Angela's Ashes

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Thus begins the highly celebrated memoir by the name of Angela's Ashes, written by Frank McCourt. In this book Frank McCourt writes about his childhood, how his parents meet in New York and then decide to return to Ireland. He describes what it is like to be at the bottom of that city's tough social hierarchy, giving vivid descriptions of how class imposes severe limitations and restrictions. It is this topic, this theme, to which I will …show more content…

Frank is apparently determined to prove that he is worth people's respect and succeeds by getting himself away from Ireland and over to the land of hopes and dreams. It is important to note that Frank sees America as an idealistic country where class distinction is a thing of the past. In reality, class distinctions existed there as well, if not as profoundly and with such historical foundation as in Old Europe. Frank's vision of America becomes even more apparent at the end of the book: "I'm on deck the dawn we sail into New York. I'm sure I'm in a film, that it will end and lights will come up in the Lyric Cinema [...] Rich Americans in top hats white ties and tails must be going home to bed with the gorgeous women with white teeth. The rest are going to work in warm comfortable offices and no one has a care in the world." With this observation Frank reveals the image he has kept so close to his heart all this time. He sees America as a classless society, ready to reward him for his talents and ambitions rather than upbringing. Angela's Ashes is a story about a boy who made a leap for a better way of living. But the message that comes across in the end one has the impression that it is all left up to faith. Thousands of Irish died from starvation and sickness in Ireland, and thousands of Irish didn't enhance their