With close reference to detail an autobiography you have studied, discuss how convincingly the book creates a sense of social environment in which subject grew up?

Authors Avatar

With close reference to detail an autobiography you have studied, discuss how convincingly the book creates a sense of social environment in which subject grew up?

Frank McCourt has used the main themes of his autobiography Angela’s Ashes convincingly to create a sense of social environment he grew up in. Main themes include poverty, pauperized living conditions, poor sanitation and power of the Catholic Church. Alongside the main themes, McCourt uses symbols, memories, vivid descriptions, outside and narrative comments and events relating to the main themes.

Poverty is the leading cause of pauperized living condition as well as poor sanitation, these lead to the social environment Frank spent his childhood growing up in. The living conditions in the slums of Limerick itself details Franks environment. The McCourt family leaves New York for a new start in Ireland and settle in Limerick during the depression. The Deprsssion symbolize hardship for many. Alcohol is a major concern that affects the McCourt’s. Malachy’s alcohol problem makes his family suffer. Any chance of the basic needs of survival is dependent on Malachy’s wages. “Are you coming home so that we can have a bit of supper or will it be midnight with no money in your pocket and you singing Kevin Barry and the rest of that sad songs”. Angela is asking Malachy if the kids will be fed tonight or will they starve. The fact Malachy drinks way the money convinces us the family have no other means of survival and healthy state of living. Without money we sense and imagine the state they live in. “Out in the Atlantic Ocean great sheets of rain gathered to drift slowly up the River Shannon and settle forever in Limerick. The rain dampened the city from the feast and the Circumcicin to New Year’s Eve. It created a cacophony of hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes, consumptive croaks. It turned roses into fountains, lungs into bacterial sponges”. Franks description of Limericks sums up the environment. Miserable weather creating misery and diseases taking lives of many. McCourt’s description gives us a visual images that somehow convinces us how miserable the conditions are.

Join now!

Franks gets a job delivering newspaper. One day there is an emergency and mayhem erupts. McCaffey and Frank and another boy Eamon are to rip out page 16 of the John O’ London’s Weekly.  Ever single issue in the city no matter what people say. Here the boys are hysterically running around town ripping out the pages on birth control. McCaffrey  shows such determination when the shopkeeper has said they have sold many issues he demands their names that they are in danger of losing their “immortal souls” This event convinces us the power of the Catholic Church is ...

This is a preview of the whole essay