Angela's Ashes

692 Words3 Pages
Angela’s Ashes In the memoir, Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt, reveals a true story about, Frank, the main character’s experience in living, expressed in his words, the “miserable Irish Catholic childhood”. Three reasons why the author won the Pulitzer Price were due to all the misery Frank experienced throughout his early years of life, also how the reader is able to watch Frank flourish and adjust to his life throughout the book, and, finally, how his relationship with his family affects him while living in Ireland. McCourt experienced such a hard life and this keeps the reader interested to keep going further into the book. McCourt experienced siblings dying, lack of money, and many other obstacles that came upon him. McCourt experienced the death of many of his family members, which were: his baby sister, Margaret and then his brother Oliver. Once Oliver died Eugene, his twin brother, was supposed to live on with life without having any memory, whatsoever, that his brother Oliver ever existed but the loss was too much to bare for Eugene and eventually “died anyway” (82). Having the loss of three family members must have been hard on Frank. Frank’s family always went for help at the St. Vincent de Paul Society because they always lacked money. The main reason why they lacked money was because his father, Malachy, would always waste the entire dole on alcohol. When McCourt was younger he did not understand why they never had enough money for food, but as he matured he realized his father was the reason they had to experience a life in poverty. “We’re on the seesaw. Up, down, up, down. Malachy goes up. I get off. Malachy goes down. Seesaw hits the ground” (19). Throughout the memoir the readers notice that McCourt presents information as if heard and interpreted by a child. But as he grows older, he is able to understand things he did not as a child. Especially

More about Angela's Ashes

Open Document