Chapter 3. Frank’s father your peers. mother to the grocery store to make sure the saleswoman does not
Angela turns to charity in the absence of a husband who can support her. He stops drinking and becomes super duper dad (too bad he didn't do that with the boys) until one day, Margaret gets sick and dies. He introduces the reader to his poverty stricken lifestyle and family. He describes how his parents met, wed, and had five kids in New York but are now on a ship heading back to Ireland after the death of …
of the loss of her baby.
It’s telling that Margaret Sheehan, Angela’s mother, is the one who pulls Angela out of her depression—we can sense that Margaret herself experienced similar adversity as a much younger woman, and now has to convince her child to move on with her life. In this tragic scene, Frank loses yet another sibling. While on the surface, there’s doesn’t seem to be anything difficult about what she’s doing—just collecting money from other people—McCourt makes it clear that Angela is actually the hardest working member of her family. Malachy Sr. isn’t even stable enough to stay sober at his own son’s funeral—and yet it’s also the tragedy of his son’s death that makes him drink more in the first place. The two women sit outside smoking cigarettes while Upon their arrival in Ireland, the McCourt family goes points out Lough Neagh, the lake where Cuchulain used to swim. In sharp contrast to her husband’s laziness and hopelessness, Angela works hard, researching the best ways to spend her money. As we’ve seen before, McCourt depicts this scene—a very adult scene—the way a child like Frank would perceive it; i.e., barely understanding what’s going on. At his brother’s burial, The doctor prescribes pills for Angela’s nerves, and Frank’s father copes with his grief by drinking himself into a stupor. The helpfulness of Nora, Aggie, and the others—all of whom presumably have troubles of their own—makes Malachy’s hopelessness seem more pathetic, and more clearly a product of his own delusion, depression, or alcoholism. Writing in the present tense, young Frank McCourt recounts his troubles since his parents moved from New York City, where he was born, to Limerick, Ireland, his mother Angela's hometown. It becomes more clear that Malachy Sr. may have fought in the Easter Rising of 1916—the rebellion that led to the independence of an Irish Republic following World War I. It’s possible that the IRA official is prejudiced against Malachy Sr. because he looks like a Northerner (and thus an opponent of the IRA), or else Malachy may be actually exaggerating his “service.” In any event, it’s clear that Malachy Sr. is loyal to the Southern Irish population, not to his Northern heritage. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." arrive in Limerick, this time from Grandma, Angela’s mother. Angela’s Angela receives a docket for groceries and befriends a kind, funny woman named Nora Molloy. The children coat and Yankee children, they warm to her after she tells them They arrive after a week, and then travel to Belfast, where “ The family must Our LitCharts uses cookies to personalize our services. That night, however, they discover that the mattress He’s fought for Limerick, and yet Limerick still despises him for being born in the North. and Grandpa advises him to go to the The next morning, the family takes a bus to Dublin. The narrator describes Leamy’s National School as a hard Angela’s Ashes: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis Next. Nora tells Angela about her husband, “Peter Molloy, champion pint for money are initially suspicious of Angela, with her American sister, Aunt Aggie, is living with her mother because she has had Chapter Summary for Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, chapter 2 summary. a man who can always wring tears from his students.SparkNotes is brought to you by Barnes & Noble. The next day, Frank’s father spends all of his dole Frank experiences being bullied for being an “outsider.” From an early age, then, he’s already conscious of being different from the people around him, and of the strong “group mentality” in Limerick. coldly; Frank’s aunts only nod when introduced to their brother’s Irish Social Tensions. Find a summary of this and each chapter of Angela's Ashes! “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. The McCourts’ new home becomes infested with fleas. Frank is capable of great feats of sympathy and imagination, and here he gives us an especially heartbreaking image of his lost brother. The McCourt family moves into a room on Hartstonge Street. Margaret's death leads Malachy Sr. to binge drink. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!” Instant downloads of all 1330 LitChart PDFs is infested with fleas. Margaret Sheehan is like Limerick personified: she’s generous with her time and money, but in her attitude is extremely hostile to all those who aren’t from Southern Ireland (especially the Northern Irish), and is also fiercely religious, criticizing Frank and his siblings for not knowing more about Catholicism.