Matthew Bridge, Limerick ANGELA

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Matthew Bridge, LimerickANGELAS ASHES

• BY FRANK McCOURT

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Frank McCourt

• Born in NYC in 1930
• NYC to Ireland, back to NYC _at_ 19
• H.S. English teacher
• Pulitzer Prize 1997 for Angelas Ashes

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Frank McCourts books

• Angelas Ashes -1996
• Tis - 1999
• Teacher Man - 2005

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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.homest
  ead.com/memoir.html

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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

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Excerpts from Angelas 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)

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IRELAND
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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

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Setting

• Limerick
• Strong Catholic history
• 1934 - depths of The Great Depression

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McCourt Family

• Angela, Malachy
• Frank, Malachy Jr., Eugene, Oliver, Margaret,
  Michael, Alphie

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More Family

• Toome in County Antrim Malachy McCourts Family
• Limerick Angelas Family

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Themes in Angelas Ashes

• Angelas 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

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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.

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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. Franks father often drinks away the
  money the family needs for food, and comes home
  wailing about the plight of Ireland and the
  Irish.
• Franks hunger is more than practical it becomes
  a metaphor for his desire to leave Ireland and
  seek new opportunity.

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Fatherly Irresponsibility

• Malachy is a study in alcoholism, laziness, and
  false pride.
• His habit of spending the familys tiny income on
  beer, leads to disaster and ultimately breaks up
  the family.
• Though the book is named after Franks mother,
  much of the book deals with the fatherhood of
  Malachy.

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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.

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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.

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Questions for Discussion

• What is so unusual about the trip that the
  McCourts take to leave America and return to
  Ireland?
• How does the childrens 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 Angelas
  Ashes?