Genealogy Books - Angela's Ashes

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Summary: Literary Devices in Angela's Ashes
Comment: Angela's Ashes is a remarkable memoir in which the author, Frank McCourt, uses an abundance of
literary devices to convey the dpressing story of his Irish Catholic childhood. Through his themes,
contrasts, and symbolism, McCourt creates a memoir that remains with the reader and teaches us all
about the circumstances of life that he faced growing up in Limerick, Ireland. The title of the
book is derived from the ashes that fall from Angela's cigarettes and those in the fireplace that
she stares at bleakly. The entire setting of the narrative feels draped in ash-dark, decrepit,
weak, and lifeless. Angela's ashes also represent her crumbling hopes. Her dreams of raising a
healthy family with a supportive husband have withered and collapsed, leaving her only with
cigarettes and the smoldering ashes of a fire for warmth.
In addition to the symbolism of
Angela's ashes, McCourt also provides the River Shannon. Frank's outlook on life matures during his
childhood and adolescence. Initially, the river symbolizes Limerick's bleakness and the brooding
desolation of his childhood. Frank associates the river with the endless rain that causes so much
sickness. However, when Frank grows older, he begins to see the river as a route out of Limerick.
As a result, it comes to a symbolic escape, movement and freedom. This is only one of the many
literary devices employed by McCourt to strenghten his novel. Also through the many day-to-day
situations in McCourt's life, he provides the reader with an emotional outlook on the Irish culture,
at least of those who were impoverished. By setting up the entire narrative through literary
devices, Frank McCourt has ultimately provided several layers to the story, which can be uncovered
when the reader is ready and willing to contemplate the many meanings of his symbolic story.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Angela's ashes
Comment: Angela's Ashes is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a very fantastic novel about Frank
McCourt's childhood in Ireland. Frank McCourt writes as if he's still a child. The reader feels with
the little Frank. Sometimes the reader laughs about a funny scene and two minutes later he cries
about the poor circumstances Frank lives in. So the novel evokes strong emotional feelings at the
reader. To sum up : It's a must to read the book.You won't regret it.

Customer Rating:

Summary: THE BEST BOOK IVE EVER READ
Comment: Simply, an irresistable book you can not stand to put down for one moment. A journey of hardship,
courage, and strength, told through the eyes of a child. The naieve notions of Frank McCourt will
have you in stitches. A MUST READ!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Wonderful Memoir
Comment: This is an autobiography that made me want to write my own. It's so wonderfully written until I
cried and laughed at the same time. He's like singing his sadness. Telling a story like a
poetry.
I never felt this way but it's like euphoria that only can be felt when a book strike a
chord

Customer Rating:

Summary: Ten stars. Laugh thru your tears
Comment: I have friends who found it impossible to finish Angela's Ashes because they found it relentlessly
depressing with its heavy themes of aching poverty, absent drunken loving father and long-suffering
mother - classic themes, it seems, in Irish literature.
But in spite of the truth of those parts
of the story, it's impossible to finish this book without feeling a sense of triumph for the human
spirit, even when surrounded by the realities of McCourt's Irish childhood and young
adolescence.
It works, I think, because he writes the entire book in the child's voice - not an
easy task to pull off, but he succeeded. And a child, of course, doesn't have much against which to
hold up his own life; it's all he knows. So McCourt never comes across as sounding whiney, bitter,
jealous, or put-upon.
Scene after hilarious scene is interspersed with real heartbreaking and
harrowing and demeaning eqisodes, but the overall feeling I was left with was joy.

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