Angela's Ashes: Post 6

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.