Angelas Ashes

Angela’s Ashes

Life can be hard. A hard life though without hope can be devastating. The first 19 years of life for Frank McCourt, the author of the 364 page biography Angela’s Ashes, were very difficult and full of change. Originally published in 1996, Angela’s Ashes shows the reader the life of a poor Irish Catholic family through the eyes of a young boy. Frank McCourt was born in New York in the 1930’s, but his family moved back to Ireland when he was an infant and most of his story is set in Limerick. The biography focuses on the many hardships that took place over the years in Limerick, Ireland including such times as the deaths of three of his younger siblings, or the times when his father would drink away all the money that he had earned just for some drinks at the pub. Throughout the biography, Frank realizes that hardships, sometimes comical, sometimes depressing, are part of life and don’t ultimately weaken someone, but in Frank’s case made him stronger.

As shown throughout his biography, Frank McCourt’s strength and courage was used as a weapon to get him through the poverty in his life. It was very obvious in the story that Frank McCourt wanted to make something out of his life. He wasn’t going to make the hardships in life ruin him forever, but more likely life’s challenges would make him reach farther and work harder for a better life. Because of the lack of money in his family, Frank decided to get a series of jobs that would later give him a sense of accomplishment. One of his main goals was to just keep a roof over his families head and food on the table. His eventual dream was to save enough money to travel back to America where he soon wants to start a “perfect life.” After deciding that he wanted to go back to America, Frank started to save his money so that he could indeed return. In the end of the novel, after stealing some money, but saving most of it, Franks finally get his passage to the land of the free and of opportunity. Frank details in his book his motivation to achieve a better life. To him, this life could be found in America. His motivation was the same as millions of other people who immigrated to the United States. This book is an important chronicle of people’s motivations to move to America in the mid 1900’s. I believe that Frank’s motivations to move to America then are the same as many people trying to come to the United States today.

In Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt is not attempting to prove anything, but it just so happens that his true life experience can teach a thing or two to any person who wants to read it. It proves that through hard work and perseverance anything could be done. Frank and his family, consisting of three deceased siblings, a drunken father, and a miserable mother, live through horrific conditions. No matter what got in his way, Frank was determined to keep his family together and alive. He ended up working more than four jobs just for clothing and shelter. After he made it to America in the end of the novel, he was fulfilled for the time being, but he looked ahead for the future ahead. He wrote the book to give hope to people who were going through rough periods in their life. Angela’s Ashes is the perfect