I am currently reading the book Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. It is incredible! I really love it! In the book Angela's Ashes, the main character is Frank McCourt himself. The book is all about his childhood and about his growing up partly in “The New World” (America) and partly in “The Homeland” (Ireland). I think a big part of this book is fitting in. A big theme is belonging. Frank doesn’t belong in New York, or in Ireland.
Frank doesn’t belong in New York, where he was born. In New York, Frank is the Irish kid. Frank is an outcast because of where his parents were born. People don’t accept him because everyone in America is an immigrant. For example, his neighbors are Jewish, and even though they are sweet people. Frank can’t really play or fit in with their son because of their nationality differences. Another example of his not belonging, is how when he is looking for his father in the bars, the men in the bars are all of one nationality or another. When he asks for a Malachy (his father’s name) they all say no because the name is not of their nationality or group. Frank isn’t really a part of New York.
Frank doesn’t belong in Ireland either. In Ireland, Frank is the ‘Yankee’ kid.
Frank doesn’t know squat about what to do in Ireland. For example in school he gets punished a lot because he doesn’t understand religious customs of Ireland. Another example of how he doesn’t belong is that when his grandmother meets him she gets angry because he is an American. Even his grandmother doesn’t accept him all because of his nationality. Frank doesn’t really belong to Ireland either.
In conclusion, I think Frank doesn’t really belong anywhere. Frank is kind of in between worlds, he is not fully Irish or fully American in a sense. Frank would need to commit fully to one world in order to finally belong completely. This idea of belonging reminds me of Funny Girl, and how in that movie Fanny doesn’t quite belong to the theatre or to Mr Arnstein , or to Henry Street, or to The Follies.
Wow from what you said, I think I might pick up this book for myself.
ReplyDeleteyou definitely should! I loved this book, it was moving and very thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteYou backed up your theries really well! The fact that you were able to find that much information on each idea is kind of amazing.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you identified the theme and then backed everything with evidence and your opinions.
ReplyDeleteI read Angela's Ashes last year and loved it! When I read your response, I had never thought about Frank's character in that way. I love how you say that he doesn't belong in America or Ireland and must commit to one. That is brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI also like how you give a good amount of text evidence to back up your answers. This was a really good response! And you elaborated very well.