Angela’s Ashes Critique Frank McCourt’s memoir is documentation from his birth to how return to America in 1949. McCourt, Frank. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print, 363. McCourt’s childhood life was not to be envied, nor when he was a young adult. From being born into the great depression, to being raised on the Streets of Ireland, Frank’s life was surrounded by poverty and despair. One such occurring event is the impediment for which his class holds upon him. Frank builds
Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes sheds light on Limerick during the 1930’s and 1940’s in all its filthiness and destitution. McCourt shows not just the predicament of Limerick during this time, but also his own predicament of an alcoholic father who spends as the family’s money on pints at pubs. McCourt displays his young life in Limerick with various forms of descriptive writing that is not seen in other memoirs as it shows ever-changing kinds of tone throughout the memoir. McCourt changed his writing
Throughout the novel Angela’s Ashes, the McCourt family suffers from extreme poverty and horrid living conditions as the result of several factors outside of their control. Such factors include prejudice, circumstance, a flawed relief system, and social stigma. One example of how prejudice worked against the McCourts is when Malachy Sr. cannot get any work, and that “bosses and foremen always show him respect and say they’re ready to hire him, but when he opens his mouth and they hear the North of
Furthermore, in Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt continues to persevere despite the hardships he and his family had to face. The frustration of having the door slam in his face again and again, the pain of seeing his siblings die one after another, and the shame of seeing his mother begging for food fuels McCourt’s will to succeed. In the memoir, McCourt mentioned a time when he was so desperate for food that he had to “take the greasy newspaper from the floor. [He licks] the front page….[He licks]