Dad Frightens Me With His Och's

881 Words2 Pages

The first third of the book reflects McCourt’s youth through slow passage of time, large amounts of detail, lack of emphasis on important events, and irregular sentence/paragraph structure. Young children like Frank absorb their surroundings more than any other time in their life. They are self-aware, yet often do not understand the significance of events around them. As McCourt writes, “Dad frightens me with his och, och, och, and Mam frightens me wit her small bird sounds and I don’t know what to do though I wonder if anyone will light the fire in the grate so that we can have te and bread because it’s a long time since we had the porridge,” (74). The structure of this passage reflects McCourt’s age and maturity in a few ways. Firstly, the sentence is three lines long, something often not characteristic of older or more mature people when they write. Our sentences become concise as we age, occurring as we develop our communication skills. McCourt reflects this immaturity through how he formats his …show more content…

Frank is becoming an adult, and he embraces it. He wakes up on his fourteenth birthday, with only one thing on his mind: to get a job as a telegram boy. Frank is replacing his father as the breadwinner in the family. Frank’s ambition separates him from his peers, and is demonstrated when he chooses to pursue a more prestigious job over remaining at the post office, which was “steady and pensionable and respectable and if you get a job like this you never have to worry again in your whole life so you don’t.” (311) From the start of the memoir, moving back to America was Frank’s goal. As he gets older, it appears more frequently and moves to the forefront of Frank’s priorities - every payday he puts away money for the ferry. He manifests his intentions of going to America by deeming himself worthy of this superior position. “I shake my head and walk up the street where a smart boy is wanted.”

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