Angela's Ashes Review

A description and veiw of Angela's Ashes

When reading Angela's Ashes you have to think about and get a sense of living in poverty and growing up in Ireland during World War two.

Frank and his family deal with a number amount of problems, they go through the struggles of sickness in their family, they go through hunger because of no money, Malachy "the Dad," has a strong problem with alcohol and spending any amount of money on it, and also dealing with poor living arrangements. Every body in this book is also very strict, the people of Ireland are against the English and have different views towards them, but in some cases the Irish men have to help the English in the War. Poverty is a problem in this book and there's situations that are hard for the family.

This website has a general detail of how the 1940's were and along with the living style, the feud between the Irish and the English, the illnesses, and working places. This website gives a idea or a notion of what was going on during that time and the things that took place.

This video is smiler to the book because in the book the family lives in small places with a number of people, also in the book there's a lot of parts that talk about making a fire for warmth. This video can kind of give you an Idea of how the living arrangements were and the life style.

Things to Know

Before a reader starts Angela's Ashes they might want to consider what it is like to live in poverty because in the book the McCourt family spends all of it's time in poverty. It would be beneficial if the reader knew a little bit about Ireland's history with England and what life was like in Ireland during WWII and why it became so impoverished. This would help clarify the hate Frank's relatives had toward the British.


http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176916/Easter-Rising
The article in the link above is from the Encyclopædia Britannica and it describes the Easter Rebellion; A battle in which the Irish fought to overthrow the British. The Easter Rebellion caused many indifferent Irish to have anti-British feelings. This shows a little of bit of Ireland's history with Britain, a necessary subject that what the reader might need to know before reading the book.

Clips :30-1:33, 3:15-4:00, of this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJhtNOkB07I&feature=related describes and shows a little bit of Ireland's poverty still existing 20 years after the war. These video clips do not show hardships as extreme as the ones in Angela's Ashes, but it gives enough of a glimpse to show you why characters in the book are driven to do desperate things.

Things to Think About Before You Read Angela's Ashes

Our group thought that people would benefit from learning a little about growing up in Ireland in the 1940's and learning about poverty before they read Angela's Ashes.

Poverty is a big part of this book and it would be very useful to learn a little bit about it so that you can understand what Frank is going through. His dad is always drinking their money and so they spend most of the book in poverty. This clip shows a little bit about poverty in Ireland. It is from YouTube and was done by "mrdogwalker2009." I think he did a good job of showing poverty so that you could get a feeling of it before reading Angela's Ashes. I like that it's from people who have experienced poverty, and that the images show a lot about poverty.

In order to understand the book, you should know what it was like to live in Ireland in the 1940's. Here is a good link that shows you about that. I chose this website because it was from people who lived in Ireland during that time period and i think it does a good job of telling you not just a view similar to Franks, but it also shows you different views of Ireland in the 1940's

Benefits and Articles

In "Angela's Ashes", I think people reading this book should think about what the difference between Ireland and America was during the depression. Mostly because life in America was somewhat different than in Ireland during the 1920's.

American life was much different in the 1920's, there was a huge difference in the weather climate, and the religious aspect of how people lived their lives.

I think it would benefit anyone reading this book to look into this article, http://www.casperirish.com/hannah.htm, The article is called, "Some old Customs and Cures," and is by, Hannah (McCarthy) Mulhall. Another good article to read is, http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade30.html, This article gives a view of what America was like during the same time period. the "American Culture history," was written by Lone Star College - Kingwood.

Angela's Ashes' Audience

This book is a great book and I think it can appeal to any body, the book captures your attention and is very descriptive but not in a boring way. There's a lot of different emotion in this book, along with tragedies but also with a sence of humor and sarcacim, this book can apeal to anybody and the book will give a great description of how Frank McCourt's life was as a kid.
This book is at an ongoing pace so you have to be truly interested and understand whats going on as you read because you can miss something impotant or be lost about where the family stands.
To understand the book I think you really have to follow along with what Frank McCourt is descrbing and the emotion of the family, you have to follow the way he show's the emotions and actions of his Mom, Dad, brothers and sister, people who help them and all the places they go whether to live or surivive.
One thing I think would be interesting in discussing about the book is the alcoholic problem with Frank's Dad Malachy and the way it affects his family. Also another disscusion could involve what would you do if you were in Frank's position seeing all whats happening to your family.
This is a great book and you get a feel of how Frank McCourt's life goes about.

Should the book you’re reading be available for more people to read in Perspectives?

Angela's Ashes should be available for more people to read in Perspectives. The book would appeal to anyone who could understand it. Angela's Ashes is appealing because of the unusual hardships that Frank McCourt goes through with his family. These hardships, cause the reader to want to find out, how and if, the McCourts ever escape their troubles. The Irish vocabulary and the McCourts' move from America to Ireland are the two most confusing aspects of the book, they cause you lose your place. In the beginning of the book the McCourts are in the U.S then they move to Ireland, and Irish expressions like Och, are just like saying Oh, in English. There is some mature content, but it is only suggested, and because it is not the main focus of any part of the book, it isn't necessary for it to be brought up in a discussion.