After reading the excerpt from Frank McCourt's Book Angela's Ashes and watching the video version, choose one of the following to comment on. Please include at least 150 words in your response.
1. Frank McCourt's childhood situation was typical of the time.
2. Frank McCourt would have been better off if his family had not moved back to Ireland.
3. Frank's father Malachy provided for his family as best he could.
4. The lowest moment of Frank's young life was when...
5. The will of the spirit is stronger than the circumstances life bestows.
6. Frank's mother, Angela, needed to make changes in her life in order to better provide for her children.
3. Malachy (Frank's father) did not provide for his family very well. He was a bum, an alcoholic, and a truly abismal role model toward his children. He could have done so much more to help his family! He could have actually used the money he was payed to help his family instead of blowing it all on booze. He would spend every dime he made or was given on alcohol. He had a small baby to take care of, but he could not even spare one penny of his booze-run money to pay for medicine or food. The man was an alcoholic and in need of help. I cannot say that it was totally his fault, however, because I don't know what led him to become such a savage alcoholic. It could have been the tough times or even his own father. Of course, one cannot dismiss his actions either. He had so many chances to change his ways but he chose instead to continue on his path of self-destruction which ultimately led to him abandoning his family. So, all in all, he wasn't an outright terrible man but he isn't going to win a family-man award any time soon.DMM
ReplyDeleteI think that Frank and his family would have been better off if they had not moved back to Ireland because when they moved to Ireland the children began to become sick and get the fever and die. There was a total of three children that died and if they had stayed in The Americas they wouldn’t of had the chances of getting the fever and having no place to work because in the Americas they had plenty of jobs to chose from and in Ireland they hardly had any jobs available to them so they has no money and was always depending on other people such as their family. They where also always begging for money and food.
ReplyDeleteIf they has stayed in the Americas Frank would have never met that girl and would have never got hurt. He ended up going back to the Americas for a job in the end so him and his family should have just stayed there in the first place.
KLB
4. Frank's lowest moment in his life, in my opinion, was when he moved back to Ireland. Even though the poverty was a bad deal for them in the U.S., there was nobody saying they HAD to leave, but why they chose to beats me. I mean, they knew life in Ireland would be tougher, and yet decided to go anyway. Like I said before, while poverty is a horrible thing, no one ever said they had to go back, and I think they would have been better off because they would have been able to find jobs much easier because of the diversity in the U.S. Jobs were more prevalant in the U.S., so that's where I base my diversity of jobs at. If they would have gotten jobs in the U.S., they could have made money (obviously) to find themselves a home, instead of going to Ireland and having their father get drunk every night and rejected from jobs every day.
ReplyDeleteZK
3. Franks father did not provide the best that he could for his family. What kind of father, that has a wife and children at home with no heat, no food,a new born baby that needs milk,holes in the boys shoes, and clothes that are about ready to fall off of them cause they are full of holes, suffer while he is out drinking away the money. Everytime that he came home,drunk and singing songs he would tell them that he would change, and angela wanted out but he always had a way to persuade her not to leave. When he wanted to get a job in england like all the other familys, i really thought that he was going to change, and then he never sent back any money for them. Good thing frankie stepped in and got a job, so that he could provide for his family. When Malachy came home for christmas, all he brought with him were chocolates, then left that day, and never returned leaving his family to defend for themselves. What kind of father would do that to his family?
ReplyDeleteAK
There were many low moments in a young Frank McCourt's life. The lowest of the low would probally be when his father never returned our ever sent money back from England. This was a low moment because, Frank loved his father but he wasn't able to tell him before he left because, in that time you loved God not your father. But there were things that he didn't love his father doing like drinking pints down at the pub or wasting money or beer and what not. This is why Frank tried so hard to make money for his family seeing that his father wasn't willing to. This made Frank want to go back to America to get a life better than the one he had at Ireland. In his life he worked for the man who had the coal wagon he also worked as a telegram deleiver. This proved to help him in gaining money to go to America but what set him over the top was when he started to help the money loaner in writing letters for the people who owe her. But he also one day found her dead so he took all the money that she had and her book he tossed in the river so no one owed her money anymore.
ReplyDeleteDML
Franks and his family pry would have been better if his family wouldn’t have moved back to Ireland because they had a very very very hard time trying to find good jobs in Ireland it was easier to find jobs that pry paid better in America if they would have stayed over there. And when they moved back they kept on getting babies sent to their home that they didn’t have enough money to take care of plus their kids kept dying from the consumption and stuff. and when they didn't have enough money they sent there pop over to get them money and to send them some money in the telegram but he was just a no good rotten soul that barely made it back for xmas and never sent the money and all of the money that he made he drank. It was not a good deal.
ReplyDeleteryan
Frank McCourt's childhood I think is probably typical for the time. Because back then there where lots of poor families. In the movie it shows kids without shoes. There neighbor hood that they lived in wasnt nice at all. People would through there waste out side because they did have plumbing. They would weaqr the same cloths ever day because they didn't have enough money for lots of cloths. They might only have one pair of pants and a shirt. But there where probably reasons why they were poor. The father would drink it all away by the pint. Also the parents would be lazy and would not work. Also you would not get paid very well. But the hardest part was getting a job. Just because you were poor it was harder to get a job. Sometimes the kids had to get a job working in coal mines or as telegram deliverer. CK
ReplyDelete3. Frank's father Malachy provided for his family as best he could.
ReplyDeleteI strongly disagree with this statement. Frank McCourt's father Malachy could have done much better under the horrible circumstances that his family went through such as the needs for food, clothing, and proper health care. Malachy was an acoholic who didnt have a job. However, when he actually did get a job and a wage for the day, he would blow it off at the pub and arrive home drunk and abuse his family. Malachy didnt want to be perceived as a beggar, so instead of getting the needs such as coal of the street to fuel fire to warm the baby's milk, he just went on home to the extremely disappointed Angela who had Frankie and Malaki fetch the coal. Even though I believe that Malachy didnt do the best he could as a father to care for his family, he was still loved and cherised by his wife and kids. One of the things he did right was go to England to get a job to try and provide better for his family.
ERK
3. I believe Frank's father Malachy did not provide for his children as best as he could. His drinking was a down fall for suppose to be taking care of your family. Every time Malachy had received some money it ended up at the bar drinking all of the money away. Although there were times that he was a half way decent man, he did love his family very much but the drinking just consumed his life. When Malachy went to England to work so he could support the family he ended up there for quit some time but he never sent any money. When he returned home all he came with was a box of chocolates. After Christmas dinner he left to go back to England, and sent some money to them, but after that they never seen him or received any money from him ever again. This is why i feel Malachy didn't do his best to provide for his family.
ReplyDeleteTMW
#3 I very strongly disagree about that statement about him not supporting his family because he never did work and if he did he just drank it all away. He got some money from the bank for the new born baby and he just went to the pub and had several pints. He finally went to England to go to work and he didn’t send any money in the telegram the next week. He then came home with only a lousy box of chocolates and the family got pissed. He got enthused and away he went back to America. The next week he sent allot of money and after that telegram they never saw another. He never did come home. That meant that the man of the house was frank. He supplied for the family for a while before he went to America to pursue his dream in becoming a teacher. DJS
ReplyDeleteThe lowest moment of Frank McCourt's young life was after he made excitement on the couch with the young and beautiful girl. He met the rich girl when he was delivering his telegrams to her house. I chose this because after they had finished he thought he gave her the consumption. Consumption was an infectious and sometimes deadly disease. Also known as tuberculosis, the consumption in most cases attacks the lungs but can also attack other various parts of the victim’s body. This was not true however because she already had the consumption. She later died of the condition and Frankie thought it was all his fault. After he went to the burial of her lifeless body Frank was very sad because of the sin he thought he had committed. He went to confession and confessed to the priest saying that he made love to a young rich girl and gave her the consumption.
ReplyDeleteGWF
2. Frank McCourts life would have been better off if his family had not moved back to Ireland, because in Ireland his dad had a terrible time of trying to find a decent paying job, or a job at all. In Ireland Frank's family was constantly surrounded by poverty and illnesses caused by sleeping on matresses owned by someone who died of an illness, therefore the children got the same illness and ended up dying from that illness. In America, they may have lived in poverty, same as in Ireland, but at least they didn't sleep on disease infested matresses and in America it would of been easier to find a decent paying job, and be able to keep it. Also, in America you didn't throw your waste in between your house and your neighbors house. Which means you didn't have waste coming into your house and your house didn't smell really bad. ckf
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