Independent Reading Log #7

11/29/12

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Pages 26-56

Summary of what I read: In this passage Angela, Frankie’s mom, has a little baby girl. Frankie’s dad, Malachy, loves this little girl to death. He even stops his excessive drinking for her. She is a beautiful brown haired and blue-eyed little girl. Around her seven month mark she dies in her sleep. Angela and Malachy are heart-broken and extremely devastated. Angel just lies in bed all day and Malachy starts drinking again. Their neighbors come and help out. They feed the four remaining children and help them stay semi-clean. They realize that there is no way that the children can live like they are and they write a letter to the children’s grandmother. The Grandmother sends money for the family’s fair to Ireland which is the parent’s homeland. They arrive in Ireland and go to the grandparent’s house, but they are as lost and broke as they were in America and are beginning to have as hard of a time there as they were having in America.

Important quote from the text: “These children are running wild and where is the father? I hear Minnie whisper he’s out for the drink” (McCourt 39).  I think that this in an important quote from the text because it is said by one of the neighbors who comes and helps watch over the children after the baby died. The parents are either unresponsive or nowhere in sight and the children are in fact “running wild”. The children are hungry and dirty. The little twins drink water with sugar in it instead of milk and wear the same dirty diapers for days on end. It depicts how broken the family is and how in need they are of some parental guidance.

Connections to the text: I could not really connect with anything from this text. The life these children are living is nothing like the one I live. They have a drunk for a father who cares more about getting himself a drink than putting food on the table for his children so in turn can rarely keep a steady flow of money coming in. They end up going hungry a lot of the time and the roles of the care givers are given to the two oldest children who are not really old at all. My life seems to be the complete opposite of theirs and I am extremely grateful for that. In this book they are also living in the time of Depression which makes finding a job that much harder and living conditions that much worse.