McCourt Family example essay topic

English The quote "all happy families are alike: each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" is a true statement for most families. Most happy families have lots of love and are often wealthy and generally don't have very big problems. The makings for an unhappy family can stem from numerous different problems and situations. In the novel Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt there are many reasons why his family is unhappy.

The biggest reason why the McCourt family is unhappy is because they are extremely poor. They rarely have any food, clothes or even blankets to keep them warm at night. This alone can cause lots of anxiety and stress in a household. Another big problem of the family is that the father is an alcoholic who rarely can keep a job. Even when his father does keep a job he often spends his weeks wages on booze. This causes lots of tension in the family because it is hard to love a father who is never there for his kids or his wife.

I think the McCourt family did love each other in some ways, but the mother had lots of other problems to worry about, and sometimes was guilty of neglecting her children. If kids grow up not being loved it is impossible for them to feel happy in there home. The fact that the McCourt's were so poor also made the children outcasts in school. Often Frank and his brother would go to school with shoes that had no heels and wearing clothes that they wore every day and were often not clean. This caused the kids at school to tease Frank and his brother and that can be very hurtful.

Instead of coming home to a house that would support the boys and what they were going through, they had to go home and deal with there problems alone and at a very young age. Another big reason why the McCourt family was unhappy was because they had a lot of death occurrences in their family. Having a new baby being born and than dying a few months later is extremely tragic and heartbreaking. This can cause a family to have lots of depression. Also, it happened to their family more than one time. As a child grows in your household he becomes loved, and the McCourts lost another child who was two years old.

This was devastating to both parents and siblings. The large amount of death and illness was greatly related to the fact that they were poor and lived in very unsanitary living conditions. The McCourt children, specifically Frank, were also always living in constant fear. Because of their Catholic Church upbringing many of the normal feelings that adolescents get during puberty were considered to them very sinful and worthy of going to hell. Frank and his brothers were always afraid that they did something so wrong that they were going to go to hell, and not being able to share your feelings with a parent or other authority figure causes a great amount of fear and unhappiness. Other reasons why the McCourts were unhappy were because they had to move several times because they couldn't always afford to keep their rent.

The family often had to take loans and even beg and steal on the streets for food. That is very degrading and can cause a family to have a very negative self-image of themselves. Towards the end of Franks childhood is father decided to move to England in hopes of making more money. This just caused more problems because now the McCourts had no father and the money still wasn't coming in. In conclusion I think that the McCourt family did have love for each other, but they weren't always there for one another. A happy family most has love and understanding.

The fact that the family was very poor and was looked down upon by much of their society was there biggest problem. Clearly the quote in this instance is true, the McCourts had several reasons for being unhappy. Word count = 704.