Poverty In Frank Mccourt's 'Angela's Ashes'

In Frank McCourt’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes, Frank narrates his life starting at a very young age showing a strong biased opinion towards his parents. Throughout the memoir, Frank seems to show preference towards his mother when speaking of his parents’ pasts, actions, and attitudes. Though his preference towards his mother, Angela, is prominent, he does not hide the shame, pathetic hopelessness that he feels when looking at her. On the contrary, he seems to be emotionally detached from his father as he believes that he is the reason why his mother is in the state that she is – burnt out. The biased view that Francis has on his parents helps him shape his understanding of the world and of himself and this understanding shifts with every change …show more content…
Still at a very young age, when Francis has moved to Ireland, he catches sight of his mother begging for food. At this point, Francis felt a great deal of shame and perhaps anger towards his father as well. Frank writes, “This is my own mother, begging. This is worse than the dole, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Dispensary. It’s the worst kind of shame” (250). It is the first time that Francis shows true emotions of shame towards his poverty and this is a very large turning point for his life. Even though his father is quite useless to the family, Francis never referred to him in degrading terms such as “drunkard” or “irresponsible”. On the contrary, he cannot shake the image of his mother as a beggar out of his mind which once again shows how he cares much more for his mother and is much more influenced by her than his father. Following this event, when he is a few years older, his mother takes him to the Christian Brothers so that he can continue his education. When they get there, Brother Murray slams the door in their faces. Francis doesn’t feel any shame towards his family but rather he says, “I don’t mind. I want to get a job.” (289). Due to the shame he felt towards his poverty and mother at a young age, Francis grows up valuing money over education. It is also this shame that drives him to be even more motivated to move to America where he spent the majority of his later years. Hence, from this, Francis shows that the economic status of his parents, especially his mother, had a big impact on the way he viewed his future in terms of education and career. It is the shame he felt towards his mother that allowed him to set goals to work and return to America where he can bring food, money and happiness back into his family’s