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.
