Summary
As Angela's Ashes opens, Frank describes
how his parents meet and marry in New York, then eventually move
back to Ireland with their four sons. He characterizes his upbringing
as a typical “miserable Irish Catholic childhood,” complete with
a drunken father and a downtrodden, browbeaten mother. He tells
of Limerick's interminable rain, which spreads disease throughout
the town.
Frank then backtracks and tells the story of his mother
and father's lives before the birth of their children. Malachy McCourt, Frank's
father, grows up in the north of Ireland, fights for the Old IRA,
and commits a crime (unspecified by the narrator) for which a price
is placed on his head. Malachy escapes to America to avoid being
killed. After indulging his drinking habit in the States and in England
for many years, he returns to Belfast, where he drinks tea and waits
to die.
Angela Sheehan, Frank's mother, grows up in a Limerick
slum. She is named after the Angelus (midnight bells rung to honor
the New Year), because she was born as the bells rang. Her father
drops her baby brother on his head and runs off to Australia. Ab
Sheehan, Angela's brother, is never the same after being dropped,
but Frank recalls that all of Limerick loved him.
Angela later emigrates to America, where she meets Malachy, who
had just served three months in jail for the theft of a truck carrying
buttons. Angela becomes pregnant by Malachy. Angela's cousins, the
McNamara sisters, coerce Malachy into marrying Angela. He plots
to escape the marriage by moving to California, but he foils his
own plot by spending his train fare at the pub. The McNamara sisters
mock Malachy for his strange ways and intimate that he has a “streak
of the Presbyterian” in him. Frank is born and baptized, and is
joined a year later by a brother, Malachy. A couple of years later,
Angela gives birth to twin boys, Eugene and Oliver.
The rest of the chapter describes the difficulties and
the joys of Frank's early childhood in New York. Frank remembers
playing with Malachy in the park near their home, and listening
to his father's patriotic songs and folk tales. He recalls particularly
liking one story about a great Irish warrior named Cuchulain, and
jealously guarding this story as his own. Even though Frank's father loves
his children, he constantly drinks and loses jobs. He often spends
his wages at the pub, and as a result Angela has no money to buy
dinner for her children.
Angela has a beautiful daughter, Margaret, who inspires
Malachy to stop drinking for a while, but by the end of the chapter
Margaret dies. The death of her daughter drives Angela into a state
of depression and causes her to neglect her children. Despite the
best attempts of two of the McCourts' neighbors, Mrs. Leibowitz
and Minnie McAdorey, the situation does not improve. The women decide
to inform Delia and Philomena McNamara of their cousin's troubles.
The McNamara sisters write to Angela's mother, asking for money
to pay for the McCourts' passage back to Ireland. The chapter ends
with four-year-old Frank watching as his mother vomits over the
side of the ship and the Statue of Liberty recedes in the distance.
Analysis
McCourt's wry humor undercuts the bleakness of his early
years, as he jokes that a happy childhood “is hardly worth your
while.” In spite of the hardship he endured, Frank remembers the
occasional happiness of his childhood in New York, playing with
boys from the neighborhood and listening to his father's tales of
Ireland. The introductory paragraphs of Angela's Ashes help
to distinguish Frank, the child telling his story in the present
tense, from McCourt, the grown man looking back on his life with
the informed perspective of an adult.
McCourt interrupts the flow of his narrative with snippets
of folk songs and old Irish tales, so that Ireland seems eternally
present in the world of New York. The theme of telling tales, and
the impact tales have on Frank, returns throughout the novel. The
narrator comes to depend on these imaginative excursions to provide
insulation from the cold realities of his life. Frank is fascinated
by Freddie Leibowitz's tale of Samson, and is highly protective
of his own and all the neighboring children's right to individual
stories. For instance, he scolds his brother Malachy for singing
a song that Frank thinks belongs to Maisie MacAdorey. Also, Frank's
tale of Cuchulain unites him with his father. The narrator suggests
that in a world where material possessions are scarce, ownership
of songs and stories is crucial.
Malachy's alcoholism—referred to only half-jokingly as
the “Curse of the Irish”—runs through this chapter. Frank recalls
only one period of respite from Malachy's incessant drinking: the
few weeks following Margaret's birth. The happiness of the McCourt family
around this time is poignant in contrast to the despair they endure
after the baby's death. Angela, until this point a gritty, loving,
and responsible mother, is made miserable by the death. Food brought
by kind neighbors becomes a solace to Frank in his physical and
emotional state of need. However, even as he relishes Mrs. Leibowitz's
soup, the boy wishes that his baby sister could be there to enjoy
it too. Such details shape our reaction to Frank as much as they
inform us of the events of his early childhood. Frank comes across
as loving, intelligent, and deeply sensitive to the emotions of those
around him.
McCourt conveys his childhood impressions of New York
with sensitivity and humor, while remaining true to the language
and sentiments of a four-year-old boy. For example, McCourt describes
his twin brothers' diapers as “shitty” and includes all the silly
jokes he can recall sharing with his brother Malachy. McCourt's
word choice and humor in this introductory chapter create a tone
that is both knowing and naïve.
