Frank Mccourt Explains The Influence of Good Parents and The Misconception that Alcohol is a Solution as Depicted in His Novel-angela’s Ashes

Angela’s Ashes

Angela’s Ashes is a novel which is memoir by author Frank McCourt, and tells the story of his childhood in Brooklyn and Ireland. This novel has won the Pulitzer’s Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1996. After reading the plot summary of Angela’s Ashes, I have learned the importance of having good parents, and that alcohol does not solve any problems.

After reading the plot summary of Angela’s Ashes, I have learned the impact created by having good parents. Parents are the closest people that one will have for a great deal of his or her life, and having good parents makes a huge difference. In the novel, Frank McCourt’s father, Malachy rarely comes home and uses up all of the families money on drinking. After Frank’s baby sister Margaret dies, Angela and Malachy fail to realize that this may be because of the lack of food due to Malachy spending all of the family’s money on drinking. This, however, does not stop Frank’s parents from having additional children, which eventually leads up to a miscarriage and the death of two sons. This has made a large impact on Frank’s life. His parents will not be able to help him so he can only count on himself. If Frank had better parents, who is to say that Frank will not be extremely wealthy today?

The second issue that I learned after reading the plot summary of Angela’s Ashes is that alcohol does not solve any problems. People with a drinking problem are proven to drink alcohol because it puts away all of their problems for the time being, but does not take them away permanently. In the novel, Malachy would always drink away all of the family’s money, which may be caused by the fact that he is not successful and the amount of stress he has. This does not solve his problems, but instead makes them worse. Drinking away all of his family’s money means that there is not enough money for food, which may have caused the death of the majority of the deceased children in the family. Malachy’s alcohol problem has not only ruined his own life, but also potentially ruined his children’s lives.

The plot of Angela’s Ashes has taught me the influence of having good parents, and that drinking is not the solution to life’s problems. Frank’s father’s decision to drink all of the family money away and both parents’ decision to continually have more children has dramatically affected Frank’s life. Secondly, Malachy may have been responsible for the majority of the family’s dead children because of all the money that is required to purchase his alcohol. Angela’s Ashes is a great novel that can teach one about the life of an unfortunate Irish family.