Period 4
9/4/13
Angela’s Ashes Essay
In Frank McCourt’s Angela's Ashes, the lower class of poverty-stricken Ireland faces many challenges. They encounter not being able to care for their families and harsh living conditions. Such conditions force Malachy McCourt to drink out of control. Malachy, Frank McCourt's father, uses alcohol to escape real life. The choices of Malachy Sr. cause many other problems for the family. The difficulties in the McCourt family have caused Malachy Sr. to escape his life through drinking and leaving his family in the dust.
To begin with, Malachy Sr. escapes his family problems by drinking because Angela yells at his on a daily basis to stop spending the weekly wages on booze. As quoted on page 18 “Delia told him he was a disgusting specimen but what could you expect from the North of Ireland,” this is showing that Malachy is a bad example toward the people and that he is the kind of person that comes to people’s minds when they think of Ireland. As Malachy comes home from a night out, he sings songs about him dying for his country. “Drunk words are sober thoughts”- Unknown source, if Malachy is truly thinking about dying for his country sober, then tells everyone while drunk, then is …show more content…
Although Malachy Sr. has found better paying jobs around Europe, he still keeps the money for himself and goes to the bar now on a daily basis. Malachy spending all of the weekly wages on booze has made Frank need to step up and take responsibilities for the McCourt household. If there is no money for the family because of Malachy’s idiotic decisions, then Frank must find work and provide for his family. With Malachy out of country and not having Angela to watch over him, he is not paying attention to how much he is actually harming his family. Frank realizes how much his family is in need of money and wants to