IND READING- The Freedom Of Writing, Prompt # 18, Chapter #18

Frank chose the title Angela's Ashes because most of the story takes place around what his mother, Angela. Angela had to go through many hardships in order to keep her children alive. First, She moved to Ireland with Malachy Senior to conceive and raise four children. Little did she know how Malachy Senior would act after they got married and moved to Ireland. Second she had to deal with Malachy not being able to keep a job, her families malnutrition, her children's death, and the embarrassment that came along with it all.
Angela had to take the pain of watching Malachy lose job after job, using all the money he received at the pub, watching her two twins Oliver and Eugene McCourt die of starvation, watching herself become a beggar, and watching her children walk down the streets being laughed at because of how poor they were. She continued to look after her sons and never gave up by taking steps forward to do anything she could in order to see her son's have a life. The sad part was, in the end all her children left her for America and her husband remained irresponsibe.

If I could change the title of the book I would call it The Freedom Of Writing because writing is what freed Frank from the probable fate that laid in front of him. He gave hope to his younger brother, Malachy Junior, and was on the track to be poor and helpless for the rest of his life. He overcame that and made a living through his education of reading and writing.

IND READING- Trip to America, Prompt # 7, Chapter #17

My predictions from the previous chapters have come true. Frank earns enough money in order to sail to America and live his father's dream. This boat ride took him three years to accumulate enough money to sail on. He achieved this mass of money by saving the money from a post office job and writing letters for the ill. Although he regrets leaving his family and especially his mother, he looks upon New York's great lights. The memoir ends in his astonishment of these lights.

Angela's Ashes allowed me to infer that Frank found an opportunity in a writing a book because Angela's Ashes was created.

IND READING- Malachy's Step Of Bravery, Prompt # 5 , Chapter #12

Malachy Junior moved me in this chapter because he was the first sibling to leave the McCourt household and take control of his life. I was positive Frank was going to be the first to, considering he is the oldest. Malachy helps Frank put together a soccer team, calls Frank Robin hood because Frank steals from the rich and giving to the poor, and he cares about his future. He takes matters into his own hands and decides to get an education at the Army School of Music in Dublin leaving Limerick behind. "The Irish army is looking for boys who are musical and would like to train in the Army School of Music. They accept my brother, Malachy, and he goes off to Dublin to be a soldier and play the trumpet" (283, McCourt). The best thing for the McCourt family is to leave Malachy Senior behind and find ways to support themselves. Malachy junior is the only one that is on the way to freedom and peace. Hopefully he will send parts of his pay checks home to his family to help with his father has destroyed. I took Malachy step in being brave and branching out into the world by heart. It takes a strong person to do that.

IND READING- Born With The Gift To Write, Prompt # 6 , Chapter# 9

Due to Frank's obsession with Shakespeare, reading books, listening to his father's stories, telling stories, writing letters, and hardships he has had to live with, I have made the prediction he will become a writer. He will pay for his family away his father never could. In this chapter, Frank is diagnosed with the worse case of conjunctivitis the doctors have ever seen due to his constant reading. His mother continues to struggle in order to feed their family and Frank's father now left for England to get a job. Malachy Senior still does not send any pay checks home to the family because of his nights at the pub. Angela is forced to become a beggar and Frank begins to steal coal and food from richer families in order to survive. I predict that Frank McCourt is going to become an amazing writer and be able to pay for his family to eat and have a better home. He is going to move to America and live his father's dream of working in America. "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 get laughed at" (210, McCourt).

IND READING- Don't Trust Your Father Frank!, Prompt #2 , Chapter #8

I am confused at this point in the story. Frank continues to love and respect his father, when his father loses all his jobs and spends all of the family's dole at the pub; leaving his family to starve. Frank proclaims the real Malachy Senior is the father he wakes up to, not the one drinking during the night at the pub. Every mourning Malachy Senior would sit and read the newspaper and tell Frank and the rest of his siblings stories, "if we say, Dad, tell us a story, he makes one up about someone in the lane and the story will take us all over the world, up in the air, under the sea and back to the lane"(209, McCourt). Why does Malachy Senior even bother telling his children stories when he wont even feed them? Malachy tells his sons that if they lived in America, everything would be different. He would get an office job and be able to support them. Why didn't he stay in New York with Angela when they met and then had the four children? Why did they move to Ireland? "I feel sad over the bad thing but I can't back away from him because the one in the mourning is my real father and 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" (210, McCourt). If his father wants to move back to America, why doesn't he get a job to try and move back? Why does he sit there and drink and proclaim everything would be better in America?

What confusses me the most is, Why doesn't Frank realize that if his father is to lazy to keep a job in Ireland, how is he going to be able to keep a job in America? America is built on hard work.

IND READING-The Powerless, Prompt #4, Chapter #5

Due to malnutrition and smoking, Malachy Senior and Angela must get their teeth removed and replaced with false teeth. I could not help but be surprised by this because it almost seems as if the teeth are portraying a deeper message. The chapter would have been fine if McCourt removed this detail in chapter 5. This brought me to believe McCourt added this teeth section for a certain reason. I did some research and came across McCourt's deeper mention.

When an adult losses a tooth, it resembles a transition between growing up and growing old. This transition forces the growing old adult to start looking at the next stage in life; death. Losing teeth brings feelings of helplessness and powerlessness into one's life. It resembles, failure, embarrassment, poor health, financial instability, abandonment, pain, and death. False teeth indicate fear and being hypocritical. All of these could not represent the life of the McCourt family any better.





The parents, Malachy Senior and Angela, have reached that hump in every adults life where they realize they are growing old. The families financial instability brings poor health, helplessness, powerlessness, failure, embarrassment, and pain to the four members. Malachy Senior is the main cause of the families financial instability because he spends all the money he earns at the pub. He can not keep any job a long period of time, resulting in his frequent unemployment and hurting family. This leaves Angela feeling helpless, powerless, and abandoned. She blames Malachy Senior for the death of their two children Oliver and Eugene McCourt and the pain she feels. Malachy Junior and Frank feel embarrassed because their classmates laugh at them for how poor they are. The false teeth represent Malachy Senior perfectly because they represent someone being a hypocrite. He claims he loves his children, but he chooses to go to the pub instead of feed his family and keep them healthy and alive.

IND. READING- Left To Walk Alone, Prompt #14, Chapter #4

"The master says it's a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it's a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there's anyone in the world who would like us to live. My brothers are dead and my sister is dead and I wonder if they died for Ireland or the Faith. Dad says they were too young to die for anything. Mam says it was disease and starvation and him never having a job. Dad says, Och, Angela, puts on his cap and goes for a long walk"(McCourt, 56).

This quote has a major importance to the book because it is now clear Frank McCourt walks alone, he is almost left to care for himself at this young age. Frank further proves his quiet wellbeing and being an observer. Frank realizes that by his teacher and father glorifying death, causes him and his classmates to stop following their ambitions. 

Frank is also left to deal with his parents not getting along. His mother, Angela blames the loss of his brothers on Malachy, his father. She claims the reason they died was because Malanchy could not keep a steady job. This worries Frank because his father once again just walks out of the house and will not return for a couple hours. His father most likely will come home drunk, spend the money he earned working on beer instead of his family, and walk through the door singing drinking Irish folk songs. 

 

IND. READING-The Pub Life, Prompt #1, Chapter #3

The current chapter brought a bitter taste to my mouth. I disliked every event in this chapter; on exception of the new born baby, Michael McCourt. Malachy McCourt, Frank's father, believes that the now reduced 16 shillings a week should go to his family, and the money he at work should go to the pub. Malanchy Senior is off drinking at the pub while his wife and three children are sitting at home starving. The three childern get tourtured by words for how much poverty their family is in. The students make fun of them for only being able to afford a pig's head for Christmas dinner and wearing shoes their mother made them from old tires. Malachy Senior as no dignity in being the man in the McCourt family. Angela McCourt, Frank's mother, cries herself to sleep some nights because Malachy Senior comes home drunk singing Irish folk songs. At the end of the chapter Malachy Senior ended up losing his job. If the father really loves his children as much as he says he does, then why treat them like this and be so selfish.

IND. READING- Never Travel Alone, Prompt #10, Chapter #2

Chapter two reminds me of an experience I had about 2 months ago in Dubia. When the McCourt famiy moves to Ireland they find that there is little money and no jobs available for them. Mr. McCourt finds out that his dole is only nineteen shillings a week; not passable for a family 4. Then, to make matters worse, Mrs. McCourt has a miscarriage. At the hospital she befriends a women names Nora Molloy. Nora goes with her to the supermarket to make sure any sales person does not cheat her for her money.

In Dubia I had a similar experience with the economy. People there were either very rich or very poor. The poor workers would work for hours upon hours a day and get paid next to nothing. Some worked so hard that they never really had time to shower, and a group of workers could be smelled from across a field. At the markets, women could not go alone. I went to a food market witth my Aunt, Nana, and Mother, and still were not completely safe. Men were the only allowed sales people. They would do almost anything they could to get your attention. Many would try and rob us of our money by asking for outrageous prices. They thought we didn't know any better because we were American. They would have got away with it, if my Aunt had not lived there. One man even went as far as following us to our car and placing watermelons in the trunk after we had already told him no several times. It is an experience I will never forget.

IND. READING-Sensitivity With a Twist of Humor, Prompt #11, Chapter #1

The author's style and use of language are closely related to what a typical Irish 8 year old boy would sound like; "Then they teach each other sad songs and Malanchy and I leave the swings and seesaws to sit with them on the bench and sing" (24, McCourt). The author's style of writting and use of language is extremely effective because I can relate to him. Being 18, I still remember certain parts of my childhood 10 years ago. Frank, the author, makes many references to song lyrics that mean something to him. I was 8 years old when I really started listening to song lyrics and forming ideas of what singer meant. For example his mother sang "Anyone can see why I wanted your kiss, It had to be and the reason is this could it be true, someone like you could love me, love me?" (23, McCourt). Frank's mother would sing these lyrics with joy everytime his father would get a new job.

The author's word choice does not detract from the memoir. His style inhances my feelings and understanding of him. Frank is very sensitive, but in his sensitivity he added humor. He obbserved everything that was around him.

Think like a Teacher, Do Now

In this section we see Che really transform into Che from Ernesto.  How does the poverty in Peru really influence his growth?

I choose this topic because I think that this is the section where Che really makes his transformation official.  He officially changed his name in previous sections, but I think he actually changed in this section.  

Che, Do Now, Writing

Che wanted to become a leader that people all over would look up to and follow religiously. He had a major impact on the world around him.  Younger Che was just looking for adventure by traveling and absorbing information that fell in front of him.  He fell in love with the land and grew his own personal beliefs; socialism and being kind.  This personal beliefs changed has he grew into the older Che.  He became extremely controlling and was not open to other plans then his own.  He would not absorb anymore-useful information that was not in the same direction as his beliefs.  He wanted to not be dependent on other nations and jump-start the Chilean economy.  

Do Now, TMD, Che, Chile

Che and his experiences with dogs have influenced his life in many ways.  He seems to over analyze every little detail that happens in his life.  A dog is meant to be a man’s best friend and Che seems to run into this “best friend” and ends up leaving him or hurting him in some way.  This can almost be foreshadowing his relationship with Fidel Castro.  These dog experiences also connect to him completely leaving his family and Cuba all together.  Dogs also represent loyalty to which Che finds it hard to stay loyal to someone or large amounts to people.