Angela's Ashes Theme

“ You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace” (“Angela's Ashes Quotes”). Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt is a memoir of a childhood. It is told in first person by the author, which is the main character. The story begins with Frank being raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland, with his mother, Angela, who has not a penny to feed the children, and his father, Malachy, who only drinks his wages whenever he is able to get a job. Frank suffered poverty, near-starvation, and some nurturing of neighbors, yet lived to tell his story with power, excitement, and mercy. Frank conveys a theme that no matter the struggle, a person can determine their own outcome. For a start, Frank went through poverty and near-starvation

Even though Frankie hated the fact the the Angel on the Seventh Step kept bringing babies, the suffering of his mother and the fact the his father is worthless, he still did all he could to make something out of nothing. He became a man a young age and wanted to make his mother proud. In the story Frank states, “ I’m a man now…” to indicate that he felt like a mane because he was going to make some coins (258). This reminds me of the story “The Rocking Horse Winner”, where the boy only wanted to please his mother who was just as weak minded as Frank’s mother. Angela, Frank’s mother is very weak minded. She chose the life she lives by marrying and staying with Malachy McCourt, Frank’s father, and watching the deaths of three of her seven children. “Malachy, occupies the emotional center of the story with his engaging tales of the Uprising and drunken marches and songs urging his children to die for Ireland, Angela is on the periphery, drawn to her hearth wreathed in clouds of cigarette smoke, seemingly as much a victim as her children of this feckless man who spends his pay on drink” (Steinfels). Frank’s mother acts as if she could not live without a