Angela's Ashes

Final questions - Easter Holiday Jobs ....

Read chapter 14, and especially pp. 357 – 360

• What mood / effect do these pages create?
• Why is the complete situation narrated two times on pp. 358 – 359?
• How does it relate to he ending of the chapter on p. 360?

Read the remaining chapters over the holidays!

Chapters XV II – XVIII

• Show Frank's final liberation from his guilt, and emancipation from the old forces and feelings that held him down. (NOTES)
• What is the meaning of the last chapter? NOTES!

FINISH your NOTES!

Father = Malachy McCourt:

• born on a farm in North ireland, in Toome, Country Antrim
• dropped on his head when he was a child
• faught with the Old IRA
• was a fugitive with a price on his head
• catholic
• was in jail because he has rubbed a truck
• thinning hair and collapsing teeth, hang dog look
• drinks very much alcohol all the time
• didn`t want to marry Angela because he had no job and couldn`t support the family

--> even thought about fleeing before marriage

• doesn`t care about his children until the daughter Margaret is born
• stops drinking because of her and spends a lot of time with his daughter
• so happy about his daughter that he dances around --> which he did never before!
• proud of his homecountry --> Ireland patriot --> children have to sing songs about Ireland and he a
• after the death of Margaret he starts drinking again, even more than he did before the birth of her
• gets money for margaret`s dead body and uses it to buy alcohol
• doesn`t take care about his other children and is only on the way for drinking

--> isn`t at home all the day

Respect

p. 101 - 103

• Father always has to wear a collar and a tie (even when he goes working hard on a farm

--> symbol for respect for himself

• People dislike Malachy the moment they hear that he comes from the North of Ireland (--> accent)
• He doesn't accept the Limerick accent (his sons speak Limerick accent)

--> nationality conflict between North and South Ireland

• Difference between men and women: Mother can go begging whereas for Malachy respect is more important than the well-being of the family

p. 105 - 109

• boys from school laugh at Franky, his brother and Angela carrying the pig's-head
• Franky and Malachy get coal from a pub

--> children point at them and laugh

p. 113 - 114

• men from the St. Vincent de Paul Society feel rather pity than respect
• they stress that they treat everyone equally

but: they ask Malachy about his accent

• Angela begs for boots from the St. Vincent de Paul Society for her children

--> Malachy feels disgraced and is ashamed --> Malachy is afraid of losing his respect, worth or dignity

Gender roles (p. 118-123)

men:

• sit outside smoking
• looking at the world and discussing the problems in the world
• walk to the labour exchange and are tired because of that --> they get the chairs and not the women
• watch children play
• read newspapers --> don`t want to be disturbed by their women
• go to the library
• wondering what to do with the rest of the day --> some do bets, some go to library
• go to pubs in the evening --> come home singing

women:

• stand around and chat with each other
• mostly stay at home and take care of the children
• clean the house and have to cook
• go to cinema and watch romantic films, buy sweets and cigarettes, and if their husbands earn enough money they even buy chocolate
• have to get charity --> men think it`s shameful to go there
• they don`t begrudge their husbands when they are sitting around, drinking tea and are smoking their cigarettes

Level of language and its effect in the last paragraph on page 247-248

• a lot of adjectives
• always the same structure of the sentences
• enumerations
•  ??? formal style --> no dialect ???? what???
• participal constructions

Narrative trick on p. 252 and 256

• classical irony:

• Angela tells her son that everything will "surely" become better
• narrator repeats "surely" --> hint to the reader that the situation will get worse

• antagonism between:

• what parents and grown-ups say/announce and actually do

--> Frankie loses belief in parents

• Frankie feels guilty because he made mistakes