Angela’s Ashes
F
R A N K
M
C
C
O U R T
PRESTWICK HOUSE
I N C O R P O R A T E D
REORDER NO. TU4749
Individual Learning Packet
Teaching Unit
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Copyright © 2003 by Prestwick House Inc., P.O. Box 246, Cheswold, DE 19936.
1-800-932-4593. www.prestwickhouse.com Permission to copy this unit for classroom use is extended to purchaser for his or her personal use. This material, in whole or part, may not be copied for resale.
ISBN 1-58049-4749
Reorder No.TU4749
Angela’s Ashes
Terms and Definitions
Autobiography - the relating of a person’s life by that person. Example: The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin.
Coming of Age - a novel or other work of literature in which the main character or characters grow, mature, or understand the world in adult terms. Examples: The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn; The Cay
Comic relief - the intrusion of humor interrupting or immediately following a scene of great excitement. Example: The drunken porter knocks at the door immediately after the killing of King Duncan in Macbeth.
Dialect - a particular kind of speech used by members of one specific group because of its geographical location or class. Example: Jim, in Huckleberry Finn says, “Shet de do.’’
[“Shut the door”.]
Irony - a perception of inconsistency, sometimes humorous, in which the significance and understanding of a statement or event is changed by its context. Example: The firehouse burned down.
• Dramatic Irony - the audience or reader knows more about a character’s situation than the character does and knows that the character’s understanding is incorrect.
Example: In Medea, Creon asks, “What atrocities could she commit in one day?”
The reader, however, knows Medea will destroy her family and Creon’s by day’s end.
• Structural Irony – the use of a naïve hero, whose incorrect perceptions differ from the reader’s correct ones. Example: