p. 271-362 THE END

Dear Reader,
     In the last 90 pages of Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt I think I began to enjoy the book a lot more. it didn't even register in my mind that there were no quotes. In the beginning of this 90 page section I was shocked when the grandmother said, "I don't remember a wall and if I don t remember a wall how can I remember another room?" (p. 276). I think that she definitely knew about what happened (the family using the wall for fire wood and the boys breaking the beam). I wonder if she was just trying to help them out. Or maybe she really didn't know there was a second room.
     What made me smile was the boy's positive attitudes. At one point they are in this horrible situation of moving their stuff to a new house in the middle of the night and it says, "once we get away from the lane Alphie bangs on the pot with a spoon and Michael sings a song he heard in a film..." (p. 278). I thought that they would be upset especially the little ones. I was picturing the little kids crying because they have to walk all this way in the dark, cold night. It made me happy to see how much joy they had in a situation that isn't too happy.
      Okay, so I got really upset when I read, "Women's work, Angela, women's work and free rent" (p. 281). Why can't Laman get off his own lazy butt and empty out his own pee bucket. I would not mind if he didn't say anything at all. I hate when people say its a women's job or something like that. No, a job is a job and you can get off of your butt and do it. Yes, there are jobs geared more towards men or more towards women bit this was a simple task of emptying HIS OWN BUCKET!
      When Malachy goes off to Dublin for work I got sad. Angela was losing her loved ones one by one. First almost half of her kids dies, now Malachy is leaving, and soon so will Frank. Its hard for some parents too watch their kids go to their first day of kindergarten let alone go to Dublin or America for work. I feel like their family is getting stretched further and further apart. The only reason why i say stretched and not broken is because they keep some form of relationship (well maybe not the father).
     I love the part of Mr. O'Halloran says "Frank must continue school," (p. 289). I think that is an achievement for Frank. To be in a place where no one is expected to be smart or successful and people are telling YOU too finish school that's amazing. That must be somewhat of a confidence booster even though frank says he doesn't want to be in school. Also for his teacher to tell him to get out of Limerick that's a bigger accomplishment. Someone actually wants Frank to do well in life. They want him too success because he knows that Frank has the ability to do so.
      I love the lesson that the mother tells Frank when she says, "you never let anybody slam the door in your face again. Do you hear me?" (p. 290), I think that is a lesson that everyone needs to know. If you want something then why would you let people tell you no? Just because people try to tear you down doesn't mean you have to stop shooting for your dreams and hopes.
      I swear, everyone in Limerick or even Ireland had anger issues! I couldn't get over how mad Laman got when Frank was just being a kid/teenagers. He made a promise and he doesn't think a kid is going to remember that promise and hold you too it? His anger obviously got way to out of control! I just don't understand and I don't think I ever will, why people got/still get so angry over the smallest things.
     Poor Frank, that is all I have too say. Every time he does something he has been taught that it is most likely a sin. He gets so caught up in "I have to go to confession. I cant believe i just did that". I think if he didn't do the things that he did, like take the bread, he probably would have starved. The religion astonishes me. The rules and the different priests and its always sin upon sin upon sin. It feels like nothing he ever does is good. He's a young boy, isn't he supposed to do the stuff he's doing?
     The end of the book is what saved my opinion. Even though I actually knew Frank did go to America (from prior knowledge) if the ending didn't flow the way it had I would have been a little upset. He got to be in his dream place. The place that would give him a better life. This whole story definitely makes me appreciate America a lot more. I never really thought about how other countries actually viewed the U.S. until now. I just thought, "oh yeah land of the free, whatever" but we were really land of the free to some people. Also we were the land of opportunity, especially for Frank. Being interested in Irish and English culture before reading this book I loved seeing the good and the very bad of Ireland during Frank's childhood.
   
      Sincerely,
              Perry

P. 181-270 Response

Dear Reader,
       In the next 90 pages of Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt i was a little shocked when I saw that that the new babies name was was Alphonsus. I had never heard of a name like that before. Then, when Frankie says, "That's a stupid name. It's not even Irish," (p. 182) I had to look up where the name was from. I guess this name is either Italian, Spanish, or Old German. I thought they were all about Irish names because the father was so into everything about the Irish nation. I guess not.
       I cannot stand this father anymore. Back in this time 5 pounds was $8.30. It doesn't seem like much but it obviously was. If $8 US dollars could get a family of five enough food to not starve than that crazy. Who would drink that much money away. What I don't get is why the bartenders don't stop them. I guess it is all about the money. The more people drink the more money bartenders get for their families.
       I liked reading about the confirmation only because I have just recently made mine. Frankie's is obviously very different than mine was. First off he says, "I'm ten years old and ready to go to St. Joseph's Church for my Confirmation," (p. 187). That is four years before I made mine. At ten i didn't even think about making my confirmation. Its crazy to me to see how different their culture and religious ways are different from mine.
       When Quasimodo got in trouble his punishment shocked me. I couldn't believe that a parent would punish a kid like that no matter the time period. When it says, "she drags him into the coal hole under the stairs and locks him in" (p. 189). My question is how could someone ever do that to their own child. Think about the consequences that would be given today if a parent did something like that. I don't think i can wrap my mind around it.
      Wow! for the first time there is a nice teacher in their school, "Hoppy doesn't call us idiots and if you ask him a question he doesn't go into a rage" (p. 207). This is the first teacher that doesn't hate kids for wanting to understand something. The rest of the teachers that Frank has had shouldn't even be teaching children, let alone any person. I don't get why the other teaches got so mad. Don't they want their students to pass. Then again I feel like the other teachers wanted their students to feel stupid.
       It is sad when Frank says, "If I were in America i could say, I love you, Dad, the way they do in the films, but you can't say that in Limerick for fear you might be laughed at," (p. 210). That is really depressing. You cant say you love your parents because someone will laugh at you? That concept doesn't make sense to me. Why would someone laugh at another for loving their parents. Don't they love theirs or is that not cool? I would hate to have that thought in the back of my mind, "I can't tell Mom or Dad I love them because someone is going to laugh at me". It is sort of heartbreaking in a way.
       Finally the mother is done having children! I feel after reading, "Mam says, Alphie is enough. I'm worn out. That is the end of it. No more children. Dad says, the good Catholic women must perform her wifely duties and submit to her husband or face eternal damnation" (p. 216), that the dad was forcing children. I feel that especially after Margaret passed away he just wanted another girl. I think 100% that he is wrong for pushing children on his wife. Before I wondered what was wrong with for having all these children but know my views have changed. My blame is no longer on her as much but on Malachy Sr.
      The grandmother gets on my nerves so bad! I couldn't believe it when i read, "Grandma says we could starve to death for all she cares" (p. 236). Who says that?! I know she may be mad at Angela for marrying a man form the North but that was over ten years ago. Plus, don't you think she could set aside her anger for the poor kids? I would have thought that a grandmother would love her grand kids more than anything even if her and her child are not on good terms. I never knew someone could be so heartless like her. Aunt Aggie and the grandmother are like two peas in a pod when it comes to how they treat Angela's family. For example Aunt Aggie says, "I suppose he ran away. Good riddance. If he was hungry he'd be here. Let him find comfort in a ditch" (p. 248). What person would say this about anyone, especially a family member? She sickens me. If i was her and my nephew ran away I would be up all night looking for him. I wouldn't dismiss his whole existence. I don't think that her attitude is influenced by the culture but i could be wrong. I just can't picture any human with a heart and compassion acting like this.
       I like how when Frank starts working for the neighbor he feels like a real working man. I think it gives him a boost of confidence. He's always put down and looked down upon. Finally someone appreciates him and his work and other kids want to be him. That has to be my favorite part in the book so far even though he ends up not being able to work for his neighbor anymore. But that moment when he was happy helping this man was a great section of this story.
      After all this time the father still drinks away this money. I thought England would change him in some way. I thought that after he sent that money one time he would send more. How wrong was I?! Even all the kids know that he had drunken all the money. I feel like when your kids know what a scumbag you are maybe you should change your ways. He is a horrible in the sense that he doesn't have the sense to actually support his family. Though, I really do think that he love his family.


                                          Sincerely,
                                                 Perry

Blog Post 270-End

Dear Reader, 

I really don’t know what to think now that it’s done.  I liked it.  It was sad and miserable, but I liked it.  I like the way he writes.  It was nice to take a break from the boring old quotation marks.  Like I said in my first response; it’s like he’s telling us a story.  I got used to it, and grew to actually enjoy that style.  And as I wonder as I do with every school-assigned book, would I have enjoyed it more if I had read it on my own?  The answer is usually yes, and this book is no exception.  Still this book wasn’t as harmed as others were.  Over-analyzing bits of it is usually what makes me sick of it, but we didn’t do that here.  Instead, every time ¼ of the book passed, I got to rant about it.  I love to do that!!!  I don’t shut up if I’m reading a book I enjoy; I talk about it to everyone!  Nonetheless, I have spent a good deal of time stressing over it, so that somewhat diminishes the ease of this section of the project. 

            I want to talk about the priest that forgave Frank.  I feel like it’s a sort of reoccurring thing throughout the novel where the family members come into contact with charitable people who change the courses of their lives.  They’re really fortunate in these scenarios.  What if he had never met that priest?  He would have never forgiven himself for supposedly sending Theresa into Hell.  I really do think it changed the rest of his life, Frank recalled the priest telling him that, “God forgives me and I must forgive myself, that God loves me and I must love myself for only when you love God in yourself can you love all God’s creatures.” (344).  After that, he was able to get up and move on from Theresa.  He was also able to move on from Ireland. 

            What does, “Never smoke another man’s pipe,” (353) mean?  I feel like McCourt wouldn’t have mentioned it if it hadn’t had some value to it.  Is it a theme?  I can’t tell unless I understand what the old man means.  Is it, “Never live another man’s dreams”?  Or is it “Don’t smoke kid”?  Or maybe, “Do things yourself, and prosper from your own hard work and effort”?  I can’t make up my mind; they all seem to fit the story so well.  Perhaps it means nothing at all.  Maybe McCourt put it in there to show that some things that should be full of meaning, aren’t.  What’s your opinion?

            I understand exactly how Frank feels right before he leaves Ireland.  It’s the fear of regretting his decisions that causes him to wander about Ireland, wondering if he’ll ever see it again.  He wanted, “to get pictures of Limerick stuck in my head in case I never come back.”  (357).  Moving to America was a massive, life-altering experience for him.  Did he ever see his mother or brothers again?  I wouldn’t be able to do that at 19, not permanently at least.  Still, my great-grandmother did the same thing at 18, and never saw Ireland again.  It made Frank’s parting for America so bittersweet, and my heart broke to think of all of the immigrants who've gone through the same experience.  But still, I hope Frank enjoyed America.  I hope that he got to see at least Malachy, that they all wrote, and that his mother never had to empty another chamber pot ever again, just as he dreamed. 

Sincerely, 

Emily Botelho

Blog Post 180-270

Dear Reader,

I’ve had it with the dad.  I’m done.  I quit.  I’m sick of trying to defend him mentally, to think of it from his perspective.  The poor family would be better off with him dead.  It’s against the rules to divorce, but if he died, then surely she could remarry!!  I just find it so unfair!  She didn’t even want to marry the old bum; she was forced to!  He needs to get his alcohol addiction under control.  It’s ruining him, and it’s ruining the people around him.  I’m sorry if this paragraph lacks structure, or anything like that.  This is just more of a rant.  It made me sick when he went off to England and drank the money.  I felt even worse, however, when he drank the money for the new baby.  That was too much.  My heart broke when he was in confession and told the priest, “‘Because she sent me out looking for my father in the pubs, Father, and I couldn’t find him and she hasn’t a scrap in the house because he’s drinking the five pounds Grandpa sent from the North for the new baby and she’s raging by the fire because I can’t find my father.’”  (185).  It’s the worst.  I hope it somehow gets better for them, but I doubt it will. 

            So to go with their father being pointless, I was really happy when he got the job working with Mr. Hannon.  He finally felt like a grown man.  But more than this, he was making money, some of which he gave to his mother.  They desperately needed money.  He felt like a man, bringing home the day’s salary.  I don’t know how to describe how I felt when he did this.  It seemed to me that in the absence of a decent father, he felt as though there was extra weight needed for him to pull.  To him, there was a deed to be done that needed doing, and he did it.   Or at least, he was starting to.  And the pathetic bit is, it’s true.  They needed money, and their father wasn’t going to do anything about it.  When he lost it, he cried, and thought to himself, “…This was my one chance to be a man and bring home the money the telegram boy never brought from my father.”  (265).  I feel sad to think of that poor boy and his poor eyes.  I’ve had pink eye (no where near as severely as he did) and it’s not any fun.  It’s miserable.  They’re miserable. 

            The medical advances that we’ve made astound me.  It is WWII in the book, and it took him months to recover from typhoid.  It takes about a week to one month now, with antibiotics.  That’s only 70 years, that’s crazy!  Yet, I think he’s lucky to have spent so much time in the hospital.  I think that it was his being in there that inspired his writing career.  He read books to pass the time.  With nothing else to do, he grew to love it.  In order to write, you need to be able to read.  Without that, poor Frank may have not become the writer he is today.  It gave him a sense of hope and protection, “I can dream about the red-lipped landlord’s daughter and the highwayman, and the nurses and nuns can do nothing about it.  It’s lovely to know the world can’t interfere with the inside of your head.”  (202).  In my opinion, he deserved it.  Do you think that it helped him love writing?  Or that it expanded his imagination?  The stories his dad used to tell when sober, those probably helped too.  All of these things, without them, he would have been in a much different (probably worse) situation. 

Sincerely, 
Emily

Pages 181-270 Post -Adam

Dear Reader,

            I think that the fact that Frank got sick and went to the hospital was a good thing. I know that it sounds like I am being a complete jerk here but it is true. When he was at the hospital he met Patricia. If he never got sick and had to go to the hospital that never would have happened. I think of that as a pretty crucial part of the book. His father also kissed him on the forehead when he was at the hospital. This was the first time that his father has ever done this. This made Frank feel “so happy I feel like I’m floating out of the bed.” (193) This is one of those moments where you hate and at the same time kind of like the father at the same time (more on the hate side of course)

            I am so happy that the father finally decided to go off to England to get a job. It took him long enough. It still makes me mad though, that the fact the mother had to threaten that she was going to go find a job in England just to get the father to get up and actual take control of his life and family. He will finally “go to England” (218) to finally get a job. Things are starting to look a bit brighter for Frank and the rest of his family. I hope the story line continues in this kind of direction.

            I feel so bad for Frank. He has such mixed feelings about his father. Sometimes he loves his father, while at other times he hates his guts. For example, when his father kissed him on the forehead, he was one of the happiest kids I have ever seen. He also hates him in the way that he comes home almost every day drunk out of his mind. He wishes he could say “I love you, Dad,” (210). He doesn’t know what to think of his dad, whether it is in a good way or a bad.

            Sincerely,

                        Adam

2nd Blog Post

         Dear Reader,

Their devotion to the Catholic Church surprises me.  I knew that the Irish were typically very Catholic, but I never knew that it was to this extent!  It seems to me that only a few of them are really into it (like their grandmother and Fintan).  I think they do it out of pride.  They don’t want to be ridiculed by their neighbors.  It’s like a contest, to see who can be the best church-going Catholic out there.  They want respect for their family name, like when their mom got Frank all ready to go and ask to be an altar boy, and she told him, “‘’Tis a great pity you grew out of your First Communion suit but you have nothing to be ashamed of, you come from good blood, McCourts, Sheehans, or my mother’s family the Guilfoyles that owned acre after acre in County Limerick before the English took it away and gave it to footpads from London.’” (149). It’s so much more different today!

         School is so much more different than I expected it to be too.  I’ve never been to Catholic school before, so it took a while for me to not be totally shocked by the teacher enforcing religion in the classroom.  Their teacher, Mr. O’Neill, seems very odd.  He’s apparently not even teaching his students the right things, as we saw when Mr. O’Dea said, “‘Well then, Mr. O’Halloran, tell him to stop teaching the geometry.  The geometry is for the fifth form and not the fourth.  The geometry is mine.  Tell him to teach the long division and leave Euclid to me.’” (154).  They’ve got a loopy teacher who’s awfully emotional about a Greek mathematician teaching them.  That would never pass today, even if it was in Ireland and not America.  He was simply scolded and sent back to his room.  He didn’t lose his job or anything!  I was shocked! 

         Mr. Timoney is my new favorite character.  This man is great and I think that Frank is very fortunate to have met him.  Frank doesn’t even realize it, but he’s replacing his bum of a dad as the fatherly figure.  He though to himself, “Mr. Timoney is an old man but he talks like a friend and I can say what I feel.  Dad would never talk to me like Mr. Timoney.  He’d say, ‘Och, aye,’ and go for long walk.” (178).  I feel like that’s a sort of repeating thing throughout the novel, where kind people do a simple thing, yet it has a great impact on Frank’s life.  I feel like meeting Mr. Timoney, even if just for a short time, gave him faith in adults again.  They don’t need to be so cranky.  Do you think that he was like this because of his religion?  Perhaps it made him less uptight?  Frank really liked him; he tried to read to him even when he was locked away at the mental hospital.  That poor kid really liked him; I wish that the guard who laughed at him would have had more heart. 

Sincerely,
Emily Botelho

Pages 91-180 Post - Adam

Dear Reader,

            In this part of the book, the main thing that I was always thinking about was the father. He is making me so angry. He keeps on dragging the family and holding them back from the simple task of living a normal life. He just keeps on blowing all of his money on drinks at the pub. I know that he does love his family and kids, but he doesn’t show it very well. There was one point in chapter three where “he has his mouth on the little nose and he’s sucking the bad stuff out of Michael’s head” (103). He saved Michaels life in the panic of when he couldn’t breathe. Clearly he loved his kid, yet he also shows that he doesn’t love the kid, any of the kids. His addiction is causing that to happen, and put the rest of his family at risk.

            In chapter five I started to like Frank as a character a lot more than before. I think that he is rebellious and doesn’t exactly care for what he is told to do if he doesn’t like it. He felt uncomfortable   at first when he was given Irish Dance lessons every Saturday. After the first lesson he did not want to do it anymore. Because he does whatever he wants he decided to go “to the Lyric Cinema instead” (143). He blows all of the money that he was given for dance lessons on going to the movies and getting sweets instead. He does not care what his parents want him to do, or what they think if they find out. He does it anyway because he would rather do that then take dance lessons. This made me think of him as a more favored character than before in my opinion.

            In chapter five I have also realized that the father isn’t the only one to blame for what they are missing out on in everyday life. They all have small addictions or things that they use to help them with what they are going through. Frank’s mother has to beg just for a cigarette to help her get away from what else is going on in her life. Frank’s dad obviously uses a majority of their money just to get a drink at the bar. Even Frank often steals his mother’s money and uses it to go to the movies. They use what they have and what they can get to enjoy the things that make them happy in life. Whether it is a cigarette, a drink, or a movie, they all use it to aid themselves.

            I found it pretty funny when Malachy got his dad’s teeth stuck in his mouth. I know “he can choke on the teeth” (139), but I couldn’t take it seriously. I imagined a little kid with extremely huge teeth. They eventually take him to the hospital and get them out so it is fine by the end.

            I think that this book is getting a little less sad and depressed as it goes along and I hope it stays going in this direction.

            Sincerely,

                        Adam