Angela's Ashes Essay

Throughout Angela’s Ashes, the author, Frank McCourt, establishes a vulnerable state that he shares with the reader. As his memoir advances, McCourt portrays the theme of perseverance. His past symbolizes the tragic events he has bravely conquered as he continued to persist as he faced poverty in his memoir. McCourt elaborates the tragedy of his life by accomplishing to express the traumatic experiences of an Irish kid in poverty during the Great Depression and with the rise of illness. As McCourt discusses these events that have shaped him throughout his life, McCourt reflects back on these moments. McCourt reflects anguish, grief, and longing through his work, through the novel, he can accept what he has been through by also feeling the

As Mccourt wrote his novel, he recognized the pain he and his family experienced during their life, as this affected him harshly, he longs for a childhood full of bliss but instead, he dealt with poverty. During his life, McCourt knew America was where to go, he knew it is a desire, he knew that in America, he would have an opportunity that he would cease to have in Ireland; “I want to be in America with you and all that music, where no one has bad teeth, people leave food on their plates, every family has a lavatory, and everyone lives happily ever after” (McCourt 275). McCourt moved to America in 1949, he knew that America was the right choice, as he wrote Angela’s Ashes he reflected back on his past and saw more complications of Ireland that he most likely did not recognize as a child. When McCourt was a child his father was an alcohol abuser; “I couldn’t find him and she hasn’t a scrap in the house because he's drinking the five pounds” (McCourt 185). Although Frank would go search for his father in pubs he did not comprehend how severe his father's alcoholism was and how much his absence affected him until Frank was older. Growing through Frank’s life, he developed more maturity in the realization of the rough life he went through and he recaptured the misery of his poverty, the anguish from his dad, grief from the deaths of

McCourt establishes the theme thoroughly through a recollection of his past where he struggled through poverty. Although poverty is a grand issue in the world and was a relevant issue for the Mccourt family. Frank bravely persevered through countless hardships, especially at a young age and most likely involving their father; “They’re gone to bed half hungry because you have to fill your belly with whiskey” (McCourt 25). The memoir represents the theme of perseverance as a whole, not just through poverty. After Frank’s father left, Frank gained much more responsibility than he had before, as his family struggled, he took care of them and showed strength, bravery, and dedication to his family. Frank McCourt wrote Angela’s Ashes long after his experiences as a child, after this time has passed he reflects on his life with the bitterness of the events he challenged but he also recognized his strength with perseverance. Presumably, Frank did not acknowledge most feelings he felt as a child until later on when he was producing his memoir. This represents how these themes are presented in the memoir and of the symbolization of his past self and how that differs from him at the time of writing. These two factors differ because of how he has processed his experiences from his childhood further on in his life; this takes a huge play with the theme of perseverance in the