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 Ireland accent, they take a Limerickman instead.” (p. 94) This scene shows that even when Malachy is not drunk and attempts to support his family, he gets rejected based on qualities that he was born with. Circumstance is another big factor in the McCourts’ hardships. For…show more content… Kane insinuating that her husband left her to run around with a prostitute in England, his remarks that she is “selfish” for taking food out of the mouths of the “true needy”, and the twisted call-and-response game of Mr. Kane forcing the others to repeat his words after him. It is an abuse of power and a dehumanizing technique on Mr. Kane’s part, one that has not died out today. These factors of poverty are not exclusive to the McCourt family. As a matter of fact, they have been around as long as society has been around (excluding communism) and they are still very much alive today, as is the subconscious practice of victim-blaming the poor for their poverty. When hearing about poor people, a knee-jerk reaction people have (particularly privileged people) is to assume that this must be the victim’s fault. Why don’t they just get a job? Why are they so worse off if they’re already ‘mooching’ off of public resources (and of course, tax dollars, which is the silent addition in everyone’s