Themes of Cooperation and Change in Angela's Ashes

417 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character analysis where are you going

I think that Angela's Ashes relates to the historical theme of Change, Cooperation and conflict, relation to environment, and movement. This novel was a memior about Frank McCourt and all the hardships that he endured. He had to deal with the deaths in his family, his way of living, his family's poverty and his father's alcoholism. Thorughout this novel there are many things which bring the feeling of sadness to the reader's mind. There were many changes in his life, in the beginning there are six family members. Suddenly, a new girl is born Margaret. Margaret excites the entire family because she is the only girl with her brothers Frank, Malachy,Oliver and Eugene ( the twins). Soon Margaret is not well and dies unexpectedly. Next the twins die. There are a total of 3 deaths in the first chapterof the novel, so you can see how these deaths bring suffering to the family. I took this idea as a Change & movement, there is a change in there family. After Margaret dies Malachy and Angela decide to move back to Ireland to live a better life but instead it changes and they lead a worse life. Another aspect of Movement was that Frank's dream was to move to America. Franky decides when he is fourteen that he will be able to save up enough money to move back to America by the time he is eighteen. He works very hard but is forced to give most of his money to his mother for food. When his father leaves, Frank becomes the man of the house and is forced to feed the family. He cooperates with his mother to make it through the hard times. Well this isn't exactly a war but, it is a conflict between life an death (hunger). By having to deal with their way of living I mean that they didn't live in a very clean environment. Well they did live in the ghetto. They could have lived with Angela's mother but unfortunately she did not accept her Son-in-law. She always mentioned that he was a protestant plus he was from the north part of Ireland and it was a disgrace that her daughter had married him. Catholics and Protestents don't agree with eachother. Well, Angela and her family lived in a house near the "putrid smells" of the lavatory that was used by the entire street to empty their chamber pots.

Show More
Related

  • Angela's Ashes Ethos

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    Angela’s personality is brought to life in front of us and is applied to our own lives. This characterization, which is present in the movie, but absent in the novel, is where these two adaptations sit different. In the book version, direct characterization is used to describe Angela as a, “...beggar...dependent…[and]emotional”(256,266,301). The audience is not directly affected by these character traits. Angela is only described using two dimensional words. We only read the description of a flat character. The film presents an indirect light to Angela’s character that shocks the audience. The physical sight and direction of Angela begging, crying, and fighting is one true way how Frank McCourt experienced his mother, and how we experience her when the movie rolls. It is only through this movie we see how Angela affected Frank in the long term, how she made him guilty, careful, and responsible, how she made the audience feel these same emotions. She taught Frank and the audience that they must make their own way in the

    Read More

  • Memoir Angela's Ashes Important Quotes

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first way that Frank overcomes adversity in his memoir is when he gets a job as a paper delivery boy to help support his mother Angela and his siblings because his father drinks away all of his money at the local pubs. “Mrs. O’Connell gives me telegrams to deliver to Mr.Harrington, the Englishman with the dead wife that was born and bred in Limerick…” (326). This quote tells of how he has to work and do work that he really does not like to help out his family and their situation. Frank is overcoming adversity by providing for his family and saving money to

    Read More

  • Similar Difficulties in "Angela’s Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    The first barrier to a better life had to do with surviving poverty or the absence of certain privileges. In Angela’s Ashes, Frank, the protagonist of the book, along with his family had to endure persistent rains, exposure to disease and starvation. Frank and Malachy Jr. had to resort to stealing food several ...

    Read More

  • Angelas Ashes

    3581 Words  | 8 Pages

    The title of this book is Angela’s Ashes. The title doesn’t make a lot of sense because the story about Angela’s cremation and her lost ashes is found in part two of the book. However, ashes do appear in the book in relation to Angela. An example of this would be the ashes from Angela’s Woodbine cigarettes. And another example would be Angela sitting next to the ashes from the fireplace during hard times.

    Read More

  • Perseverance In Angela's Ashes And The Street

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    First and formost, Frank McCourt's, "Angela's Ashes" ,shows the development of poverty and perseverance through the mian characters struggles of starvation. For example, the main character shows perseverance through him needing to become the "caretaker" of the family from such a young age. "Grandma

    Read More

  • Essay On The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    The valley of ashes is “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent efforts, or men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). Here, The Valley of Ashes is regarded as complete destitution and hopelessness. The people known as the lower class do not wish to live in the valley of ashes. This is why people, like Myrtle try to do anything to get away from it but instead it becomes unachievable for them.

    Read More

  • Angela’s Ashes - Frank McCourt's Love/Hate Relationship with his Father

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    reader a bad impression of him. As the story moves on, there are. several places where you can see that Frank loves his father, despite his all the hard times he has put him and his family through. Malachy is constantly out of a job, leaving his family to survive. their own through poverty.

    Read More

  • The Theme of Religion in Angela’s Ashes

    2384 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Theme of Religion in Angela’s Ashes Throughout the novel, religion is presented as being of extreme importance in Irish society, influencing the beliefs and actions of the characters. I will attempt to highlight the several factors which I believe make up the presentation of religion in “Angela’s Ashes”. From the beginning of the book, religion is said to make up a large part of the unhappy childhood Frank suffered. The following quote shows the extent of Frank’s sentiments: “Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood, is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood” The quote above portrays the crescendo of negative emotion, describing the worse possible scenario of a childhood, adding finally “Catholic” to signify the most terrible part of the childhood Frank suffered.

    Read More

  • Wealth and Class in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fitzgerald uses setting to criticise society’s loss of morality and the growth of consumerism after the Great War. The rise of the stock market in the 1920s enabled business to prosper in America. However, although the owners of industry found themselves better off wages didn’t rise equally, causing the gap between the rich and poor to grow markedly. Parkinson argues that the settings “represent [these] alternative worlds of success and failure in a modern capitalist society”. The valley of ashes symbolises this failure and moral decay, acting as a foil to the affluent “world of success”, East Egg, and highlighting that the lower classes must suffer to support its existence. This setting is introduced in Chapter 2 and is described as where “ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”. The personification of the environment creates the sense that these failures are rooted in the land, suggesting that poverty is an inescapable part of American society. This is emphasised through the use of tripling which creates a sense of endlessness. By describing the men who live there as “crumbling through the pow...

    Read More

  • Gatby Symbolism Essay: Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour”(Fitzgerald 28). This is representation of the social classes and how the wealthy not only perturbedly but physically ruined the townspeople. In pursuit of their own success and happiness the affluent individuals have no regard for the others that are being dragged through their path. The valley of ashes also represents not only the rich hurting others, but themselves and making their souls hollow. In result of this it overall symbolizes hopelessness and

    Read More

  • Symbolism in the Great Gatsby

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the most important symbols in the novel is the valley of ashes. The valley of ashes is the town in between East and West Egg, its, “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” The valley of ashes represents hopelessness, and lower class. The people that live there all want to leave but they can’t, because of how society is made up. Only the rich people have the money and power to achieve what they want in life. When Tom and Nick stopped for gas on their way to NY, Wilson says that the man working on the car works slow, Tom says, “No, he doesn’t,” said Tom coldly. “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all” .This shows how Tom looks down on Wilson just because of the difference in their social status, Tom’s a part of t...

    Read More

  • Sonya Hartnett's The Midnight Zoo

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Every war is everyone’s war”... war will bring out the worst in even the strongest and kindest people. The book tells about how ones greed for something can destroy everything for both people and animals leaving them broken beyond repair, leaving them only with questions… Will they ever see their family again? Will they ever experience what it’s like to

    Read More

  • Home by Toni Morrison

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... the officials. The reverend helps Frank, by giving him money as well as shoes, because he was bare foot. Good Samaritans also help Frank by providing him with sumptuous clothing and bus fares to get hi m to his next destination. These smaller resolutions allowed Frank to accomplish is larger resolution to find his sister.

    Read More

  • Angelas Ashes

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt is a genuine memoir that vividly tells the story of a young, Irish Catholic boy during the 1930’s and early 1940’s. Frank’s memory of his impoverished childhood is difficult to accept, however, he injects a sense of devilish humor into his biography. He creates a story where the readers watch him grow beyond all odds and live through the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. “People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty, the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years”(McCourt 11). His interaction with his family proves that despite the hunger and pain, love and strength come out of misery. Although the book tells the experience of an individual, the story itself is universal.

    Read More

  • Hard Times By Charles Dickens Analysis

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    Among the strongest points that can be interpreted from the novel is the way the industrial revolution threated to make people no more than machines. In a certain way the ash, which was spewed from the factories contaminated everything. Anything remarkable, anything identifiable about the town was covered in the dark by product of the industrial revolution. As the anonymous narrator notes of the town, “it was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it…it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage” (Dickens 25). The colors that are used to describe the town, often associated with death, are interpreted to represent the death of the inhabitants’ humanity; a perverse mask that hides all shameful emotions of a town obsessed with facts. The fact that black ash covers the red brick, a color indicative of life, emotion, and passion, displays the remarkable ability of the new era to cover and suffocate all human sens...

    Read More

More about Themes of Cooperation and Change in Angela's Ashes

Open Document