Angela's Ashes

"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it." -Bill Cosby

While reading Angela's Ashes, I found myself constantly having to remind myself that it was in fact a true story with real events. Because of the incredibly depressing, miserable setting and events of the book, it was difficult to keep in mind that this was not a story that the author created in his mind as a fictional work, but that it was actually the story of his childhood. It seems almost unreal that a child could be brought up this way and yet still grow up to be able to write a 300+ page famous memoir about it. Young Frank loses three of his younger siblings before he is even ten years old. So far, the only one of his siblings that has been with him through all the miserable experiences of poverty (the death of [so far] three of his siblings, his own case of typhoid fever, the family's years of having hardly anything to eat or wear, his alcoholic father who is responsible for keeping his family poor and hungry for the sake of satisfying his addiction, etc.) is his year-younger brother, Malachy. Malachy is portrayed to be a rather "favorite" child of many in the community, and it is he that brings the book a great portion of its reality and childlike innocence and humor. The quote by Bill Cosby definitely can describe the McCourt family. Most of Frank and his younger brother's childhood experiences indeed involve painful memories that no child should have to suffer, but not once does either child mention that they are ready to just give up on life. Frank almost always narrates the novel with the most positive tone possible relative to the events he is telling the audience about, and never are his internal thoughts and feelings as depressing as what is actually happening to him and his family. His mother, on the other hand, is very often shown crying or hiding herself from some of the daily miseries of her life. She is always found in a hopeless state of depression, constantly worried about losing what children she has left, worried that her husband's desire to drink is ruining her family's chance at ever having anything, and also often shown smoking unhealthy cigarettes because "they are the only comfort she has." One of the aspects of the story that adds some very significant, childlike humor and innocence is Malachy's frequent ability to make everyone laugh. At times, he says things that even the adults find funny and laugh about. He also entertains Frank even in the serious, negative atmospheres where they often find themselves, such as when the family first arrives back to Ireland from America. Malachy begins making fun of their grandmother for saying "ye" and even though she acts harsh and angry toward the boys a good majority of the time, everyone cracks up at this. "Malachy says, Ye, ye, and starts to giggle and I say, Ye, ye, and the twins say, Ye, ye, and we're laughing so hard we can hardly eat our bread" (58). Another example of childlike humor comes from Frank himself with many of his rather blunt descriptions of things, as well as his descriptions of people. One of the most recognizable relatives in the book as far as the way Frank portrays him is "Uncle Pat Sheehan who was dropped on his head." The way Frank refers to him every time he has something to say about him makes it seem like his full name is "Uncle Pat Sheehan who was dropped on his head." This repeated phrase reminds me of something that Oskar from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close would say.
Both the quote by Bill Cosby and the events told by Frank in Angela's Ashes show that children, even though they sadly physically suffer more than adults do in lives of poverty, hunger, and illness, often in fact are better off from day-to-day than adults. While adults are more concerned with how much of a disaster everything is and how they will ever live a good life and provide one for their children, the younger ones are almost always in higher spirits, finding humor and enjoyment in any situation, no matter how bad it may be. Obviously, Frank McCourt eventually grew up and out of an impoverished life, and went on to write this memoir about his life as a poor boy growing up in Ireland. It shows that he was able to persevere as a young boy to overcome the hardships of his early life and was able to accomplish something for himself that brought him out of poverty and into a more comfortable, rewarding life in his later years.

Discussion Question #10- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all of the lives I’m not living” (113). This quote by Oskar’s grandfather is an excellent example of the theme of interconnectedness among the characters in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Oskar has important connections with people he has never met, including his own grandfather. In a way, the lives of Oskar and his grandfather are similar. Both of them experience a loss of something very important to them (Oskar loses his father, and Oskar’s grandfather loses Anna, his son, and his speech). Oskar’s journey throughout the novel when he is searching for the key has several parallels to his grandfather’s own search for something meaningful in life. Both characters are seeking to gain something positive out of a negative experience. The author also draws parallels between Oskar’s tragic experiences and those of his grandfather by mentioning not only the events of 9/11, but also the Dresden bombings that his grandfather witnessed, which are very similar in tragic nature. Neither Oskar nor his grandfather are alone in experiencing these sorts of terrible events.
The quote also demonstrates, on a larger scale than just Oskar and his grandfather, how all of the people mentioned in the book have at least one thing in common with one another, and this is that every one of them has experienced some sort of loss or tragedy. Oskar’s grandfather mentions in the quote how he feels as if he is carrying the weight of several other people’s lives, not just his own. Oskar feels the same way about even people he has never met. He calls his collection of photos of tragedies and accidents that happened to other people “Stuff that Happened to Me” (42). Although he obviously did not experience these things such as decapitations and shark attacks, this is Oskar’s way of coping with the loss of his father by showing himself that bad things also happen to other people, and he is not alone. He presents a report in school on the bombing of Hiroshima and the great amount of human suffering that came as a result. This too is one of Oskar’s ways of dealing with loss, knowing that other people have experienced things that are just as horrific as the victims of 9/11 and their families have experienced.
Overall, Oskar’s search for the key and his grandfather’s letters are both ways that the two characters connect with each other as well as with those around them. Oskar interacts with many people he has never met and still feels as if something important exists between them in some way or another. For example, Mr. Black and Oskar develop a fairly strong relationship in just a short amount of time that all started simply because of his last name. Even though Oskar and his grandfather have never [knowingly] met, they are still living their lives in a very similar way through one another’s experiences. In a way, Oskar is picking up his grandfather’s lifelong search where he left off, and because of this, both of them are feeling the strain of lives other than their own.