Questions and Answers for Angela's Ashes
Angela's Ashes
In the book "Angela's Ashes", why did they throw water in front of the funeral procession?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What is Frank McCourt's purpose in writing Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, what disease does Frank have and what are its symptoms/effects?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In the book Angela's Ashes, why did Sister Rita forbid Frank to talk to Patricia?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, why does Frank end up in the hospital and how does this experience change him?
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...
Angela's Ashes
How can Margaret's death in "Angela's Ashes" be interpreted?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What is the significance of the title in Angela's Ashes? Please, justify the title in Angela's Ashes.
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...
Angela's Ashes
Irish songs and lyrics are prominently featured in Angela's Ashes. How do these lyrics contribute to the unique voice...
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...
Angela's Ashes
What rules does Frank break?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What are the character traits of Mr. Benson?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What is the central theme in Angela's Ashes and how is it developed in the story?
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...
Angela's Ashes
Who is Setanta in Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What tone does McCourt use as he characterizes the conditions of his youth in Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In chapter 15 of the Angela's Ashes, Agnes buys Frank new clothes. Why is this surprising?
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,...
Angela's Ashes
How does Frank's character progress throughout Angela's Ashes?
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
What are some similarities and differences between Frank McCourt's memoirs Angela's Ashes and 'Tis? My goal is to...
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...
Angela's Ashes
What is the conflict in "Angela's Ashes"?
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,...
Angela's Ashes
Find a quotation from Chapter 9 of Angela's Ashes that expresses Frank's feelings on his discovery of literature. How...
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...
Angela's Ashes
In chapter 2, what does the image of the pints on the casket symbolize?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, do you think Frank benefited in any way from his experiences in the Fever Hospital?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What could the thesis be for my literary essay on Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt? I have already determined what...
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, why does Frank get angry at his father after Eugene's death?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In "Angela's Ashes," why did the nuns move Frank to another room?
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...
Angela's Ashes
Contrast the living conditions of Frank's two schoolmates, Fintan Slattery and Paddy Clohessy in Angela's Ashes. Why...
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...
Angela's Ashes
Comparison between the novel Angela’s Ashes and one of these films: Lost in Translation OR In America. How are they...
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 Ashes
What was the symbolism of ashes in Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, how do the children absorb their mother's attitude towards their father?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, why does Frank pray to St. Francis?
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
Where do the McCourts go when they first arrive back in Ireland in Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt? What kind of...
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,...
Angela's Ashes
What would be a good thesis statement about how religion affected Frank McCourt's childhood and adolescence in...
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...
Angela's Ashes
Why read Angela's Ashes? Why would you choose to read the novel Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
How does social class play out in the book "Angela's Ashes"?
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...
Angela's Ashes
Who are the main characters in Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What tone does McCourt use as he characterizes the conditions of his youth when he writes, "It was, of course, a...
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, how does living in poverty impact Frank McCourt as a person in terms of life lessons?
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...
Angela's Ashes
How does being Irish influence the family in Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
Why won't Sister Rita let Frank talk to Patricia?
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...
Angela's Ashes
Please give some examples of poverty in Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.
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...
Angela's Ashes
What is the McCourt's bathroom like in Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
Countless memoirs have been published recently, yet Angela's Ashes stands out. What makes this memoir so unique and...
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...
Angela's Ashes
Why is the McCourts' charity to others ironic?
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...
Angela's Ashes
How has addiction affected the people in Angela's Ashes?
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,...
Angela's Ashes
Discuss "exile" in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Manand McCourt's Angela's Ashes. Which theories of...
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...
Angela's Ashes
How does Frankie get into the movies in Angela's Ashes?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What signifigance does the phrase "Angela's Ashes" aquire by the end of the book?
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...
Angela's Ashes
Compare and contrast Frank with his brother Malachy in "Angela's Ashes".
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...
Angela's Ashes
How does Frank justify abandoning his family?
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...
Angela's Ashes
What are the family relationships and cultural values in Angela's Ashes? Analyes the novel in terms of the...
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes, what happens with the boys shoes and their father?
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...
Angela's Ashes
In Angela's Ashes why did McCourt's mother stop visiting the hospital?
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,...
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