Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s Glorious Childhood Memoir

’Tis, a sequel to Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, is an interesting memoir about overcoming difficulties, no matter where you are or what others think of you.

At the beginning, Frank is still on the boat to head to America. He and a priest are acquainted, the priest tells Frank to go talk to the rich Protestants to get a job. Frank is Catholic so he does not, so when they arrive in America, Frank is jobless. The priest gets a job for him, but then he gets drunk and sexualy harrasses him so Frank leaves. In his job, Frank is constantly ashamed of his appearance, so he escapes the world through reading in the library. Most of the money he earns he sends to his family in Ireland, leaving him with barely enough money to pay rent and eat.

Frank takes his chance to move up in society by going to fight in the Korean War. After his training, Frank is stationed as a military dog trainer in Germany. There, he learns that Ireland is not the only country in poverty. When his canine unit is taken away from him, he learns how to type. The Army allows Frank to take a leave of absence, so Frank visits Limerick, where his family is still in poverty, and his father in Northern Ireland, who left him when he was ten. After his discharge, Frank returns to America to settle down.

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When he returns, he spends most of his time and wages drinking with his friends. The woman he loves leaves him, but Frank tries to get her back with a new job. When his plan fails, Frank realizes he wants to be an educator, and he goes to New York University, without a highschool diploma, and is put on probation to begin his studies. Frank then works many jobs to be able to get his teaching degree.

Still trying to deal with his insecurities, Frank goes to McKee Vocational and Technical School to work. He marries Alberta and has a child that they name Maggie, but he still feels unworthy of what he has. Frank’s Mother comes to New York, bitter about everything, and Frank does his best to understand her until her passing.

After this, Frank is no longer able to put on the mask of a happy American life, so, even though they have been together any years, he divorces his wife. However, Frank continues to teach and bring others excitement of life and learning. Although he still feels unworthy of all the good things in his life, Frank searches for the peace that he has always wanted.

The memoir ends thirty-six years after he arrived in America. Frank yet again returns to Ireland, and buries and mourns his father and mother.

The main character is Frank, he has many insecurities, but always manages to overcome them eventually. Frank’s mother, Angela, serves as a constant reminder of his past, poverty and bitterness. Alberta is Frank’s reward for telling about his hardships and living them out.

At the beginning, the memoir starts on the boat that takes Frank to America. Next, the setting goes to America in 1949. After America, the setting changes to Germany, then Ireland, and back to America again. The book ends in Ireland, where Frank was burying his parents. All of the settings were described vividly, they were easy to imagine and think about.

The theme from ’Tis is to overcome your insecurities. Frank divorced his wife because he didn’t feel worthy, and he also spent most of his time hiding away from people because of the way he looked. If he hadn’t of worried about those things, he would have had an easier life. This theme helps readers understand the importance of courage and defiance.

In the novel, there are several other literary elements. Foreshadowing is shown when Frank reads Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which is foreshadowing his future in the educational system and the topics that he uses. A symbol in the memoir is the library. The library is an escape for Frank, allowing him to escape his problems and have fun reading.

What makes the novel amazing is the descriptive details, hooking sensation, and his technique of writing. Just by reading a few sentences, can readers can feel the emotions of Frank, imagine the setting, and see what he was going through. The way Frank McCourt writes grabs the reader’s attention and makes them not want to stop reading. His technique is nowhere near perfect, like the lack of quotation marks, but it makes the reader pay more attention to what they are seeing. From one reader to another, ’Tis deserves 4.5 out of 5.

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