Frank's Mother example essay topic

The story, Angela's Ashes written by Frank McCourt, is a memoir of Frank McCourt's childhood. At the age of four, Frank moved from New York, where he was born, to Ireland where he would suffer the traumas of poverty, illness, death, bullying priests, a drunken wandering father, a worn-out mother, tormenting schoolmasters, schoolyard bullies and mean & uncaring relatives for the rest of his childhood. I think Frank McCourt's main purpose in writing this story is to show how he survived this unhappy childhood, despite all the difficulties he was faced with. The reason that Frank was moved from New York to Ireland was his mother. In New York, Frank had lived with his father, Malachy McCourt, & mother, Angela Sheehan, both emigrants from Ireland who shortly after arriving in New York had met each other and married after the unplanned pregnancy with Frank. The three lived together for a year until Angela's second child was born and named Malachy, after the father.

Two years later Angela gave birth to the twins, Oliver & Eugene and about two years after that, she had a little girl called Margaret. This little girl died when she was 7 weeks old and this made the mother, Angela, severely ill with depression. Angela's only relatives in New York, the Mcnamara sisters, took it upon themselves to do something about it and appealed to Angela's mother back in Ireland to send enough money to take Angela and her family back to Ireland. After being shipped around for a while in Ireland, the family eventually settled down in the city of Limerick. This is where Frank spent the rest of his childhood until the age of 19 when he saves up enough money to travel back out to America.

In this city Frank meets many people, some whom he looks up to and admires and others he is scared of and hates. Frank had mixed feelings for his father, Malachy McCourt, he did love him but he also became very angry with him for being a shiftless, loquacious alcoholic who could not look after his family. There are times in the story where Frank shows his love for his father, like the time he was admitted to the Fever Hospital with typhoid fever and his father came to visit him – when his father was asked to leave he kissed Frank on the forehead for the first time in Frank's life and Frank says that this made him so happy I feel like floating out of bed. Frank also refers to the mornings he would spend alone with his father before anyone else got up, eating breakfast and telling stories he enjoyed these mornings so much because it gave him a chance to be alone with his father. On the other hand, Frank held a lot of resentment for his father because there were many times that Frank, his mother and brothers would be left hungry when Frank's father decided to drink his wages or dole money.

Frank would then be sent out to look in the pubs for his father but never found him, his father only returned early in the morning when the money had been spent. So Frank was caught between the happy, peaceful mornings alone with his father that he so fondly remembered and the nights he would spend hungry, comforting his weeping mother by the fire whilst his father enjoyed himself out at the pubs. Eventually, when his father left them to go to work in England during the war and did not send them any money, Frank realised just how irresponsible his father really was and this gave him the incentive to save up enough money to move to America so that he would be able to make enough money to send back home to his family. So, although Frank's father caused him a lot of pain with his drinking habit, he gave Frank the incentive and strength to move out of Limerick because Frank knew that he would have to support the family now. Frank's mother, Angela McCourt, was the one always left to pick up the pieces and make sure there was food, clothes and fuel for her family. When times were hard and Malachy had drunk any money they had, Angela would do this by any means possible – usually by asking for charity at the St. Vincent de Paul society, the Dispensary and eventually by begging.

Frank did not seem to show as much love for his mother as he showed for his father, which seems strange, as his mother was the one who always looked after him. There are two main events that make Frank lose respect for his mother, the first being the time when he saw his mother begging outside a priest's house because they were that desperate for food, the second being when she was sleeping with her cousin while Malachy was working in England. Frank resented his mother for begging because he thought of it as a shameful thing to do – he would rather go hungry than be taunted by the boys at school as a beggar-woman's son. Frank was also furious that his mother would sleep with another man behind his father's back even though his father had left them to drink in the pubs of England and not sent them any money. This second event made Frank so angry that slapped his mother one night, but even though he regretted hitting his mother, he could not forgive her for what she had done. But Frank did love his mother because seeing her cry night after night caused him a great deal of distress and made him promise himself that one day he would move away and get a job so that he would be able to send money home to his family.

So, Frank's mother also gave Frank a reason to be strong and move away from Limerick. In conclusion, I would say that almost every person Frank knew throughout his childhood had an effect on him, especially his father, his mother, his siblings, his relatives in Limerick, the priests, the schoolmasters, and his first girlfriend. Even those that were not kind to him, which were most of them, made him a stronger person and his strength is proven in this story by the way he managed to get on with his own life and deal with the people who tried to make his life miserable.