Tolog Review: Angela's Ashes

Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
reviewed by Abigail Lewis

Frank McCourt’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes, narrates the story of his life growing up in poverty and in hardship. McCourt follows his life from his birth in America to Ireland where he grew up. Both his parents, Angela and Malachy, are irish, but Angela being a catholic and Malachy being a protestant creates a divide in their friends and community. McCourt explains the struggles of his daily life as though he were speaking to the reader. He experiences a lot of death in his family because of the poor living conditions. In addition, his abusive school teachers and adults of a higher class create shame of being at the bottom of the social ladder. McCourt mentions his drunk father a lot who spent the dole money on beer, which left McCourt, Angela, and McCourt’s siblings without food, coal for a fire, and clothing. Whereas Angela tries very hard to support her family, but she does not work and therefore cannot bring in any money. From these actions, McCourt learns to fend for himself and make his life worth living by getting a job and finding worth in his life. Angela’s Ashes weaves its way through McCourt’s childhood as he fights for a better life outside of poverty, death, and shame.

McCourt uses personal thoughts to connect the reader to his way of thinking and viewing the world. He writes in first person, which makes the story even more personal and insightful.This lets the reader inside of McCourt’s head to see what he actually thinks about the things he experiences. Sometimes he does not say thoughts outloud, but the reader can see them letting the reader better understand McCourt. He explains that, “I still want to tell her I’m sorry but if I do I’ll want to tell her she’s the cause of it all….”(McCourt 341). This lets the reader know what McCourt truly feels instead of having to guess how he feels. In addition, McCourt tells the reader what goes on around him by his thoughts that describe what people do and what he thinks of them. McCourt writes as though he documents everything he saw in specific detail. This can look like, “I bang on the door with the knocker and there’s a great howl from a dog so big he makes the door shake”(174). This imagery occurs throughout the memoir and creates specific images that let the reader know the lifestyle in Ireland during World War Ⅱ. McCourt uses imagery to create vivid descriptions of the life around him, as well as personal thoughts to let the reader understand him in depth.