Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes

Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes

This book is about a boy, Frank McCourt, growing up in a very

difficult lifestyle. He and his family were very poor and moved away

from America to Limerick to try and live an easier life. Frank's

father is constantly out of a job and hasn't got enough money to

support his family.

Frank and his father have a very interesting relationship. Throughout

the book, there are constant changes of how Frank feels for his

father. At the very beginning of the book, Frank explains that he was

"the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father," and gives the reader the

impression that he was a very bad dad. As the story moves on, there

are several places where you can see that Frank loves his father,

despite all the hard times he has put him and his family through.

The times when Frank completely loathes his father are the times when

he got drunk and used all of the money on himself. Malachy didn't

bring home the wages like a good husband but he would leave his family

waiting at home for their supper whilst he went down to the pubs and

drank all the money. At time like these, Frank could see his mother

was angry and upset and he hated his father when he did that to her.

Malachy came home drunk so many times, Frank and his brothers knew

exactly what was going on when he didn't come home at dinner time,

they knew not to talk to him because he'd done the 'bad thing'.

Frank constantly says that as he is the eldest son, he wanted to bring

home the money his father never did and a number of times he thinks to

himself that he wished he had a different dad. When Oliver dies, Frank

gets very angry at his father for putti...

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...ound him. He ate

little of his own food so that he could leave the rest of it for them

and he would stay up at night time to help them sleep when they were

staying over at their Aunt Aggie's or their grandma's. When Malachy

was drunk, he would get all the boys out of bed in the middle of the

night and make them line up like soldiers, making them swear to die

for Ireland. These parts were quite comical but Frank was angry when

he made his little brother Michael get up as well when he was so

young.

When Malachy moved to England, Frank was upset when he left but they

became very distant after a couple of years. Frank probably knew he

wouldn't see him again but he didn't care because he hadn't sent his

mother a penny.

Frank hated Malachy, but when he hadn't been drinking he loved him and

spending time with him.