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How Does Angela's Ashes Reinforce The Idea Of Social Class

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Throughout Frank McCourt’s novel “Angela’s Ashes” symbolism is used to reinforce the idea of social class, as the McCourt family are living in poverty. In the book many different symbols are used to represent the idea of social class, such as the weather, food and the River Shannon. All three of these symbols help to strongly portray the idea of social class and the struggles they went through due to social class through the entire book.

The symbol of the Limerick weather relates to the idea of social class in “Angela’s Ashes” because it mirrors their lives. Since they are living in poverty, which is the lowest social class, the McCourt family are unable to control many of the things in their lives and their struggles are constant. This …show more content…

The first is physical hunger, because they are living in poverty they cannot afford much food so they are constantly hungry. The food in “Angela’s Ashes” represents independence and success, two things that the McCourt family are unable to grasp due to living in the lowest economic class. In the minds of the family, if they had enough money for food their lives would be significantly better as Frank says “after a full belly all is poetry”, but just like their hunger, their poverty never ends. The second kind of hunger that is represented by the symbol of food in “Angela’s Ashes” is Frank’s hunger for success. This hunger for success is caused by the fact that he has lived in the lower class of society his whole life and he is sick and ashamed of being poor and hungry all the time. After being stuck in this cycle of poverty he decides that he wants to break the cycle and get out and go to America, which he perceives as the land of success. The symbol of food is used in this novel because food represents both how they are physically hungry due to living in poverty because they cannot afford enough food. Frank also develops his hunger for success due to living in the lower class because he doesn’t want to stay stuck where he is like everyone else, he wants to get out of the cycle. Due to the idea of social

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