Quotes From Angela's Ashes

The memoir, Angela’s Ashes, is a sorrow-filled novel written by Frank McCourt. McCourt tells the story of his unfortunate childhood in which he describes the numerous hardships he faces. This novel is told from the point of view of a young McCourt, dealing with the struggles he is too young to understand. Throughout his childhood, McCourt’s innocence was the one thing protecting him from the harsh reality.
Before McCourt begins telling his story, he gives the readers an insight to what the rest of the novel is about, ranting: “People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare to the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire;

pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years” (McCourt 19). This is the only time throughout the memoir that McCourt reflects on his childhood and gives an opinionated statement as an adult. McCourt portrays a hopeless and pessimistic tone through this quote. He begins taunting the readers and being stereotypical, and then he proceeds to use gloomy phrases to describe his negative childhood.
McCourt’s description of his youth accurately describes his attitudes towards parental figures.

For example, he does not hesitate to reveal the truths about his “alcoholic father.” Normally a father figure is a hero and someone every kid looks up to; however, the image of his father changes when the word alcoholic is used to describe him. Now instead of thinking of a role model, the reader can almost smell the old liquor stained drunk. It makes his father seem unreliable, irresponsible, and always hammered. Not only does McCourt describe his father negatively, but he continues by bashing his mother and referring to her as his “defeated mother.” Society paints mother’s as nurturing and sweet, but in McCourt’s point of view, his mother is weak and in a lost state. The two most influential figures on McCourt’s life are now seen as disappointing role models. Along with criticizing his parents, McCourt’s views on authority figures are negative as well; he describes the priests as pompous and his schoolmasters as bullies. Using the small alliteration “pompous priests” quickly catches the reader’s attention and directs them to a poor view of the priest. The word pompous shows that the priest was stuck up and all-important. Also, McCourt could have chosen any other word to describe his teachers, but “bully” leads us to believe that they were unfair, strict, forceful, and cruel—qualities we don’t like to associate with

teachers.
Through this quote, McCourt also flaunts his elevated diction. First he uses the word loquacious to describe his rambling and childish father. He goes on to call his mother pious, showing that she is a fake believer in religion. As mentioned before he shows little respect for the priest by calling him pompous. This word choice shows McCourt’s high intelligence, proving his credibility. Since he is a credible author, it is easy to trust that his harsh connotations about his childhood are true.
Ultimately, the combination of McCourt’s negative attitudes toward authority figures and his elevated diction reveal his hopeless and pessimistic tone. His word choice makes the reader empathize with his struggles, and paints a dark mood over the memoir.