The first part of the chapter in David Copperfield gets the reader ready for the rest of the book “I was destined to be unlucky in life and secondly that I was privileged to see ghost and spirits”. So the reader will be expecting David to be very unlucky through his life and we shall read about his misfortunes and also the reader is expecting David to see some spirits and ghost.
McCourt does the same with Angela’s Ashes. The reader can expect the rest of the book to be about the misfortunes of the little boy being brought up in limerick where there is a lot of damp, poverty, and strict teachers, more of his childhood. So the rest of the book will be about how poor he was wearing ripped clothes that were damp, he and his family being ill all the time because they were cold and hungry and his teachers whipping him and shouting a lot. They both look back on events long after they have happened. So both stories give an insight in to the early years of their lives and they are both about a boy.
They both go through bad luck, Dickinson predicted bad luck at the beginning for David and McCourt because of the poverty and dampness. These two books sound a bit depressing. The tone that is being used would be of a man not very cheerful because of the unhappiness, sad with light humour because through both stories its not just sad it also has humour which make you chuckle rather than laugh.
The author's wry humour undercuts the bleakness of his early years, as he jokes that a happy childhood "is hardly worth your while." (Angelas Ashes)
There is also humour in David Copperfield when he explains that they couldn’t sell his caul. So ten years later they “put it in a raffle”, nobody can imagine putting part of their body in a raffle whether it was lucky or not, that’s why it is funny because you can just imagine it. Selling the caul and mentioning guineas also shows the reader that it was around Victorian times, they used to sell cauls because they were lucky. It obviously didn’t bring David any luck because he wouldn’t have sold it. In Angela’s Ashes we can predict that it was around 1960’s because it doesn’t sound that long ago and McCourt is still alive.
Both books are narrated by the adult David and adult Frank, you can tell because they use long complex words and well educated words. In Angela’s Ashes he uses words such as; loquacious, cacophony and circumcision. In David Copperfield he uses words such as; simultaneously, declared and consequently. They both are writing for adults, because children wouldn’t know how to pronounce those words let alone write them.
Both stories also use long sentences and are told by the first person narrator because they both use words such as; I, me and my. They both are the main characters of the their stories and they both tell us their thoughts and feelings.
The third paragraph last sentence in Angela’s Ashes emphasise the build up to the next paragraph because he is talking about the trip from new York to Ireland then ends the paragraph with “above all we were wet”. Also alliteration. In the next paragraph there is also alliteration when he is giving the reader an example of the illness that is being caused by the dampness e.g. “it created a cacophony of hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes, consumptive croaks”? All these are the sound of hard coughing. In the fifth paragraph is more alliteration “stale fumes of spilled stout” a drunken spiting, as he would be talking.
McCourt introduces Limerick as being wet, damp, drunken men drinking their wages. He explains what the people are wearing (not in graphic detail but enough for the reader to image what they would look like). Also he describes the men who smell of whisky and smoke so McCourt is giving the reader sounds and smells, so the reader could imagine being their and hearing and smelling Limerick. McCourt makes you feel as if you are there.
Dickinson doesn’t give the reader sounds and smell. He doesn’t really describe any except for the cork jackets. So the reader can image what sort of time it is based in.
Both stories go on about poverty, McCourt tells the reader that limerick is full of poverty and describes the damp clothes and the drunkenness and Dickinson tells the reader that the mother was selling sherry in the market and they were trying to sell the caul. Which if you weren’t poor you would just keep it or throw it away. Both stories give a hint through out the novel about the importance of money and the need for money sets the tone of the novel.
The conclusion is that they have similar themes through out the story although they are written in different times. Angela’s Ashes is an autobiography and David Copperfield is fictional but they both have similar issues e.g. Poverty, insight to early years, bad luck, 1st person narrative, long sentences and there both about a boy growing up. They are also different because Angela’s Ashes is about the common image of Irish poverty, priests, strict teachers and illnesses. David Copperfield is about superstition, a caul and is based in Victorian times.
