Angela's Ashes Essay

Angela's Ashes Essay

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. Poverty affected many families during the Great Depression. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, is a memoir about Frank and the struggles he faces throughout his childhood. Poverty is one of the reasons why Frank struggled throughout his childhood. Poverty caused struggles in his childhood because he couldn’t afford the items he needed everyday. The memoir, Angela’s Ashes, illustrates how many families during the Great Depression struggled in such extreme poverty that they couldn’t provide the most basic necessities.
Many families during the Great Depression lived in such extreme poverty that they couldn’t provide food for their families. Frank and Frank’s father Malachy, are walking through the streets of Limerick looking for food for their family. The narrator explains how Frank and Frank’s dad “go from shop to shop with him asking for food or anything they can give a family that has two children dead in a year, one in America, one in Limerick, and in the danger of losing three more for the want of food and drink” (p. 90). Frank and his dad are looking for food to feed their hungry family because they don’t have any. They are also afraid of losing more of their children due to hunger. This shows that families during the Great Depression could not provide food for their families because of the poverty they lived in. Some people may have not been able to afford food for their families while others couldn’t provide coal for a fire.
Many families that suffered from extreme poverty could not buy coal to start a fire. Frank’s mother, Frank, and Malachy are going to Dock Road to pick up bits of coal for a fire because the coal yards are closed. The narrator describes how Frank’s mother tells him and Malachy to “search for bits of coal that drop from the lorries. Mam tells us gather anything that burns, coal, wood, cardboard, paper” (p. 83). Frank’s family lives in such extreme poverty that they have to pick up coal off...