FREE ESSAY ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BEGINNING CHAPTER OF FRANK MCCOURT'S ANGELA'S ASHES

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BEGINNING CHAPTER OF FRANK MCCOURT'S ANGELA'S ASHES

He is just another poor Irish boy. His story is of poverty, emotional struggles, and
growing up. Have we not read about that already? Everyone thinks their childhood is
unique, but do we not all have basically the same experiences? Frank McCourt experiences
events similar to other children, but that fact is forgotten once the reader begins
Angela's Ashes. Actual reality becomes less important than this little boy's perception
of reality, upon which the focus is set and remains there throughout the book. McCourt is
not telling the story of what happened, but rather of how the events related to his own
development. He draws the reader into himself by writing in the first person and using a
personal tone which always reflects his outlook. In the first chapter, he inconspicuously
establishes himself as the only character in his memoir, causing the reader not to follow
him through his childhood, but to become him as a child. 
"People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can
compare with the Irish version"(1), McCourt writes as he begins to describe the world in
which he grows up. For he creates a separate world for himself, where people he knows
wander in and out whenever they can hold his attention. McCourt's world serves as a
coping mechanism as well as an expression of his creativity. He surrounds himself with
the depressing truth about his home and family, but brings in each morsel of truth with
his own explanation, often humorous, thus exposing himself only to his interpretation of
reality. McCourt's task is to contain his world in the four hundred sixty pages of the
book and to have the reader immersed by the end of the first chapter. The opening pages
provide a foundation for McCourt, himself, and for his perception, enabling the reader to
follow his stream-of-consciousness sentences throughout the book. He gives a flash
preview of the book's content on the first page, giving the reader an idea of what he is
getting into. McCourt then abruptly interrupts himself (which becomes common throughout
the book) as though he has forgotten to mention some pertinent fact, and then proceeds to
introduce his parents. Although he is now writing from his parents' point of view, the
reader is quite aware that this is still McCourt's interpretation of their story. After
briefly establishing both his mother and father's basic background, he begins his first
story of the book. McCourt wisely chooses the story of his parents first meeting, their
marriage, and his birth, which all occur in a surprisingly short span of time. This first
story allows the reader to get accustomed to McCourt's style of story telling and also
plunges the reader into the lives and personalities of his parents. In building a
foundation for them,he creates the two individuals who are the foundation of his early
years. His language includes very little actual description, but he implies hundreds of
little details which the reader can sense, but must read on to further understand. Once
McCourt is born, he shifts the perspective immediately to his point of view. He begins
with his first memory as a toddler, conveying his thoughts through simple, short
sentences. As he progresses through his childhood, he uses grammar and vocabulary
corresponding to his level of knowledge at his current age in the book. By the end of the
first chapter, the reader succumbs to dwelling in McCourt's world as though it were
his/her own memory. 
In the beginning of the book, McCourt's interpretation of reality is established as well
as his attitude about his family's financial and emotional struggles. He conveys to the
reader his knowledge that he is poor through bits of his parents arguments. McCourt
accepts the fact that they have hardly enough money to feed the family and that he can do
nothing to change the situation. However, he does not deny that he keeps hoping for
better times. McCourt realizes early on that his father is responsible for supporting the
family, and he feels ashamed that his beloved Dad can hardly keep a job. He wants to have
food for himself, but most of all, he wants to have money so that his mother, Angela,
will be happy. The following quotation expresses McCourt's desire to obtain money, which
he directly connects with Angela's happiness: "I want to get up and tell her [Angela]
I'll be a man soon and I'll get a job in the place with the big gate and I'll come home
every Friday night with money for eggs and toast and jam and she [Angela] can sing
'Anyone Can See Why I Wanted Your Kiss.'" (30). McCourt usually attributes Angela's
unhappiness to financial difficulties or his father's drinking. Throughout the book, this
assumption leads him to often blame his troubles on his father's constant unemployment or
his father's alcoholism. However, when McCourt's baby sister, Margaret, dies, he
experiences a helplessness which haunts him again several times throughout the novel. His
feeling of depressed confusion always follows the tragic events in the rest of the book.
It is clear in the beginning, as it is throughout his memoir, that his family's lack of
money and lack of emotional stability are the two main causes of his insecurity and even
vulnerability.
In the first chapter, McCourt conveys his acceptance of his unfortunate circumstances,
but with humor and creative interpretation, he also expresses an exaltation of the things
he is gaining through his experiences. He understands that his parents are only human,
and his love cannot change them in his eyes, but he loves them nonetheless. McCourt pokes
fun at the shortcomings of others and presents the people in his book as he sees them,
mocking the conservative objectivity of other authors. McCourt's opinions of people in
the novel are expressed through his chosen wording of their common interactions. He uses
repetition of certain idiosyncratic phrases, revealing a person's entire character in one
paragraph. McCourt's outlook is mostly humorous or sarcastic, especially when he is
contrasting two people in one of their conversations. That technique is demonstrated in
this quotation from a conversation between his mother, Angela, and one of her "great
breasted" aunts:
If I was you, said Philomena, I'd make sure there's no more children. He [Angela's 
husband] don't have a job, so he don't, an' never will the way he drinks. So...no 
more children, Angela. Are you listenin' to me?
I am, Philomena.
A year later another child was born. (19)
His intuition and honesty about himself and his circumstances break down the mystique of
his strength without diminishing its importance. McCourt's main way of coping is
obviously to take himself and his life less seriously, translating into his final goal of
"not giving a fiddler's fart" about what others think. Starting with his early years at
the beginning of the novel, an important part of McCourt's emotional development is his
learning how to laugh at himself and at the world even in the most miserable situation.
Yet he does this without crossing the invisible line where silliness ends and seriousness
begins. McCourt avoids excessive joking in order to keep a certain reverence about the
sadness he endured, as well as to make his humor more effective, using it only where he
judges some levity to be necessary. The amusing tone in McCourt's writing makes the
events of the book less harsh, similarly to how McCourt's sense of humor relieves much of
the misery in his life.
Frank McCourt is successful in keeping his book interesting from the first page to the
last. His consistent singular perception keeps the reader focused not only on him but
inside him. McCourt establishes his family's poverty and emotional instability, which
proceed to plague him throughout the book. His continuing reaction to these circumstances
is revealed early on in his childhood development. However, McCourt learns to cope with
his sensitivity about these subjects using his own honest humor, thus becoming a
self-made optimist. This quotation at the end of the first chapter of Angela's Ashes
signifies McCourt's hope for change as well as foreshadowing that the worst is yet to
come:
The ship pulled away from the dock. Mam said, That's the Statue of Liberty and 
that's Ellis Island where all the immigrants came in. Then she leaned over the side 
and vomited and the wind from the Atlantic blew it all over us and other happy
people admiring the view. Passengers cursed and ran, seagulls came from all over 
the harbor and Mam hung limp and pale on the ship's rail.(53)
Although his conclusion of the first chapter does not follow the true form of a happy
ending, it is really the happiest ending of all: a beginning.