Angela's Ashes
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:45 pmLife in Ireland, during the 1930s and 1940s is described in all its grittiness. For years the family subsisted on little more than bread and tea. The family was always living in fear of when the next real meal would be, and if the kids would be able to have shoes for school.
Frank's father eventually found a job at a defense plant in Coventry, England, yet he sent money back to his struggling family in Ireland only once. As there were few jobs for women at the time, their mother was forced to ask for help from the Church and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sometimes, Frank and his brothers scavenged for lumps of coal or peat turf for fuel or stole bread in order to survive, the also occasionally stole leftover food from restaurants at the end of the day. Frank's father's issues led to Frank having to support his family as the "man of the house". Therefore, Frank started working when he was 14 years old. Frank would give some of his savings to his mother in order to feed the rest of the children at home. Frank spent most of his life without his father to teach him about the real world and everything a young boy needs to know in order to succeed in life.
Frank developed typhoid and was hospitalized. Later, he got a job helping a neighbor who had leg problems; he delivered coal for the neighbor and as a result developed chronic conjunctivitis. The family was finally evicted after they took a hatchet to the walls of their rented home to burn for heat. The family was forced to move in with a distant relative who treated them very badly and eventually forced a sexual relationship on Frank's mother, Angela. As a teenager, Frank worked at the post office as a telegram delivery boy and later delivered newspapers and magazines for Eason's. He also worked for the local money lender, writing threatening demand letters as a means to save enough to finally realize his dream of returning to the United States. The money lender died, after he returned to get sherry for her then he took her money from her purse and threw her ledger of debtors into the river. The story ends with Frank's sailing into Poughkeepsie, New York, ready to begin a new life at age nineteen.
Frank's father eventually found a job at a defense plant in Coventry, England, yet he sent money back to his struggling family in Ireland only once. As there were few jobs for women at the time, their mother was forced to ask for help from the Church and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sometimes, Frank and his brothers scavenged for lumps of coal or peat turf for fuel or stole bread in order to survive, the also occasionally stole leftover food from restaurants at the end of the day. Frank's father's issues led to Frank having to support his family as the "man of the house". Therefore, Frank started working when he was 14 years old. Frank would give some of his savings to his mother in order to feed the rest of the children at home. Frank spent most of his life without his father to teach him about the real world and everything a young boy needs to know in order to succeed in life.
Frank developed typhoid and was hospitalized. Later, he got a job helping a neighbor who had leg problems; he delivered coal for the neighbor and as a result developed chronic conjunctivitis. The family was finally evicted after they took a hatchet to the walls of their rented home to burn for heat. The family was forced to move in with a distant relative who treated them very badly and eventually forced a sexual relationship on Frank's mother, Angela. As a teenager, Frank worked at the post office as a telegram delivery boy and later delivered newspapers and magazines for Eason's. He also worked for the local money lender, writing threatening demand letters as a means to save enough to finally realize his dream of returning to the United States. The money lender died, after he returned to get sherry for her then he took her money from her purse and threw her ledger of debtors into the river. The story ends with Frank's sailing into Poughkeepsie, New York, ready to begin a new life at age nineteen.