Angela's Ashes Sparknotes

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“Angela’s Ashes” is a 1996 memoir by Frank McCourt. The book won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the National Book Critics Circle Award as well as the Boeke Prize. The novel retells the events of McCourt’s childhood leading up. The most important historical event to understand while reading Angela’s Ashes is the conflict between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, and between Ireland and England. For centuries, Ireland had been politically, economically, and culturally subordinate to England: England was a site of trade with the rest of Europe, the home of the monarchy, etc. Beginning with the reign of Henry. Find out what happens in our Chapter 9 summary for Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. This free study guide is stuffed with the juicy details and important facts you need to know.

Protagonist and first-person narrator Frank McCourt begins his memoir of his early life in Limerick, Ireland, with a description of how his parents Angela Sheehan and Malachy McCourt met in New York City and were forced to marry by Angela's cousins Delia and Philomena after Angela became pregnant with Frank.

Angela

Angela's Ashes Sparknotes Chapter 1

Things turn bad almost immediately. Malachy can't find work in Depression era New York City and any money he does earn goes into the pubs of New York. Angela struggles to feed her family and relies heavily on her Brooklyn neighbors for help. Malachy is steadier after the birth of Margaret but the baby dies shortly and Angela falls into a deep depression. The cousins save the day once more and arrange for the McCourts to return to Ireland and it's here that things go from bad to worse.

Angela's mother 'Grandma' is not happy to see her daughter back in Ireland with a ne'r do well husband and four young children but helps them find lodgings. Malachy continues his cycle of finding work, drinking, and losing work. Soon, Frank's little twin brothers Oliver and Eugene die from pneumonia caused by poor living conditions and the lack of nutritious food.

Frank describes his life of horror in Limerick and makes it more palatable with large doses of humor. For instance, the family has to sleep on one mattress that is filled with fleas and they run and jump around in the lane outside. Their house floods but they move upstairs and call it Italy because it is warm and dry. Malachy takes time with his son and tells him stories and sings him songs of Irish heroes but continues to drink heavily to the great economic detriment of the family. Soon Angela gives birth to two more sons, Michael and Alphie.

Angela's Ashes Chapter 8

Although Frank and his brother Malachy Jr. initially experience a difficult time at school because they are 'yanks,' in time Frank becomes one of the brightest boys in school and demonstrates a natural ability for reading and writing. He has no trouble with studying the catechism for his first Communion and Confirmation. At the age of ten he falls ill with typhoid fever and, near death, he must be hospitalized. Here a girl dying from diphtheria introduces him to Shakespeare and he is immediately struck by the brilliant words. This serves him well in school.

Angela's Ashes Study Guide Answers

His father Malachy leaves the family during World War II to work in a British factory with the intent of sending home his wages but while the families prosper around them from fathers working in England, Malachy never sends money home and the McCourts sink even deeper into poverty, now having to rely on public aid. Angela on occasion must stand outside a Church begging for the remains of the priest's dinner. When she becomes ill, Frank must care for the family and is forced to steal food and milk from outside Limerick's richer houses.

By the time he is thirteen, Frank is working for his neighbor Mr. Hannon delivering coal. The boy always has some job or other going on while he goes to school. He works reading the newspaper for the Buddhist Mr. Timoney, delivering newspapers for his nasty Uncle Ab, delivering telegrams as a messenger boy at the post office, writing collection letters for the mean-spirited Mrs. Finucane, and delivering newspapers once again for Mr. McCaffrey at Eason's shop. The youngster is excited about working because it makes him feel like a man and it helps him feed his family.

Eventually, the McCourts get evicted after burning down one of the house's walls for fuel and are forced to move in with Angela's cousin Laman Griffin who treats Frank with great meanness. Angela also begins sleeping with Laman which makes Frank angry and after Laman beats him Frank is forced to move in with his uncle Ab, where he very nearly starves.

Frank suffers from guilt over his sexual feelings which are constantly in direct opposition to the Catholic Church's teachings. On one occasion while delivering a telegram he encounters Teresa Carmody who suffers from consumption. The girl, who knows she is going to die, takes Frank inside her house and the youngsters make love. Frank is torn by the wonderful feelings of love and the resultant horrible guilt. Soon after, Teresa dies and Frank suffers terribly with guilt until a priest he meets at St. Francis's Church hears his confession and grants him forgiveness.

However, underneath it all Frank dreams of returning to America, the land of his birth and begins to save money from his wages for his ticket. One night, Mrs. Fineucne dies and Frank robs the money that she makes from the poor in Limerick and flings her ledger into the river so her customers will never have to pay. Then he has enough money for his fare and after a departing party leaves Cork for New York.

Upon his arrival, the ship, The Irish Oak, is forced to dock in Albany. On the way up, Frank attends a party on shore where he meets an American woman named Freida with whom he has a sexual encounter. He is able to put aside his feelings of guilt and suddenly the world looks very bright.

Summary

The night before his sixteenth birthday, Frank goes to South's pub for his traditional first pint. Since his father is unavailable, Pa Keating accompanies him. The men in the pub 'lift their pints' to Frank, and as they discuss the Second World War, Frank gets drunk. After leaving the pub, he feels melancholy and decides he must go to confession before he turns sixteen. However, he is sent away from the rectory because he's drunk. At home, Frank argues with Angela, who prays that he won't end up a drunkard like his father. He tells her he knows she's been sleeping with Laman and slaps her when she tells him to watch his tongue. He feels horrible because now he has another sin to contend with but rationalizes his behavior, believing that it's Angela's fault.

The following day, the confused boy goes to the Franciscan Church. Father Gregory notices him crying and in a flood of emotion Frank tells him everything that's on his mind. The priest assures him that God has forgiven him and that now he must forgive himself. The priest also assures him that Teresa is in heaven.

Frank beings work for Easons, delivering The Irish Times. Although forbidden by the Church and his boss to read the Protestant paper, Frank reads it voraciously nevertheless. He spends most of one day running around town tearing out an article on contraception-a topic banned by the Irish government. One of the delivery boys, Eamon, tells Frank that he should the torn out copies of the article on the streets of Limerick. He thus earns nine pounds, eight of which he puts in to his America savings account for America, and buys food for his family.

Angela gets work caring for the wealthy Mr. Sliney, a friend of Mr. Timoney's. When Frank visits his mother at Sliney's, he realizes she likes her new job in the airy big house. Frank continues working at Easons, riding the bike through, reading at every spare moment and dreaming of America. His brother Malachy gets a job in Coventry at the gas works shoveling coal. He too wants to return to America.

Frank delivers papers for three years while also writing letters for Mrs. Finucane. On the day before he is to turn nineteen, she dies, and Frank robs her of seventeen pounds he finds in her purse and of another forty pounds from her upstairs trunk. He takes a bottle of sherry and flings her ledger into the River Shannon. Thus he frees all the indebted people of Limerick, including Aunt Aggie.

He is free to flee to America. His mother cries and Frank walks the streets of Limerick pensively. The family gives Frank a going away party and soon he finds himself aboard the Irish Oak, sailing out of Cork. On the sea, he regrets leaving until a priest from Limerick, on his way home to Los Angeles, comforts him.

The sight of New York Harbor seems like movie; the ship continues to Albany to dock. On the way, it stops in Poughkeepsie, where the ship's officers and the priest are invited to a party. The priest invites Frank as his guest and soon Frank finds himself surrounded by gorgeous, eager American women. He winds up having sex with a woman named Frieda, to the priest's consternation. Back on the ship, the wireless officer says to him, 'This a great country altogether' (362).

Frank responds to the wireless officer, 'Tis,' in the final one-word chapter.

Analysis

Angela's Ashes Chapter Summary

Immigration has played a major role in the history of Ireland. For a small country with a large population, immigration was the only way many Irish could earn a living and support their families. And, while the Irish have scattered all over the world, America was widely considered the land of opportunity. Despite many obstacles, Frank McCourt chooses America as a means to escape poverty and to achieve success.

The last section of his memoir demonstrates the effect of emigration on the Irish family. Earlier, Malachy Sr. goes to England to work and send home money to his starving family. However, he disappears as many others did and remained as a permanent immigrant in England. (He will turn up again in McCourt's follow-up book, 'Tis). Malachy Jr. also leaves Ireland for England in the manner of his father but keeps in touch with his family, and, because England is so close to Ireland, returns home occasionally.

Frank's journey, however, is much more serious than his brothers. His family gives him 'an American wake' before he departs, because they never expect to see 'the departing one again in this life' (356). In many emigrating families, an older sibling led the way to America and there earned the money to send for the next sibling, and so forth. In chapter seventeen, after Frank announces his departure, Angela weeps and Michael asks, 'Will we all go someday?' Frank answers, 'We will' (354). And at the end of chapter seventeen, we see the McCourts waiting to follow in Frank's steps. Malachy Jr. has a job in Coventry, 'waiting for the day he can go to America after me' (353).

Frank's task of raising money for America is as arduous a journey as the voyage itself. He literally begs, borrows and steals the money, saving every spare penny to make his dream a reality. The idea of remaining in Limerick horrifies him, though it aches his heart to leave. And, although he is tempted to spoil himself with food and movies, he foregoes these luxuries to accomplish his goal-America.

Upon his approach, Frank sees the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Empire State Building and 'the sun turns everything to gold' (359), recalling the old cliché that America is the land where 'the streets are paved with gold.' And in addition to leaving Ireland, Frank also casts aside his overwhelming guilt associated with his sexuality. At the party in Chapter 18, he thoroughly enjoys a sexual encounter while the priest knocks on the door outside: 'Father would you ever take a running jump for yourself?' (361). This question seems directed at the repressive nature of his past, which, at least at this stage in young McCourt's life, he has finally left behind him.