The McCourts’ way of life inspires in one feelings of intense despair. They live constantly without food, eating only when they scrounge together a little money or gather fallen scraps. Even as a very young child, Frank is “starving half the time” and is always going “to bed half hungry” (23, 25). He grows accustomed to the constant hunger and it becomes a natural part of his life. Even when his family places among the more fortunate, Frank’s dinner consists of no more than “a cup of tea and a cut of fried bread” (78). As horribly as hunger affects the McCourts, other plagues scourge them as a result of their poverty. Things essential to their health are also out of their reach

Pride can be a powerful influence, inspiring men to endure that which they would otherwise shy away from. It is this valiance that keeps the McCourts withstanding their despondent station, thrust and held upon them by their poverty. Juvenal, Roman poet and satirist, says it best: “It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.”

. The parents’ addiction to cigarettes leads to them losing their teeth, but they can only replace them with teeth “made for rich people in Dublin and [which] didn’t fit so they were passed on to the poor of Limerick” (139). They can’t afford to have custom-fit teeth made for them as the rich can. Even worse, Frank must take a job assisting Mr. Hannon in delivering coal to help support his family. The work irritates Frank’s eyes, already recovering from severe conjuctivitis, and he comes home with eyes “worse than ever. The whites and the eyelids are red, and the yellow stuff oozes to the corners and out over the lower lids” (265). Still, as horrible as their physical situation is, the McCourts’ standing in the social ladder as a result of their poverty equally affe

Some topics in this essay:
Angela’s Ashes, McCourts Frank, St Vincent, Malachy McCourt, Juvenal Roman, , Frank McCourt’s, result poverty,