The McCourt brothers

Below is a link to a picture of the McCourt brothers:


http://www.irishartscenter.org/images/mccourt-bros2-150x180.jpg

Top row left to right: Frank (R.i.P) and Malachy
Bottom row left to right: Alphonsus and Michael

Discussion director

In the last chapter, Frank is a little bit older, about eleven years old, and he is starting to realize that his father is an alcoholic and that what he is doing is wrong. He also adds that when he looks at his father drinking he sees the look Eugene had in his eyes when Oliver died.

Why do you think Franks views has changed suddenly towards his father? And why do you think Malachy Sr. Drinks excessively?

-Donna Wylie

Summarizer; Chapter 7

In this chapter, Angela gives birth to her fourth child a boy whom she names Alphonsus. Many family members give the famly money for baby Alphonsus, but of course Malachy Sr. goes to the pub and gets drunk with the money. Angela tells the boys to go to the pub to get Malachy Sr. but of course he refuses, and turns them away while the baby at home is starving. This is the first time in this book where Frank is feeling angry about his father, in previous chapters he would ignore those feelings and think of the times he sat on his father's lap in the morning and he would feel better.

Frank also starts to work for his Uncle Pat delivering paper, and one day delivers to this old man Mr. Timoney. Mr. Timoney is a lonely old man who beggs Frank to read to him since he is senile, and Frank does. Mr. Tomoney is also lonely because he is a buddhist, while mostly everybody in Limerick is a Catholic. One day his doy bites three people and he laughs, and is taken away to the crazy hospital for his behavior.

-Donna Wylie

Discussion Director

In chapter 6, Frank's classmate Fintan is described as a very feminine, religious boy who says he would like to become a saint when hes dead, who curls his hair, and also likes to dance. What do Frank and Paddy's feelings toward Fintan say about Limerick's attitude in the 1930's? Also, why do you think that Fintan did not give the boys food the second time they came to his house?

Please comment on what you think.

-Donna Wylie

Summarizer; Chapter 5 and 6

This chapter takes place within a three year time span, where Frank is seven, eight, and by the end of the chapter he is nine. Throughout the coarse of these years, Frank's mother makes Frank take up Irish dancing, and after the sentence where he mentions his age, he adds that his father is still out of work.

Also in this chapter, Angela wants Frank to become an Altar boy so that the Saint Vincet de Paul Society can see that they are good Catholics and give them more benefits. After Frank dresses up in the nicest clothes he has, and becoming the cleanest he can get he goes to the Church to become an Altar Boy only to be rejected because they are of lower status and because his father is from the North.

In chapter six Frank is now in fourth grade and has Mr. O'Neil as a teacher. Mr. O'Neil always brings an apple to class and peels it in front of the class as a tease, and gives the peels to the boy who is able to answer his hardest question. One day a particularly feminine boy, Fintan gets the apple peel and shares it with Frank and Paddy, which are grateful but embarrassed by this. Fintan later invites to boy over for lunch where they eat luxuriously; but the boys are scared of Fintan when he follows them to the bathroom and they think Fintan enjoys looking at them.

They are invited the next day, but are not given any food. As a result Paddy and Frank run to a nearby farm and drink milk straight from the cow's' utters, and steel apples from the trees. They are eventually chased out by farmers and Frank stays the night with Paddy's family, where Paddy's father is sick, and later dies that night. Frank is retrieved by his mother the next morning.

-Donna Wylie

Word Watcher

Saloons- a place for the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks.

Lashings- an abundance; plenty

Pram- a flat-bottomed, snub-nosed boat used as a fishing vessel or tender for larger vessels

Weary- physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc.; fatigued; tired

Prods- to poke or jab with or as if with something pointed

Maria Stefanidis

Word Watcher

Blather- foolish, voluble talk

Concoction- the act or process of concocting

Sacrilege- the violation or profanation of anything sacred or held sacred

Grim- stern and admitting of no appeasement or compromise

Immersion- baptism in which the whole body of the person is submerged in the water.

Maria Stefanidis

Discussion Director

During Frank's First Confession he confesses the littlest of sins such as throwing up his First Holy Communion, which his grandmother made him, but he also confesses things on his own such as trying to take a peek at Mikey's naked sister taking a shower, and to listening to dirty stories from his friends.

Using this scenario and the raisin scenario, What do you think they show about Frank's personality? Do you think that if Frank;s grandma didn't make him confess about throwing up, do you think he would have? And, do you think that if Paddy wasn't there Frank still would have given the raisin away to someone that needed it, but still not as bad as Paddy needed it?

Post your comments below:

-Donna Wylie

Word Watcher

Lane- a narrow way or passage between hedges, fences, walls, or houses

Dervish- A member of any of various Muslim ascetic orders, some of which perform whirling dances and vigorous chanting as acts of ecstatic devotion.

Straddler- to walk, stand, or sit with the legs wide apart; stand or sit astride

Skivvy- a female servant

Speakeasy- a saloon or nightclub selling alcoholic beverages illegally

Maria Stefanidis

Word Watcher

Galore- in abundance; in plentiful amounts

Wafting- to carry lightly and smoothly through the air or over water

Novenas- a devotion consisting of nine separate days of prayers or services

Piety- reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations

Delicacies- something delightful or pleasing, esp. a choice food considered with regard to its rarity, costliness, or the like

Maria Stefanidis

Word Watcher

Woes-grievous distress, affliction, or trouble

Loquacious- talking or tending to talk much or freely; talkative; chattering; babbling; garrulous

Pious- having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations

Pompous-characterized by an ostentatious display of dignity or importance

Cacophony- harsh discordance of sound; dissonance

Maria Stefanidis

Summarizer; Chapter 4

By this point in the book, Frank is most likely in second grade and is making his First Communion, and while his mother is excited for him to receive it, he is just excited to receive the collection of money he will get from his family and neighbors. Franks first confession goes well, but when he later returns home for his First Communion breakfast he eats too fast and throws it up, as well as the Communion. His grandmother makes him confess to the priest for "throwing up God in her backyard". She makes Frank ask the priest to do and he says to wash it away with a little water. Frank's grandmother is angry again because she doesn't know whether or not to use holy water or regular water, and she makes Frank go to confession for the third time that morning. The priest is amused when Frank says, "Father it's been 1 minute since my last confession" and eventually tells Franks to use regular water, and to stop bothering him.

Because of this scenario, Frank never gets his Communion Collection, but ends up being able to go to the movies when his non-catholic friend Mikey makes a scene when getting tickets so Frank can sneak in.

Frank also has a new teacher, Mr. Benson. Most of this chapter recalls childhood memories Frank recalls of him being in school, there is one specific scene in which Frank shows just how selfless he is. In this scene the boys are given 'raisin muffins' but they never have raisins. Frank somehow gets the muffin with the only raisin, and even though he is starving himself, he gives it to another boy Paddy who does not ask for it, but he is starving more than Frank is.

-Donna Wylie

Discussion Director

As mentioned in chapter three, Frank often talks to "The Angel on the seventh step" and he continues to do so throughout the rest of his childhood. Angela is always depressed and Malachy Sr. is always drunk, Frank is the eldest child, and he will get yelled at, hit, or both when he asks a question.

As a result of this,do you think that Frank feels trapped in his own life and uses "The angel on the Seventh step" as someone to talk to or somewhat of an imaginary friend because he feels alone? What are your opinions about "The Angel on the Seventh step"?

Comment below:

-Donna Wylie

Summarizer; Chapter 3

After the deaths of three of her children, the McCourts are now only getting sixteen shillings a week from Public assistance services like the Saint Vincent de paul society because of the death of Oliver and Eugene. The family tries to start over and move into a new house since the last one reminds Angela too much of the twins. The family soon realizes that this new house holds ten families, and their apartment is next to the one bathroom, and regularly floods. The children re-name the upstairs part of their house 'Italy' because it is like a vacation since it is dry and warm.

In the upcoming days is Christmas which is also includes struggles because the family can only afford a pig's head which is considered shameful to eat on Christmas. Another son Michael is later born, Frank is still young and doesn't understand birth so his parents tell his that there is an Angel on the seventh step of the house that brought him. Throughout this chapter Frank talks to the 'angel on the seventh step' about his problems, and what he doesn't like about school, and about how he feels on a daily basis.

Baby Michael stays healthy and Malchy Sr. gets a job at the Limerick Cement factory, and it seems like things are looking up for the McCourts, except that Malachy Sr. drinks his money as usual and comes home drunk. When coming home he has three penny's left and offers each one to each son but all reject it except Michael who is now about two and still doesn't understand. Malachy Sr. misses work the next day, loses his job and the family is back on public assistance.

-Donna Wylie

Summarizer; Chapters 1 and 2

Of what I've read so far, which was chapters one and two, their has been a brief explanation of Frank's parent's meeting, Malachy Sr. and Angela, and a very brief explanation of their upbringing. The first chapter also starts off with this passage, on page one:

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.
. . . nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years."

which is an opening to what the rest of this book will be like. After this Frank is the first born, and than Malachy a year later, and than about five years later their sister Margaret is born. Margaret brings the family so much joy in the short two weeks of her living, so much so that in her time of living their father becomes sober. Margaret quickly falls ill, most likely from malnutrition and dies, the rest is downhill from here. Angela is depressed, Malachy Sr. is back at the pubs, and when her cousins Delia And Philomena see her they request money from Angela's mother, by letter, so the family can move to Limerick.

Upon arriving in Limerick Angela's parents help out the family and find them a one room house which is very cold. Angela becomes pregnant again, this time with twins, Oliver and Eugene. Tragedy hits the family again, as Oliver dies first, and than a bit later Oliver does too. Angela is depressed again and now it is back to her and, Malachy and Frank being by themselves with Malachy Sr. drinking again.

Comment on thoughts of these first two chapters.

-Donna Wylie

Discussion Director

Discussion Director; Donna Wylie

Throughout this book Frank and his family deals with struggle, even at the start of the book, it starts out that was in Brooklyn, they are poor, their father is a drunk, and their newborn sister Margaret just died, who brought the family joy, and even caused their father to stop drinking. After she died Angela is depressed and her cousins Delia and Philomena McNamara visit and write a letter to Angela's mother in Limerick asking for money for the family to have a better life in Ireland.

Do you think that the money for the boat fair will be sent? And if it is, do you think the McCourts quality of life improve or become worse? Explain how you think their new life in Limerick might be like.

-Donna Wylie