Angela's Ashes

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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