How convincingly the book creates a sense of social environment in which subject grew up?
Frank McCourt has used the main themes of his autobiography Angela’s Ashes convincingly to create a sense of social environment he grew up in. Main themes include poverty, pauperized living conditions, poor sanitation and power of the Catholic Church. Alongside the main themes, McCourt uses symbols, memories, vivid descriptions, outside and narrative comments and events relating to the main themes. Poverty is the leading cause of pauperized living condition as well as poor sanitation, these lead to the social environment Frank spent his childhood growing up in.
The living conditions in the slums of Limerick itself details Franks environment. The McCourt family leaves New York for a new start in Ireland and settle in Limerick during the depression. The Deprsssion symbolize hardship for many. Alcohol is a major concern that affects the McCourt’s. Malachy’s alcohol problem makes his family suffer. Any chance of the basic needs of survival is dependent on Malachy’s wages. “Are you coming home so that we can have a bit of supper or will it be midnight with no money in your pocket and you singing Kevin Barry and the rest of that sad songs”.
Angela is asking Malachy if the kids will be fed tonight or will they starve. The fact Malachy drinks way the money convinces us the family have no other means of survival and healthy state of living. Without money we sense and imagine the state they live in. “Out in the Atlantic Ocean great sheets of rain gathered to drift slowly up the River Shannon and settle forever in Limerick. The rain dampened the city from the feast and the Circumcicin to New Year’s Eve. It created a cacophony of hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes, consumptive croaks.
It turned roses into fountains, lungs into bacterial sponges”. Franks description of Limericks sums up the environment. Miserable weather creating misery and diseases taking lives of many. McCourt’s description gives us a visual images that somehow convinces us how miserable the conditions are. Franks gets a job delivering newspaper. One day there is an emergency and mayhem erupts. McCaffey and Frank and another boy Eamon are to rip out page 16 of the John O’ London’s Weekly. Ever single issue in the city no matter what people say.
Here the boys are hysterically running around town ripping out the pages on birth control. McCaffrey shows such determination when the shopkeeper has said they have sold many issues he demands their names that they are in danger of losing their “immortal souls” This event convinces us the power of the Catholic Church is and the it impact on society. Birth control in “the holiest city” was banned. A one page article emphasizes the lengths Catholics go to protecting their religious beliefs. McCaffrey’s biggest customer Mr. Hutchinson in cursing him for storming into his shop and creating havoc, and McCaffrey replies to him ” See what happens when you’re not a member of the True Church”. Protestants and Catholics dispute over religion. People in Frank’s Community are greatly religious. School masters makes sure you know everything about Christ. Malachy treats the portrait of the Pope as though it is sacred and valuable. The honor of the Catholic Church is overwhelming and creates a sense of how holy the society is. The fact people followed the rules and were faithful to the Church gives us a sense of how religious the environment was.
McCaffrey was prepared to go lengths to protect the faith and beliefs fellow Catholics. Frank has many memories of his childhood. There has been pain, misery and some happy times. The memories of his small house in Roden Lane holds many memories. In winter, downstairs floods, the family are forced to move upstairs. “It’s like going away on our holiday to a warm foreign place like Italy,” Malachy assures the kids. Abandoning downstairs convinces us, the flood is extremely bad. We sense the condition are undesirable and deplorable.
Convincingly this house creates a sense of social environment, the state of the house simply shows it. Symbol of the environment are seen in this book. The lavatory in the McCourt’s rented home is a communal toilet shared by 12 families. It symbolizes poor-sanitation and lack of finances. It emphasizes the need for cleaner conditions, ” the lavatory will kill us all with diseases,” Angela’s says. In fact it is a concern, their health is at risk of germs that fill the household. Frank is awakened at night by sounds of people emptying their chamber pots suggesting no privacy.
People coming in and out. It convinces us how rundown the society is. They can only afford one toilet a lane for 12 families. I can imagine from the lavatory the house is shabby making the society just as bad. We sense poor hygiene creating a sense in our mind of how Frank grew up. McCourt himself said if he ” were to pick a symbol for my life, and image, it would be that lavatory that all the people emptied their buckets into. ” Franks childhood was about surviving each day and feeding his family, his goal to reach America.
He says, the lavatory symbolizes his life struggling to get through each day. Angela’s Ashes includes many details used to create a sense of Frank’s childhood social environment. Throughout the book many descriptions of memorable experiences and sights are used to detail the surrounding he grew up with. This whole book is about dealing with the slums and the dreadful conditions that we strongly sense in our heads. After reading Angela’s Ashes you will be left with many visuals McCourt has got you to create and picture in your head that make out his “miserable Irish Catholic Childhood”.
