RUSS LITTLEBURY:
"'You move your weight right out the door and we'll have our chat outside, but you put this in gear and it's auto theft.'
'Just answer me.'
'Go on, get out.'
Russ shifted into reverse and backed out.
'You stupid sonofabitch.'
The street ahead sat down between unbroken banks of exhaust plumes, human shadowfigures ghostly and dumbshow. He eased into motion and then accelerated. For two blocks Bedham spat out stale imprecations until Russ levelled out for the first clear intersection and locked up, spinning the both of them a full panoramic of the town and laying them up against a curb.
'Now you're a dead man,' said Bedham.
Russ reached for the gearshift."
This quotation shows that Russ is rather forceful. He will go to whatever means he thinks necesarry to get what he wants done, even if it involves violence. In this particular excerpt, Russ essentially car-jacks the tombstone engraver's truck, and takes him for a very literal spin. This is his way of intimidating Bedham, the engraver, into telling him why the name Richard Owen MacDonald is engraved on the back of Mike's tombstone. Russ, although forceful and violent, had a great sense of duty towards his father in his final time, and wanted his funeral to be special. Having another name on the back of your tombstone doesn't exactly make your burial place a place special to you, and so Russ was unhappy with that.
JACK MARKS:
"Jack took me to the rodeo today. August 3rd. He bought me a Bailey hat and showed me how to wear the brim. We were watching the bullriders and a man behind us was making fun of one of the clowns, he was pretty loud and mean, and when Jack turned around to say something he just turned back and took me buy the arm and made us leave. It took awhile before he'd tell me what happened but he said there was too much past in his life for it not to come back at him, sometimes the same, sometimes with different faces. The people he met were never really new, just old souls returned, even his own old souls."
This excerpt is from Lea's diary describing an outing she took with Jack Marks before he ran off. The events in this particular quotation show that Jack has no inhibitions about lying to Lea (or to anyone else ). He clearly knew the man behind them from some of his former (possibley illegal) dealings, and since we find out Jack is a fairly sketchy guy, it wouldn't be a surprise if Jack owed this man money or was in some way in trouble with him. Jack likely needed to leave the rodeo before the man found out who he was, and he couldn't leave without Lea, so he fabricated a story related to his "experience" with God to get Lea to come along with him.
TARA HARDING:
"She asked him to haul up her briefcase from the back seat.
'Open the back zipper pocket.'
He did so and withdrew a ten-by-twelve sheet with a colour image of a young smiling couple seated on a plaid couch. The man's plastic frames, tinted lenses, and the woman's blue bell-bottoms dated them in the seventies. Her brown hair, parted in the middle, fell to either side of her bright face. The man's hair was combed back, not especially long. Because he was smiling Russ almost didn't recognize him.
'I take it you wouldn't have this if there wasn't a bad ending to their story.'"
This quotation is from the later part of the book, when Russ and Tara meet in Vancouver. The picture is an old photgraph of John and Beth Overstreet. Tara has been obsessed with John, and then Beth, and now Beth's father William for longer than she's known Russ: more than a year. This shows that Tara holds on to the things she believes in, to the point where it could be considered an obsession. She finds it hard that Russ doesn't like that she does this, but in the end doesn't particularly care what he says. She does what she wants anyways.
LEA BOLLINS:
"He pointed to the sky and looked up, then stepped forward.
When he performed the little affirmation she had taught him, Lea wanted to scream and almost got out of the car, but a part of her wanted to watch, wanted to believe she couldn't change his course any more than she could that of a character in a movie. The Lord was guiding this and she must trust in Him. He had put the two of them together. The Lord had chosen for her deliverance and protection this manboy, and though maybe it was hard to see him getting a lot of respect, in scripture it said you who make yourself like a child will be greatest in the kingdom of Heaven."
This excerpt is taken from the middle part of the book, when Skidder brings Lea with him to retrieve Mr. Bickles' ashes. She doesn't particularly want Skidder to commit a crime, but because he says a a prayer and a little affirmation, she thinks it is the work of God that he should do this. She feels that everything is guiding by God, or is the Will of God, and this makes her very gullible, and easily persuaded or deceived.
MIKE LITTLEBURY:
"When they headed out on the road again, they talked about Mike and how hard it was to read his condition, which in spite of having stopped treatments hadn't seemed to have changed much since Christmas."
This quotation is from the period in the book when Russ is driving Jean down to her place in Tucson. They inevitably start to talk about Mike, and his sickness. The fact that Mike has stopped treatment but has not worsened in condition is a sign that he is very strong mentally and emotionally. He is able to maintain his health for a while anyways just by taking his pills and by imagining his tumour getting smaller and smaller everyday. He will eventually die, however, and he is willing to accept this, as he is very religous, and is at peace with the idea of dying.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Crime Fiction Blog: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
PARAGRAPH #1 - PLOT SUMMARY:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a collection of short stories originally published during the Victorian Era. They appeared in the newspapers of London to entertain their readers, and new parts would be published every week. As they are individual stories there is no single plot between all of them, however, most are set in London, England and the surrounding area during the Victorian Era. The stories record the exploits of the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and his MD sidekick, Dr. Watson. Some of the stories included in this collection are summarized below:
A Scandal in Bohemia, in which Watson returns from his new wife and practice to visit his old friend Sherlock, and finds him at the beginning of another high stakes mystery. This time, the stakes are so high, that they could change the face of Europe, and destroy one of it's Royal Families. Holmes and Watson must help the distressed King of Bohemia retrieve a compromising photograph of the King and his American lover before it goes public on the day the King's betrothal to a Scandinavian princess is to be made public. If the picture is made public, and the King's promiscuity made know, the wedding will be called off, and his honour will be damaged. Once again, Holmes unbelievable criminal intelligence saves the day.
The Red-Headed League: A particularly peculiar story, in which Holmes is called upon to solve the mysterious case of a red-headed pawn-brokers induction, and subsuquent explulsion from one so-called "Red-Headed League". Watson again aids Holmes in the cracking of a bank robbery plot of the most ingenious kind, that even the great detective himself admits that it is singular to his memory.
A Case of Identity, in which Holmes yet again baffles us with his immense powers of observation and deduction. This time, he solves the rather interesting, and somewhat twisted case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a young, single woman whose lover has gone missing. Her stepfather is suspect, and yet as the ending reveals, money has driven him to do drastic things ...
The Five Orange Pips, one of my favourite stories in the collection, involves an the Klu Klux Klan making a foray into the life of an English family of some wealth, whose uncle had spent some years in Florida, and presumably had joined said organizations ranks. The uncle and his brother had both died of "accidental causes" shortly after receiving an envelope with five dried orange pips enclosed, and the letters KKK emlbazoned on the interior of the envelope. Yet again, it's up to the pair of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to save the family's newest head from the same fate as his father and unlce before his time runs out ...
The Man With the Twisted Lip, another famous Sherlock tale, and anothe favourite of mine, involves a wife curious as to her husbands business affairs. When she witnesses his "abduction" in the second floor of a London opium den, and he abruptly goes missing, a beggar by the name of Hugh Boone is suspect. However, things are not as they seem, and there are in reality, two characters trapped in Boone's jail cell ...
The Adventure of the Speckled Band, a riveting account of a deranged and violent doctor, named Grimesby Roylott, and his treatment and abuse of his two stepdaughters. Holmes yet again reveals and defeats the processes of a criminal mind, in a tale that stems from darkest India, and involves gypsies, intrigue, and the cleverest and most deadly beasts and men.
The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, as the title suggests, involves the dismemberment of an engineer; in particular, the removal of one of his thumbs. Dr. Watson brings this patient of his with a curious injury, and an even more fascinating story, to his old friend, Sherlock Holmes to see what he can make of it. What Holmes discovers is a winding and complex series of events that leads to the capture of a murderous German in the English countryside.
PARAGRAPH #2 - AUTHOR'S WRITING STYLE:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of some of the most well known tales of modern literature, including the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Lost World, uses the English language very typically for his day. Conan Doyle writes in a very Victorian fashion, with long, drawn-out sentences, similar to that of Dickens, yet more comprehensible and readable, and therefore more enjoyable. Although some would say this style of writing is too long and hard to read, I quite like it, and indeed, almost prefer it to the English language of today. Conan Doyle's writing, although "long", is quite colourful and descriptive, and those that read carefully and properly can get more out of this style than they could out of a more modern, abreviated style. Conan Doyle also uses some slang, perhaps unique to England, but that has at least fallen out of use in North America. For example, there are a number of places in many of the stories that have words with foot-notes explaining what they mean. EX. "quinsy" means "tonsillitis", a "shakedown" is an "improvised bed". Also, reference is often made to other Sherlock stories, or even to other outside texts and documents, which can bog down the reading for those unfamiliar with these texts, or unwilling to look them up and research a little.
PARAGRAPH #3 - QUOTATIONS:
- "I shall take your advice in every particular."
This phrase is in response to advise given by Holmes to his client in the Five Orange Pips tale. I like it becuase it is a good example of classical British language, especially that used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. That is, in part, what makes his colourful writing style what it is.
- "He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad, as became his calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his tattered coat."
This phrase describes the homeless man Hugh Boone from the Man With the Twisted Lip story. I like it becuase it is another good example of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's colourful writing style.
- "As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after."
This is a sentence, spoken by the great detective himself, Sherlock Holmes, while he is explaining something to Watson during the Five Orange Pips story. This particular phrase catches my attention, not only because, yet again, it is an example of Conan Doyle's simple yet colourful and understandable language, but also because it shows how he references outside texts that readers might find it helpful to be familiar with. Cuvier, of course, was the surname of two French brothers, Georges and Frédéric, who were both naturalists and zoologists, which explains the reference to animal bones .. of course!
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a collection of short stories originally published during the Victorian Era. They appeared in the newspapers of London to entertain their readers, and new parts would be published every week. As they are individual stories there is no single plot between all of them, however, most are set in London, England and the surrounding area during the Victorian Era. The stories record the exploits of the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and his MD sidekick, Dr. Watson. Some of the stories included in this collection are summarized below:
A Scandal in Bohemia, in which Watson returns from his new wife and practice to visit his old friend Sherlock, and finds him at the beginning of another high stakes mystery. This time, the stakes are so high, that they could change the face of Europe, and destroy one of it's Royal Families. Holmes and Watson must help the distressed King of Bohemia retrieve a compromising photograph of the King and his American lover before it goes public on the day the King's betrothal to a Scandinavian princess is to be made public. If the picture is made public, and the King's promiscuity made know, the wedding will be called off, and his honour will be damaged. Once again, Holmes unbelievable criminal intelligence saves the day.
The Red-Headed League: A particularly peculiar story, in which Holmes is called upon to solve the mysterious case of a red-headed pawn-brokers induction, and subsuquent explulsion from one so-called "Red-Headed League". Watson again aids Holmes in the cracking of a bank robbery plot of the most ingenious kind, that even the great detective himself admits that it is singular to his memory.
A Case of Identity, in which Holmes yet again baffles us with his immense powers of observation and deduction. This time, he solves the rather interesting, and somewhat twisted case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a young, single woman whose lover has gone missing. Her stepfather is suspect, and yet as the ending reveals, money has driven him to do drastic things ...
The Five Orange Pips, one of my favourite stories in the collection, involves an the Klu Klux Klan making a foray into the life of an English family of some wealth, whose uncle had spent some years in Florida, and presumably had joined said organizations ranks. The uncle and his brother had both died of "accidental causes" shortly after receiving an envelope with five dried orange pips enclosed, and the letters KKK emlbazoned on the interior of the envelope. Yet again, it's up to the pair of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to save the family's newest head from the same fate as his father and unlce before his time runs out ...
The Man With the Twisted Lip, another famous Sherlock tale, and anothe favourite of mine, involves a wife curious as to her husbands business affairs. When she witnesses his "abduction" in the second floor of a London opium den, and he abruptly goes missing, a beggar by the name of Hugh Boone is suspect. However, things are not as they seem, and there are in reality, two characters trapped in Boone's jail cell ...
The Adventure of the Speckled Band, a riveting account of a deranged and violent doctor, named Grimesby Roylott, and his treatment and abuse of his two stepdaughters. Holmes yet again reveals and defeats the processes of a criminal mind, in a tale that stems from darkest India, and involves gypsies, intrigue, and the cleverest and most deadly beasts and men.
The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, as the title suggests, involves the dismemberment of an engineer; in particular, the removal of one of his thumbs. Dr. Watson brings this patient of his with a curious injury, and an even more fascinating story, to his old friend, Sherlock Holmes to see what he can make of it. What Holmes discovers is a winding and complex series of events that leads to the capture of a murderous German in the English countryside.
PARAGRAPH #2 - AUTHOR'S WRITING STYLE:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of some of the most well known tales of modern literature, including the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Lost World, uses the English language very typically for his day. Conan Doyle writes in a very Victorian fashion, with long, drawn-out sentences, similar to that of Dickens, yet more comprehensible and readable, and therefore more enjoyable. Although some would say this style of writing is too long and hard to read, I quite like it, and indeed, almost prefer it to the English language of today. Conan Doyle's writing, although "long", is quite colourful and descriptive, and those that read carefully and properly can get more out of this style than they could out of a more modern, abreviated style. Conan Doyle also uses some slang, perhaps unique to England, but that has at least fallen out of use in North America. For example, there are a number of places in many of the stories that have words with foot-notes explaining what they mean. EX. "quinsy" means "tonsillitis", a "shakedown" is an "improvised bed". Also, reference is often made to other Sherlock stories, or even to other outside texts and documents, which can bog down the reading for those unfamiliar with these texts, or unwilling to look them up and research a little.
PARAGRAPH #3 - QUOTATIONS:
- "I shall take your advice in every particular."
This phrase is in response to advise given by Holmes to his client in the Five Orange Pips tale. I like it becuase it is a good example of classical British language, especially that used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. That is, in part, what makes his colourful writing style what it is.
- "He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad, as became his calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his tattered coat."
This phrase describes the homeless man Hugh Boone from the Man With the Twisted Lip story. I like it becuase it is another good example of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's colourful writing style.
- "As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after."
This is a sentence, spoken by the great detective himself, Sherlock Holmes, while he is explaining something to Watson during the Five Orange Pips story. This particular phrase catches my attention, not only because, yet again, it is an example of Conan Doyle's simple yet colourful and understandable language, but also because it shows how he references outside texts that readers might find it helpful to be familiar with. Cuvier, of course, was the surname of two French brothers, Georges and Frédéric, who were both naturalists and zoologists, which explains the reference to animal bones .. of course!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors
PLOT SUMMARY:
Roddy Doyle's book, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, is the engaging yet depressing story of a Dublin woman in an abusive marriage. Paula O'Leary, a young middle-class Dublin girl starts life with prospects and hope, and ends up, after four children, seventeen years of abuse, and the news of her husbands death, as an alcoholic cleaning-lady. Paula met Charles "Charlo" Spencer at a dance when she is in her late teens, and falls for him immediately. She doesn't mind his smoking or drinking, or the fact that he is arrogant and controlling. "He's a ride," is Paula's description of him. They get married and have four kids, Nicloa, the oldest, followed by John Paul, Leanne, and Jack. Charlo, however, turns out to be abusive, and beats Paula for everything that goes wrong, whether it's her fault or not. She becomes paranoid, alcoholic, depressed, and very mentally and emotionally unstable. She turns herself around after a seventeen year blur of beatings and unwanted sex by kicking Charlo out of the house. Within the next year, John Paul runs away and becomes a heroin addict, and Nicola finds a good, solid boyfriend and shows promise in life. Roughly a year after kicking Charlo out of the house, Paula receives the news that he has been killed by the Gardai, the police in Ireland. The story is told as a combination of flashbacks to Paula's childhood and life with Charlo, and her dealing with the news of his death and exploring what really happened.
PARAGRAPH #2:
Roddy Doyle is one of Ireland's most famous present day authors, and accordingly, he has his own unique style. The dialogue in his book, The Woman Who Walked into doors, is often written very informally (i.e. no quotation marks and occasionally no new paragraph) and is regularly marked simply with a dash. It is something to get used to when first reading Doyle's book, but it becomes easy to read afterwards. Another thing he does is to open a bracket, and then write often a full page and a bit before closing it. This frequently results in the reader having to go back and find where the bracket starts once they come across the closing bracket, because you've simply forgotten you were reading bracketed text. Having said all this, it is very well written, and fairly easy to comprehend once you've figured out his style. The "dash-dialogue" style works quite well for keeping the story moving. The characters seem like real enough people that could exist somewhere, but you never really get a sense of who they are, because you are just looking at this one event that ties all their lives together. You don't get much background material on any of them except Paula, and a bit on Charlo.
QUOTATIONS PARAGRAPH:
- "I walked into a door."
This is Paula's response to Charlo after he asks her one night where she got a black eye. The trick is that he gave her the black eye by hitting her. This just shows how cruel he is, and how controlled, scared, and confused Paula is that she has to make up a response like that. This is also where the title of the book comes from.
- "The doctor never looked at me. He studied parts of me but he never looked at my eyes. He never looked at me when he spoke. He never saw me. Drink he said to himself. I could see his nose twitching, taking in the smell, deciding. Noe of hte docters looked at me."
This is Paula's impression of the doctors she goes to see for her injuries received from Charlo's beatings. They all appear to think she is a drunk, and they don't really help her out a lot, even though, if they looked and asked the right questions, it would be apparent that her husband beat her, and she needed and "out" on the relationship. This just shows that nobody is really helping Paula in her situation.
-"But my name was called out just when it started to rain and I ended up wanking a good-looking thick in the back of the classroom. That was how you made a name for yourself in 1.6."
This quote shows that Paula has never really had an easy ride through life, that she's always had to work for what she gets, and sometimes the work is unpleasant.
Roddy Doyle's book, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, is the engaging yet depressing story of a Dublin woman in an abusive marriage. Paula O'Leary, a young middle-class Dublin girl starts life with prospects and hope, and ends up, after four children, seventeen years of abuse, and the news of her husbands death, as an alcoholic cleaning-lady. Paula met Charles "Charlo" Spencer at a dance when she is in her late teens, and falls for him immediately. She doesn't mind his smoking or drinking, or the fact that he is arrogant and controlling. "He's a ride," is Paula's description of him. They get married and have four kids, Nicloa, the oldest, followed by John Paul, Leanne, and Jack. Charlo, however, turns out to be abusive, and beats Paula for everything that goes wrong, whether it's her fault or not. She becomes paranoid, alcoholic, depressed, and very mentally and emotionally unstable. She turns herself around after a seventeen year blur of beatings and unwanted sex by kicking Charlo out of the house. Within the next year, John Paul runs away and becomes a heroin addict, and Nicola finds a good, solid boyfriend and shows promise in life. Roughly a year after kicking Charlo out of the house, Paula receives the news that he has been killed by the Gardai, the police in Ireland. The story is told as a combination of flashbacks to Paula's childhood and life with Charlo, and her dealing with the news of his death and exploring what really happened.
PARAGRAPH #2:
Roddy Doyle is one of Ireland's most famous present day authors, and accordingly, he has his own unique style. The dialogue in his book, The Woman Who Walked into doors, is often written very informally (i.e. no quotation marks and occasionally no new paragraph) and is regularly marked simply with a dash. It is something to get used to when first reading Doyle's book, but it becomes easy to read afterwards. Another thing he does is to open a bracket, and then write often a full page and a bit before closing it. This frequently results in the reader having to go back and find where the bracket starts once they come across the closing bracket, because you've simply forgotten you were reading bracketed text. Having said all this, it is very well written, and fairly easy to comprehend once you've figured out his style. The "dash-dialogue" style works quite well for keeping the story moving. The characters seem like real enough people that could exist somewhere, but you never really get a sense of who they are, because you are just looking at this one event that ties all their lives together. You don't get much background material on any of them except Paula, and a bit on Charlo.
QUOTATIONS PARAGRAPH:
- "I walked into a door."
This is Paula's response to Charlo after he asks her one night where she got a black eye. The trick is that he gave her the black eye by hitting her. This just shows how cruel he is, and how controlled, scared, and confused Paula is that she has to make up a response like that. This is also where the title of the book comes from.
- "The doctor never looked at me. He studied parts of me but he never looked at my eyes. He never looked at me when he spoke. He never saw me. Drink he said to himself. I could see his nose twitching, taking in the smell, deciding. Noe of hte docters looked at me."
This is Paula's impression of the doctors she goes to see for her injuries received from Charlo's beatings. They all appear to think she is a drunk, and they don't really help her out a lot, even though, if they looked and asked the right questions, it would be apparent that her husband beat her, and she needed and "out" on the relationship. This just shows that nobody is really helping Paula in her situation.
-"But my name was called out just when it started to rain and I ended up wanking a good-looking thick in the back of the classroom. That was how you made a name for yourself in 1.6."
This quote shows that Paula has never really had an easy ride through life, that she's always had to work for what she gets, and sometimes the work is unpleasant.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Angela's Ashes
PLOT SUMMARRY:
Angela's Ashes, the frist book of author Frank McCourt's autobiographical trilogy, takes place during the first years of the author's life. There are two main places in which this story is set: the first is Brooklyn, New York, and the second is the city of Limerick, in County Limerick, Ireland. The memoirs kick off, by detailing his parents background. Both of them are Irish by birth, and both of them come from impoverished families. Malachy McCourt, Frank's father, comes from the town of Toome in the North, and Angela Sheehan, Frank's mother comes from Limerick city. After unintentionally starting a family together, they struggle to make ends meet in "The New World", which is made all the more difficult by Malachy's drinking habits, and his apparent incapability to find and keep a steady job. After life becomes too harsh in Brooklyn, and with the death of some of Frank's siblings hanging over them, they move back to Ireland, to a life of begging and borrowing from relatives and neighbours. When WWII breaks out, Malachy moves to England to get a job in a munitions factory, and leaves the family stranded in Ireland. As Franks grows up and moves through school, various friends wind their way in and out of his life, and he goes through a variety of different jobs from helping on a coal delivery cart, to being a letter boy. Throughout the story, Frank's goal is to save up enough money to move back to America, and it is his perseverence and hard work taht earn him this goal in the end.
PARAGRAPH 2:
Diction, or the choice and use of words or phrases in speech or writing, is an important part of communicating ideas effectively, and if used well, can be an effective tool for enhancing the reader's enjoyment and/or understanding of the story. Frank McCourt's diction, with regards to his book Angela's Ashes, is quite good. He picks his words well, and often inflects them with the accent of the speaker to make the reader feel as if they are actually listening to a person from Ireland or Brooklyn speak inside their head. McCourt develops his characters well, although he had his job easy, because, as he is writing an autobiography, all he had to do was remember what each person was like, and communicate their character across to the reader. Having said that, he does an excellent job of communication, making sure that the reader has an image of what each character is like.
QUOTATIONS PARAGRAPH:
"Grandma won't talk to Mam anymore because of what I did with God in her backyard." pg. 132
- I think this quote is humourous because it sounds like God and Frank McCourt did some unspeakable thing in his Grandma's backyard.
"I hear mandolins, guitars, Spanish bagpipes, the drums of Africa, boatmen wailing on the Nile."
- I particularly like this quote because it talks about bagpipes (in particular, the Spanish style of bagpipe, called a "gaita"). Also, it shows us a glimpse of Frank's only connection to the world outside the lanes of Limerick through radio. This demonstrates that radio was and is a powerful means of communication.
"... she pulls the blankets and falls backward like one seeing a ghost and yelling Mother o' God what are you doin' in me dead mother's dress?"
- I also find this particular quote to be very funny, because it's a situation where everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong for poor Frank. He's caught wearing his dead grandma's dress in bed, and is forced to explain himself to his vicious aunt Aggie.
Angela's Ashes, the frist book of author Frank McCourt's autobiographical trilogy, takes place during the first years of the author's life. There are two main places in which this story is set: the first is Brooklyn, New York, and the second is the city of Limerick, in County Limerick, Ireland. The memoirs kick off, by detailing his parents background. Both of them are Irish by birth, and both of them come from impoverished families. Malachy McCourt, Frank's father, comes from the town of Toome in the North, and Angela Sheehan, Frank's mother comes from Limerick city. After unintentionally starting a family together, they struggle to make ends meet in "The New World", which is made all the more difficult by Malachy's drinking habits, and his apparent incapability to find and keep a steady job. After life becomes too harsh in Brooklyn, and with the death of some of Frank's siblings hanging over them, they move back to Ireland, to a life of begging and borrowing from relatives and neighbours. When WWII breaks out, Malachy moves to England to get a job in a munitions factory, and leaves the family stranded in Ireland. As Franks grows up and moves through school, various friends wind their way in and out of his life, and he goes through a variety of different jobs from helping on a coal delivery cart, to being a letter boy. Throughout the story, Frank's goal is to save up enough money to move back to America, and it is his perseverence and hard work taht earn him this goal in the end.
PARAGRAPH 2:
Diction, or the choice and use of words or phrases in speech or writing, is an important part of communicating ideas effectively, and if used well, can be an effective tool for enhancing the reader's enjoyment and/or understanding of the story. Frank McCourt's diction, with regards to his book Angela's Ashes, is quite good. He picks his words well, and often inflects them with the accent of the speaker to make the reader feel as if they are actually listening to a person from Ireland or Brooklyn speak inside their head. McCourt develops his characters well, although he had his job easy, because, as he is writing an autobiography, all he had to do was remember what each person was like, and communicate their character across to the reader. Having said that, he does an excellent job of communication, making sure that the reader has an image of what each character is like.
QUOTATIONS PARAGRAPH:
"Grandma won't talk to Mam anymore because of what I did with God in her backyard." pg. 132
- I think this quote is humourous because it sounds like God and Frank McCourt did some unspeakable thing in his Grandma's backyard.
"I hear mandolins, guitars, Spanish bagpipes, the drums of Africa, boatmen wailing on the Nile."
- I particularly like this quote because it talks about bagpipes (in particular, the Spanish style of bagpipe, called a "gaita"). Also, it shows us a glimpse of Frank's only connection to the world outside the lanes of Limerick through radio. This demonstrates that radio was and is a powerful means of communication.
"... she pulls the blankets and falls backward like one seeing a ghost and yelling Mother o' God what are you doin' in me dead mother's dress?"
- I also find this particular quote to be very funny, because it's a situation where everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong for poor Frank. He's caught wearing his dead grandma's dress in bed, and is forced to explain himself to his vicious aunt Aggie.
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