Angela's Ashes

There has been much speculation since Frank McCourt's book Angela's Ashes was adapted for film regarding the scene in which water is poured in front of a funeral procession. MCourt's book does not...

Frank McCourt writes this memoir of his childhood and adolescence in Ireland in order to come to terms, after the death of his parents, with the past that formed him, and to write a darkly comic...

Frank McCourt suffered from typhoid fever. A portion of the autobiography, "Typhoid Fever," is often excerpted and anthologized. In this excerpt, Frank's condition is discussed as well as his...

The hospital has very strict rules, not all of which make a lot of sense. The Catholic Church is a primary influence in Ireland at this time, and part of the reason Sister Rita has forbidden Frank...

On the day of Frank's Confirmation, he is suddenly struck with an unstoppable nosebleed and falls terribly ill. Within a few days, a doctor diagnoses him with typhoid fever, and Frank goes to the...

Margaret dies as an infant, while the McCourt family is living in Brooklyn. Frank McCourt portrays this death as being the catalyst for the family returning to Ireland; life in Brooklyn is just...

The title immediately makes us think of some kind of cremation and the death of Angela, the main character, who is actually one of the few characters who doesn't die or otherwise disappear in the...

I can answer part of your question about Angela's Ashes. The book is so successful, in part, because the setting is Ireland, which has been a romantic favorite of readers for generations. The...

A good example of Frank's breaking the rules comes when he's admitted to hospital after suddenly coming down with typhoid fever. The hospital, which is run by the Catholic Church, has very strict...

Like most of the authority figures in Angela's Ashes, Mr. Benson isn't portrayed in a particularly flattering way. He's an angry man, constantly shouting at the boys, inadvertently spitting at them...

One of the main themes of this story that cannot be ignored is that of poverty. The poverty in which the McCourt family lives is shown to be brutal, unyielding and pervasive. It is clear that in...

Setanta is the name that Cuchulain, a mythological Irish hero, had when he was a boy. Frank McCourt first learns the story of Cuchulain, or Setanta, from his father while the family is living in...

McCourt uses a wry, sardonic tone as he outlines the miseries of his poor Irish youth with a stereotypically drunken father and a defeated, pious mother, and the miseries of his family's wet...

It is Frank's 14th birthday and he was lucky enough to find work at the post office as a lower-end messenger. The reason why Aunt Aggie buys Frank new clothes is because, as he reported to work,...

Frank (the protagonist and author) emotionally progresses through the memoir following a classic bildungsroman structure. This is a German version of the “coming-of-age story” that evolved out of...

Angela's Ashes chronicles what had to be one of the most miserable childhoods in the history of memoirs, that of Frank McCourt, growing up in England and Protestant-hating Limerick, Ireland in the...

The main ongoing conflict in Frank McCourt's novel Angela's Ashes is his mother's ongoing battle to keep her children from starving while her husband, McCourt's father, a semi-functional alcoholic,...

Frank first developed a love of literature when he was confined to the hospital with typhoid. At that time, which is actually recounted in Chapter 8, he says, "It's lovely to know the world can't...

On the day of Eugene's funeral, Frank's father must be retrieved from the local pub in order to attend the service. When he places his pint of Guiness on top of the white coffin, the image is as...

When Frank was in the Fever Hospital suffering with typhoid, he began to love poetry. Patricia Madigan, the girl next to him who was suffering from diphtheria, read him a poem about a highwayman...

From the points you mention, it seems as though you are veering towards an argument about how the tone of the memoir undercuts and lightens the dark subject matter. Frank McCourt describes an...

Near the end of Chapter two, of "Angela's Ashes," Franks younger brother, Eugene dies from pneumonia shortly after they have lost Oliver the same way. On the day of the funeral Frank's father...

Frank catches typhoid fever and ends up in the hospital. He has his own room, and very few visitors. While there, the girl in the room next door begins talking to him through the wall. She is...

Fintan Slattery lives alone with his mother, who is extremely religious. His flat on Catherine Street "is like a chapel", and there are "all kinds of religious magazines" and books inside, as well...

Both the book Angela's Ashes and the movie Lost in Translation are stories about the strength of the human spirit and about the ways people can find hope and faith even in the face of loss and...

Angela's only comfort, as she would say herself, were her Woodbine cigarettes, which she smoked with her husband (when he was home) while they sat by the fire looking at the firewood consume...

The irresponsible nature of the narrator's father is one of the key impressions that we have of his character throughout this powerful memoir. His tendency to take the money that should go towards...

This part of this incredible autobiography occurs in Chapter Seventeen, when the narrator becomes burdened by his many sins which have reached their climax after he hit his mother because of her...

Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's autobiographical account of the first nineteen years of his life, some of which are spent in America. When they are unable to make a go of it in the United States,...

The best way to write a thesis statement is to base it on a list of brainstormed ideas from the text which answers your prompt question. Ask: "How did religion affect Frank McCourt's childhood and...

The Irish make up a huge part of our culture and our history, and very few people know anything about life in Ireland in the tough times. McCourt gives us an eloquently written, fine example of...

Although McCourt does not editorialize (meaning he does not exaggerate or add emotion), there is a clear message about poverty and social class in this story. His father's alcoholism, the deaths...

Interesting to see this question at this particular time, since Frank McCourt died just about a week ago. Angela of the title was McCourt's long-suffering mother, forced to raise her family in...

McCourt's tone here is in keeping with much of the rest of the book in that it is blackly comic—this quote is not intended to be interpreted seriously. McCourt's sardonic tone invites the audience...

One of the life lessons that McCourt gains as a result of living with poverty is understanding its role in developing human identity. McCourt never begrudges or complains of the poverty in which...

Irish identity is an important theme in Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s memoir. Though there’s much to be said about this topic, we could narrow your question down to four key components. What does...

At that time in Ireland, hospitals were run by the Catholic Church, which had a huge influence on all aspects of society. Although the primary purpose of a hospital is supposed to be make sick...

Frank McCourt’s autobiographical novel Angela’s Ashes recounts the author’s impoverished life in Limerick, Ireland, until he left returned to America at the age of nineteen. While it is a...

In chapter 3 of "Angela's Ashes" the family is on the "dole" again and living in a slum appartment building. When it rains the water comes inside so the family moves upstairs. Even with the small...

I think what makes Angela's Ashes so compelling is that McCourt somehow manages to tell his tale without gloss. It is difficult to write a good memoir, one that reveals the unvarnished truth of a...

The irony is that the McCourts had very little as a result of the father's drinking habit and were in ruin. Still, they try to survive as best as they could with the help and support that the...

Addiction is a major theme throughout Angela's Ashes, and is more ambiguous than it may first appear. The most obvious example of addiction in the novel is Malachy's alcoholism, which condemns him,...

Exile is a form of displacement, physical or mental; it is almost always personal. This means being in exile results from a person alienating and/or isolating himself or herself, from his/her...

During his years in the squalid slums of Limerick, Frankie, whose family rarely has the two penny price of admission to the theater, manages to get in to the see the movies in a variety of...

An ash represents something that has burned up or been destroyed. I think this represents Angela's family. It has been destroyed. There is no home. Her husband is gone and her sons have died or...

Frank's brother Malachy, a year younger, is a beautiful child, with "blue eyes like...mother...golden hair and pink cheeks". Frank, in contrast, looks more like their father, with...

Indeed, Frank's actions can be seen as an abandonment of his family. I think that he justifies this in a couple of ways. The first is that Frank recognizes that staying in Ireland is going to...

It is important to understand that Angela’s Ashes is a biographical account of the life of a dysfunctional family between their homes in the US and Ireland. There is no doubt, right from the...

In chapter 3 of "Angela's Ashes" the family is on the "dole" again but the income is still not enough. Mrs. McCourt has been going to the St. Vincent de Paul Society for extra food and help in...

In chapter VIII of Angela's Ashes Frank is about to celebrate his confirmation, which is a huge religious moment in the Catholic Faith. It entails that you will take the oath to remain a Catholic,...