Angela's Ashes Irony

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The McCourt family leaves their apartment in Brooklyn to set sail for Ireland, leaving behind an apartment with indoor plumbing and the memory of a dead sister in hopes of finding a better life amongst “the poverty, the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father, the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire, pompous priests, and bullying schoolmasters” of Ireland. This tragic story is told from the point of view of a child, Frank McCourt, whose father is a driftless alcoholic and whose mother does moan by the fire.

McCourt is able to use humor, irony, and point of view to make the tale of Angela’s Ashes one which will never be forgotten.
The humor used throughout the novel breaks the tension of what would otherwise be a very depressing story.

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