Frank Mccourt Analysis

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“The Oppositions of Frank McCourt” Poverty is an antagonist for Frank McCourt. During the Depression, his family is shipped first from New York to his father’s relatives in Dublin only to once again travel to a slum in Limerick where his mother’s family resides. After the deaths of his brother’s, they inhabit a small home at the end of lane which they are happy with until they realize they share a lavatory with the whole lane. Their first night there he describes sitting in the kitchen, “While we’re drinking our tea an old man passes our door with a bucket in his hand. He empties the bucket into the lavatory and flushes and there’s a powerful stink in our kitchen” (112). When it rains the entire bottom floor floods, he refers to the bottom…show more content…
Her depression over losing her children pushed Frank into a more adult role than he was ready for. In New York after Margaret’s death, Angela is unable to get out of bed. Frank is left to watch over Malachy, Eugene and Oliver. Frank describes his mother’s behavior when the twins need her, “They run to Mam’s bed crying. She keeps her face to the wall and her back to me, still crying. They won’t eat the bread and goody till I kill the taste of sour milk with sugar” (41). Later in the story Angela’s affair with her sleazy cousin Laman puts a strain on her relationship with Frank. Frank’s anger about the situation later causes him to slap Angela in the face after confessing that he knows about her affair which in turn creates more guilt. Frank thinks to himself, “I hear my mother crying and I want to tell her I’m sorry but why should I after what she did with Laman Griffin”…show more content…
was an antagonist of sorts to his son Frank. His drinking, jokingly referred to as “the curse of the Irish,” caused many problems starting at the beginning when the family lived in New York and continues throughout his memoir. Malachy Sr.’s drinking creates tension at home with Angela McCourt because he drinks all the family’s income away while Frank and the rest of the family are at home starving. His alcoholism was only briefly interrupted by the birth of Margaret and resumed promptly after her untimely death. The story illustrated the cycles Malachy Sr. went through with his alcoholism and unemployment. While Malachy Sr. is unemployed he spends his time taking leisurely walks, “looking for work”, and using his family’s existence to find odd jobs around town. Only to later take that money and squander it on his pints in the pub, instead of taking it home to his starving wife and children. He collects the dole money and drinks it too. Frank calls it “the bad thing” and he knows even as a young child when his father does this by the actions of his mother. Frank expresses his understanding of this when he says, “I am seven, eight, nine going on ten and still Dad has no work. He drinks his tea in the morning, signs for the dole at the labor exchange, reads the papers at the Carnegie library, goes for his long walks far into the country. If he gets a job at the Limerick Cement Company or Rank’s Flour Mill he loses it in the third week “(178). Later in his

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