Frank goes on to describe where he and is family are at the moment; “out on the Atlantic Ocean great sheets of rain gathering to drift slowly up the river Shannon and settle forever in limerick”. This sentence tells the reader that he is obviously on a boat travelling to limerick where they shall settle for good. The way frank has put “forever in limerick” makes it sound like hell, like he’s dreading going their and if he was old enough that would be the last place on earth he would go, but when you are that young it seems forever. They had arrived at limerick where it was raining and damp where people were coughing and wheezing. He describes this as “ hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes and consumptive croaks”. The reader at this point is most probably thinking “this family has come from New York to this, it doesn’t sound a very healthy place to be”. Although at this point the reader doesn’t know what their circumstances were in New York and why they left, so all the reader can think is why go there.
Frank starts to describe how you would cure the illness of catarrh he states “to ease the catarrh you boiled onions in milk blackened with pepper; for the congested passages you made a paste of boiled flour and nettles, wrapped it in rag and slapped it, sizzling, on the chest. He doesn’t write about people going to see doctors, so all the reader can think is that this is a very poor place and they couldn’t afford anything like that, only to make a home made remedy.
The next paragraph frank goes on to tell the reader that from October to April, limerick is a very damp place “clothes never dried” presumably he had to wear damp clothes that weren’t dried properly. “Tweed and woollen coats housed living things” people in limerick were walking about with flees, nits, headline any thing that would nest in that kind of material (very uncomfortable and the reader can imagine the people to be walking around itching all the time with rashes. He describes people drinking in pubs how their clothes smelt of stale whisky, cigarettes and the odour of urine. Outside the pubs “where many a man puked up his weeks wages”. So most of the Irish men in limerick would rather go to the pub and spend their money on getting drunk and puking up again, instead of taking their wages home for the family to live on.
The last part of the paragraph frank explains that because of the rain, he and his family had to find cover in the church. They all had to huddle together in their damp clothes, listening to the priests droning on trying to stay awake but it was the only dry place they could find at that time. The smell of their filthy clothes mingling with the sweet incense of the flowers and candles in the church. Frank ends the paragraph by saying “limerick gained a reputation for piety, but we knew it was only the rain”. I don’t really understand the last sentence but what I can understand is that frank McCourt is being sarcastic when saying that.
From what he has wrote in that first chapter frank is just showing the reader a small part of his life. He gives us a brief description of his journey and where he is going to, what the place is like and what the people are like. He doesn’t give much description of him or his family but he does give a brief out line of the place and the people. The beginning of the chapter gets the reader ready for a sad story but parts make you chuckle even though it is upsetting.
At the end of the chapter Frank McCourt used a little humour we find time and time again in his words. He can tell us a story of something dreadfully sad but cap it off with a little humour making it easier for us to face the ugliness head on. From the first chapter you know its going to be a sad story but you never know whether at the end of each chapter if he is going to have us laughing or crying? The book is a true story of frank McCourts life. He is writing in a real voice from the viewpoint of a child told in the words a child would use. People want honesty. Real stuff. And that is what he has done.
