"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.
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5 comments:
I like the points you make about Malachy’s humor and the bluntness about which the children spoke about everything—I though about using Bill Cosby’s quote, but what you said never occurred to me. I’d also note that throughout Angela’s ashes, the lightness with which Malachy takes on many serious subjects (death, poverty, etc.)—since he is a child and he doesn’t fully understand them—prior to his teenage years is, I think, integral to his survival of the retched conditions and family life he must endure. (What I don’t like about this Cosby quote is that it limits the application of it to only “humorous” things, as opposed to the optimism and other positive things Frank sees in this crushing poverty.) Stylistically, I think the humor and general optimism allows the reader to get through the book. What I mean is that this book describes such terrible circumstances that without it, the reader would have gotten so depressed it would have taken an extreme force of will to get through the book (if it did extract such efforts by anyone who read the book, I applaud them—you’re a better person than I am). Personally, I found the depression-inducing effect of the book steadily increased as Frank matured since he understood his family’s plight better as he aged. If Angela’s Ashes was extremely depressing, I would not take it to be a bad book or one that is not powerful; rather, the depression would have just made me adverse to reading it (Frankenstein is more like that kind of book).
I think you did a really good job of analyzing how the characters cope with their circumstances. I like that the best. It’s a great post.
I too liked that you brought up Malachy's humor because he did seem to lighten a lot of situtations. Another example you could have used is Mr. McCourt holding Frank's baby sister. The innocent things that the babies would do always seemed to lighten the situtation for everyone as well. It did seem that the children suffered less because they were still able to go outside and play, and just escape a little. I would have to agree with the monk though that this is because they don't fully understand what is happening; which is evident as Frank grows up and becomes more depressed and set on getting back to America.
I enjoyed reading your post.
I agree with the points you made about Malachy bringing in humor to parts of Frank's life, however, I don't believe that humor was what turned Frank's life around because it was not a strong factor. The horrors he had to deal with as a child could not be changed by a little humor.
You write: "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."
McCourt is not unusual in this. So often it is a traumatic childhood experience that causes people to write. Something to consider: Do you think everything written in Angela's Ashes is accurate? Do you think it is possible for some of McCourt's images to be the result of poetic license?
I recommend you investigate the topic of memory as it pertains to retelling one's life story. There as some interesting publications about memory and storytelling.
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