Who Is Angela's Ashes By Frank Mccourt

Frank McCourt’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes, demonstrates how the abuse of alcohol can yield destructive results but through the endurance and love of family, the obstacles that alcohol abuse imposes may be conquered. Throughout the memoir, it is clear that McCourt’s life is not an easy one; he deals with many hardships from poverty to hunger to living in unsanitary conditions mostly due to the fact that his father is an alcoholic and abandons the family (Caduceus).

In the beginning of the memoir, McCourt begins telling his story by describing how troubled and difficult his childhood was. He is letting the audience know that he did not live a happy childhood like most normal kids; he lived a rough childhood in Ireland (Shannon).

When McCourt’s

He begins the chapter by writing about a conversation he has made up in his head of one of his father’s friends asking him to go out for just one drink. In the conversation, Frank’s father agrees to buy just one drink but ends up spending his entire paycheck leaving his family with no money to put food on the table. After Frank’s father has drunken the new baby’s money, Frank feels very enraged with his father (Gale). He begins to see his father in a new light; he sees him as a selfish man that put his addiction before his family. Frank is so upset when he finds his father drunk at a bar that he begins to feel violent feelings towards him; he says that he felt like kicking him in the leg. At this point of the memoir, Frank is confused about how he should act towards his father because he remembers the time that his father actually acted like a father and not a drunk (Shannon).

In chapter eight, Frank compares his father to the Holy Trinity by describing the three different people he sees in his father. He separates his father from being a “parental figure” for him and being an alcoholic. Frank appreciates the good times that he spent with his father and cherishes their memories together but he knows that his father is too irresponsible to count on for anything (Gale). Frank begins to realize that his family cannot depend on his father for money. Angela feels

Because Frank’s father was not able to provide for his family, they had to live in constant hunger while living in unsanitary conditions. Despite all of the anxiety that Frank’s father has cost his family, Frank still loves his father and tries to see the best in him; he constantly remembers him as the man that would share stories with him instead of the man that would spend all of his earnings at the local pub (Gale). Frank realizes at a young age that his father is not someone he can depend on and he finally realizes how selfish his father truly is when he drinks his new sibling’s baby money(Shannon). Although the family faces many obstacles, they are able to overcome them through their love for each other. Frank’s mother, Angela, does whatever she can to make ends meet for her family because she knows she has no one she can depend on. She cares for her family no matter what. When Malachy runs away from Aunt Aggie’s house, Frank goes and looks for him despite his aunt’s nonchalant attitude toward his brother’s disappearance (Gale). Through their love for each other, the McCourt family is able to overcome the obstacles that their alcoholic father and husband has placed in their