if we complain she says there are always people worse off and we can surely spare a little from what we have” (273). The McCourts’ selfless attitude shows that they are compassionate and good-hearted people. They must make an ethical decision between saving their food for themselves and letting others go hungry, or feeding people with greater needs than their own by sacrificing some of their food. Their choice shows their generosity and desire to help others.
Mr. McCourt, however, doesn’t display this generosity with his own family. His failure to send wages to the rest of his family in Ireland causes him to be rejected by his family. Mrs. McCourt learns to cope financially by getting public aid and even by begging. Frankie finds a new father-figure in Mr. Hannon, the man he delivers coal with. In fact, Mr. Hannon is subject to much adoration by Frankie, who is “dying to go around with Mr. Hannon on the great float like a real workingman” (258). When a train conductor gives the McCourts a bit of food as they wait for Mr. McCourt at the train station, Frankie breaks even more ties to his father. He writes, “I wish I had a father like the man in the signal tower who gives you sandwiches and cocoa” (269). When Mr. McCourt visits his family in Ireland, his family is unforgiving about his failure to send them money. Mrs. McCourt and three of the McCourt boys accuse him, saying, “You drank the money, Dad” (270). The tension and anger in the McCourt family creates unhappiness and divides the family.
Frank continues to mature, and is now almost thirteen. He doesn’t have a very positive image of himself for a variety of reasons. First of all, he is made fun of at school by other boys. They tease him by calling at him, “Blinky McCourt beggar woman’s son scabby eyed blubber gob dancing Jap” (262). Frank doesn’t let it bother him too much, though. He does have friends, and he feels good about himself when he works for Mr. Hannon. He is more deeply humiliated when he sees his mother begging at a priest’s home for their dinner. Frankie says that seeing his mother beg is “the worst kind of shame” (250). Something positive in Frankie’s childhood is his love of reading. He enjoys Shakespeare and other books, and teachers at his school have previously noticed his good writing. It is fun to read about him discovering his passion when, in the back of your mind, you know that he grew up to write a book that won the Pulitzer Prize.
Work Cited:
McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
As I continue reading Angela’s Ashes, I enjoy watching Frank McCourt grow up. His life in Ireland is still rough and his family remains poor, so it’s comforting to remind myself that he survived his childhood and became a successful writer.
One important event in Frankie’s life that I read about was his First Communion. Frankie comes from an Irish Catholic family, and religion was highly valued in Ireland at the time of his childhood, so adults in his life are constantly reminding him how significant his First Communion is. However, I was struck by the lack of sincerity and genuineness in Frankie’s First Communion. The mechanical attitude toward religion was set by the teachers at Frankie’s Catholic school, who are in charge of teaching the boys how to receive their First Communion. The teachers force the boys to memorize the Ten Commandments and other facts about Catholicism, and threaten to beat them if they don’t remember these facts. The school acts as a factory of sorts for creating Catholics. Frankie describes this phenomenon by saying that the teacher “tells us we’re hopeless, the worst class he ever had for First Communion but as sure as God made little apples he’ll make Catholics of us, he’ll beat the idler out of us and the Sanctifying Grace into us” (118). Faith, God or what it means to be Catholic are never discussed in the preparation for Communion. Students at Frankie’s school respond by mirroring their teachers’ indifference to these aspects of religion. Frankie is mainly excited for First Communion because of a tradition in which kids walk through the streets of their town and collect money from other Catholics as a reward for taking their First Communion. Then, this money is spent on candy and films at the cinema, specifically those with James Cagney in them. Frankie is no exception to this custom. He has been told that First Communion is the “happiest day of his life” (127), and he echoes this sentiment by telling the reader, “First Communion is the happiest day of your life because of The Collection and James Cagney at the Lyric Cinema” (127). Of course, he gets the reason for his supposed happiness wrong, but no one really seems to care.
A recurring concept in this section of Angela’s Ashes is Frankie’s parents’ desire for Frankie to accomplish something. It seems that they want to make something out of him, perhaps to prove that their poverty will not get in the way of Frankie’s achievements in life. In order to do this, Frankie holds a few odd jobs, which include helping his uncle distribute newspapers, delivering a lunch to his grandmother’s tenant, and reading books to an old man. More significantly, Mr. and Mrs. McCourt first sign Frankie up for Irish dancing classes. Frankie, however, hates the dancing, and is afraid that others will think he is a sissy because of it. He describes himself leaving dance classes and “hoping my pals won’t see me with boys who wear kilts and girls with white teeth and fancy dresses from olden times” (142). Frankie is not outgoing by nature, and sometimes works a little harder than other boys to fit into the crowd at his school. Therefore, the embarrassment that dancing brings him, combined with his dislike of it, motivates him to spend the money intended for his dance lesson on candy and going to the cinema. Inevitably, he gets in trouble with his parents when they discover this, and then stops dancing for good.
Another attempt to make Frankie accomplish something comes when his father is determined that Frankie must become an altar boy at their church. Frankie memorizes the Latin that altar boys must repeat during church services, and is bathed and dressed in better-than-average clothes. There is an atmosphere of excitement as he and his father walk down to the church so Frankie can become an altar boy. However, the man at the church rejects Frankie and his father in one quick sentence, saying “We don’t have room for him” (149). This harsh refusal destroys the altar boy dream for the McCourts. Mr. and Mrs. McCourt also become convinced that Frankie couldn’t become an altar boy because of his family’s poverty. Mrs. McCourt spells out this idea quite plainly by saying, “’Tis class distinction. They don’t want boys from lanes on the altar. They don’t want the ones with scabby knees and hair sticking up. Oh, no, they want the nice boys, with hair oil and new shoes that have fathers with suits and ties and steady jobs” (149). This concept is terribly discouraging for Mr. and Mrs. McCourt, and it serves to further persuade them that Frank’s quest for success in his life will be significantly harder because of his social status.
Mr. and Mrs. McCourt themselves continue to struggle because of their poverty. Putting food on the table and buying coal to boil water are hard to do because they have so little money, and the McCourt parents seem to be losing their motivation to do these things. Mr. McCourt has made no progress on fixing his drinking problem. He can’t hold a job for long, because he drinks his way through his salary when he is paid, and misses work the next morning. Additionally, both parents have become somewhat addicted to cigarettes, and spend valuable money on them. However, Frankie discovers that there are people living in poverty that is even worse than his own when he spends a night with a friend from school named Paddy Clohessy.Paddy lives in a part of town called Arthur’s Quay, which is dangerous and has houses that “are old and might fall down at any minute” (163). Paddy’s house is in ruins, his father is very ill, and his siblings don’t get enough to eat for breakfast. In a previous chapter, Frankie had given Paddy a part of his lunch because Paddy looked hungrier than all the other schoolboys, and now Frankie says that he’s “very sorry for the Clohessys and all their troubles…” (169). These situations show that Frankie is a very compassionate person who can be friendly and helpful to those in need. Other boys from school would be more likely to make fun of Paddy, but Frankie makes friends with him instead.
Work Cited:
McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
