Facing Life: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Angels's Ashes
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly and Angela 's Ashes In Angela 's Ashes, Frankie McCourt learns to cope with his poverty from a very young age. When Frankie 's parents soon have more children, times get even harder for the family. After Frankie 's Grandma donates fare money for them to come to Ireland, they are overseas. Jobs are sparse in Ireland, too. Every job Malachy McCourt Sr. gets only last until the day he is late for work. Every week when the dole money comes from the government to support them, his Dad goes out and selfishly wastes it on liquor, continuing to leave his family with no money for food, beverage, or clothing. The "Angel on the Seventh Step" continues to contribute more members to the McCourt family. On top of a growing family, sickness constantly plagues them. During Hitler 's reign, jobs open up in England. In hopes of coming into some money, Frankie 's Dad goes to England for work. As the weeks go by, only one check is mailed to the family, and they know they are on their own again. Frankie begins to steal food and milk more frequently from local shops in Limerick. The day he is of age, he gets a steady job to support his family. The wages that once supported only his luxuries now have to support his family as well, because the charity that previously helped ceased giving them dockets. Only in his early teens, Frankie had to pick up the father role that his Dad had neglectfully left behind. Frankie thought his "father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and the prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland" (210). He never drank his money 's worth of pints like his Dad nor did he smoke the fags as his Mam did. He taught himself to be responsible. Frankie thought to himself, upon all of his troubles, "It 's lovely to know the world can 't interfere with the inside of your
Cited: Bauby, Jean- Dominique. "Prologue". Introduction. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1997. 4. Print. Bauby, Jean- Dominique. "Prologue". Introduction. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1997. 5. Print. McCourt, Frank. "VIII". Angela 's Ashes. New York: Scribner, 1996. 202. Print. McCourt, Frank. "VIII". Angela 's Ashes. New York: Scribner, 1996. 210. Print.