2. Angela’s Ashes
Angela’s Ashes is a moving book full of
poverty, suffering, and death that shows that
no matter how difficult things seem, the hard
tines can always be overcome.
Angela and Malachy McCourt, both Irish,
were married in America after a passionate
night together that ended up producing their
first son, Francis(or Frank as introduced to the
reader).
Later, the couple had another son, twins, and a
daughter while living in a small apartment in
New York. Margaret soon died and the family
moved to Ireland where their lives were only
worsened.
3. Angela’s Ashes
Angela had two more children that lived, but
the young twins died. Malachy was an
alcoholic who rarely held a job and spent his
wages at the pub instead of on his family.
They were forced to beg for food and other
necessities because relatives were cruel and
selfish.
This novel tells the tell of young Frank having
to endure extreme poverty, starvation, and a
broken family with strength and courage.
He eventually raises enough money to go to
America.
4. Characters
Aggie: Angela's angry sister who looks after the McCourt
children as a last resort.
Paddy Clohessy: A very poor friend of young Frank
Mccourt, his family is in dire need becase his father is dying
from tuberculosis.
Theresa Carmody: A seventeen-year-old girl with
tuberculosis with whom the guilt-ridden Frank has his first
sexual relationship.
Delia: Angela's cousin who with her sister Philomenia
forces Malachy into marrying Angela when she becomes
pregnant and arranges for the McCourt's return to Ireland.
Mrs. Finucane: Employs Frank to write threatening letters
to her creditors.
Grandma: Angela's angry mother pays for the McCourts to
return to Ireland and helps them numerous times despite
her angry words.
5. Characters
Bridey Hannon: The McCourt's Roden Lane neighbor and
Angela's friend.
Mr. Hannon: A fatherly neighbor who gives Frank a job
delivering coal.
Laman Griffin: Angela's cousin who is cruel to Frank
forcing him to move in with his uncle Ab Sheehan.
Patricia Madigan: A patient in the same hospital as Frank.
She introduces him to Shakespeare before dying of
diphtheria.
Alfie McCourt: The protagonist Frank's youngest brother.
Angela McCourt: The matriarch of the McCourt family,
Angela is a good mother attempting to raise four children in
spite of abject poverty, an oppressive society and an
alcoholic husband.
Eugene McCourt: One of Frank's twin brothers who dies in
infancy.
6. Characters
Frank McCourt: The protagonist and narrator who
after returning from New York to Ireland as a young
child experiences a life of dire poverty and
ultimately returns to America.
Malachy McCourt Sr.: The patriarch of the
McCourt family, Malachy is an alcoholic who
remains unemployed most of the time and spends
his salary at the pub when he does have a job to
the despair of his wife and children.
Malachy McCourt Jr.: Frank's charming younger
brother. The brothers help each survive in
Limerick.
Michael McCourt: Frank's younger brother whom,
according to Frank, was left by a Angel on the
Seventh Step.
7. Characters
Oliver McCourt: One of Frank's twin
brothers who dies in infancy.
Mikey Molloy: Frank's older friend who
suffers from fits and provides Frank with
information regarding sexual matters.
Nora Molloy: Neighbor and friend who
obsessively bakes bread before being
committed to the Insane Asylum for a rest
from her alcoholic husband.
Pa Keating: Aunt Aggie's gentle, kind and
encouraging husband.
8. Characters
Philomena: Angela's cousin who, with her sister
Delia, forces Malachy into marrying Angela when
she becomes pregnant and arranges for the
McCourt's return to Ireland.
Seamus: The kind-hearted hospital worker who
memorizes poetry for Frank and helps him
communicate with Patricia
Ab Sheehan: Angela's mentally deficient brother
who is cruel to Frank when he helps him deliver his
newspapers. Frank calls him Uncle Pat.
Mr. Timoney: An old man to whom Frank reads
literature. He treats him as an adult and
encourages him to pursue his studies.
9. Elements
Premise: Based on Frank McCourt's best-selling
autobiography, Angela's Ashes presents the dismal
and rain-drenched story of a poor Irish-Catholic
family living in Limerick, Ireland, during the '30s and
'40s. Tragedy after tragedy haunts their every
waking moment as disease, death, alcoholism,
prejudice and poverty wedge them into an
outrageously cruel existence. A grown-up Frank
narrates his childhood experiences and his
desperate quest to leave Ireland for the golden
shores of America.
10. Elements
Positive Elements: As a history lesson, Ashes can
serve as a reminder to those prone to self-
indulgence that life doesn't owe them anything. The
flip of a coin, the change of a decade, or a trip
across the ocean and one might find everything
stripped away. The creature comforts, even the
bare necessities of life. Despite being forced into a
life of extreme poverty and desperation by her
drunk and deadbeat husband, Angela devotes her
life to keeping her children fed and clothed. Her
maternal love knows no bounds and no obstacle
too big.
11. Elements
Spiritual Content: Catholicism is frequently depicted through
the youthful and disillusioned eyes of Frank. He is rudely
denied the privilege of being an altar boy because he is poor
and "from the North." When his teachers see that he is a
bright boy and deserves the chance to go on to higher
education, the Christian brothers in charge flatly deny him that
chance, for the same reasons.
After his first communion and communion breakfast, Frank
becomes sick and throws up. His horrified grandmother
shrieks at him, appalled that he has "thrown up the body and
blood of Jesus." Convinced that "the body of God is in the
backyard" where Frank threw up, she sends him to confession
to ask the priest what to do. A school teacher uses Jesus' own
lack of material possessions to reprimand Frank's classmates
for laughing at his old and repaired shoes.
12. Elements
Nudity and Sexual Content: Frank and his
young pals climb up a trellis to spy on naked
girls (the women's breasts are shown). The
boys talk about female body parts, and Frank
briefly contemplates bestiality after a priest
asks him if he is committing that particular sin.
Later, the boys are pictured standing together
in a field, masturbating (their bare backsides
are shown). When Frank is fifteen years old,
he succumbs to a sexual relationship with a
girl.
13. Elements
Drug and Alcohol Content: Frank's father, Malachy,
suffers from a severe case of pride mixed with
alcoholism. He is repeatedly shown falling-down
drunk. He drinks up every wage he ever earns, along
with gift money for a new baby. He can't keep a job
for longer than a few weeks because he becomes too
drunk to work once the paychecks arrive. Malachy
and Angela also smoke frequently. When Frank turns
16, his uncle takes him to a pub for his first "pint."
Frank stumbles home, just like his father, slaps his
mother across the face and calls her a slut before
collapsing. Alcohol is never glorified here. Its evil
effects are felt too deeply for that. Yet, it is tolerated
and even embraced from a cultural and social
perspective despite its obvious dangers.
14. Elements
Other Negative Content: Frank's obsessive
quest to flee to America prompts him to steal
money from a dead employer to finance his
journey. When he curses at, slaps and reviles
his mother, he goes to confession, but never
apologizes to her. The concept of morality
seems to remain foreign to him, despite his
immersion in the Catholic faith.
15. Frank McCourt was
born in 1930 in
Brooklyn, New York, to
Irish immigrant parents,
grew up in Limerick,
Ireland, and at the age
of nineteen, returned to
the United States.
Surviving initially
through a string of
casual jobs, spending
every spare minute
reading books from the
public library, Frank
began a process of self-
education and
improvement that led,
Frank McCourt Biography eventually, to a career
Pulitzer Prize for Biography as a high-school
Frank McCourt Date of birth: teacher.
August 19, 1931
16. For twenty-seven years he taught in various New
York City public schools, the last seventeen of which
were spent at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.
After retiring from teaching, Frank and his brother
Malachy performed a two-man show titled "A Couple of
Blackguards," a musical review about their Irish youth.
Then, in his sixties, Frank McCourt sat down and began
Frank McCourt writing about his past. The tales of his childhood that he
had told many times to his classes at school and in the
January 24, 2006 bars of New York soon took shape as the highly
acclaimed memoir that is Angelas Ashes(1999).
Published initially in the United States, it went straight
into the bestseller lists and then crossed the Atlantic to
take the bookshops by storm in Ireland, in the rest of
Europe, and around the world.
Angela's Ashes went on to win, in the US alone, the
Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award
and the LA Times Award His second book, about his life
in the US after he moved from Ireland, is called "'Tis."
Frank McCourt lives with his wife Ellen in New York City
and Connecticut.
18. The Color Purple
The Color Purple is about
the life of Celie, a black
woman growing up in the
South. She must overcome
mysogyny, racism and
poverty to establish herself
as an independent person.
The novel also follows the
maturation of her sister
Nettie and the lives of Shug,
Albert, and much of his
extended family.
19. The Color Purple
Celie is raped by the man she thinks is her
father when she is only fourteen years old.
She bears two children as a result, both of
whom are taken by "Pa" and given to a
Reverend in the town. After Celie's mother
dies, Pa marries her off to a man she only
calls Mr. ______.
20. The Color Purple
Celie's life with Mr. ______ is miserable
because she must raise his children from
a previous marriage. At the same time he
despises her and beats her for no reason.
Celie's life improves after her sister Nettie
runs away from home and comes to live
with her, but Mr. ______ makes Nettie
leave after a few weeks.
21. The Color Purple
Nettie goes into the town and meets the
Reverend who is raising both of Celie's
children. She gets a job as a maid with the
family. The Reverend, called Samuel, and
his wife Corrine are both missionaries
preparing to go to Africa. After one of their
partner missionaries refuses to go, they
both offer Nettie the woman's position.
Nettie leaves for Africa with the family and
the children, Adam and Olivia.
22. The Color Purple
Celie watches as Harpo, Mr. ______'s
eldest son, gets a young girl named
Sophia pregnant and then marries her.
Harpo tries to dominate Sophia the way
his father dominates Celie, but she is
stronger and fights him back. Eventually
Sophia gets fed up with Harpo and leaves
him to go live with her sister Odessa.
23. The Color Purple
Mr. ______ finds out that his mistress of
many years, Shug Avery, is ill. He drives
off and brings her home where he makes
Celie take care of her. Celie is happy to do
so, because she immediately falls in love
with Shug when she sees her. Shug is ill-
tempered and nasty to Celie at first, but
soon starts to like her.
24. The Color Purple
Harpo converts his house into a jukejoint
after Sophia leaves, but no one will come.
He finally asks Shug, who is a singer, if
she would be willing to sing at his place.
She agrees and the first night she draws a
large crowd. Shug also insists that Celie
be allowed to come and sings a song
dedicated to Celie.
25. The Color Purple
When Shug finds out that Mr.
______ is beating Celie, she
forces him to stop. At the same
time, she learns that Celie does
not enjoy sex with Mr. ______ at
all. Shug tries to teach Celie
about the pleasures of sex, but
soon realizes that Celie is only
attracted to women. Shug then
arranges things so that she is
able to sleep with Celie one
night.
26. The Color Purple
Shug returns with a husband named
Grady and they stay for a while. Shug
soon discovers that Mr. ______ has
been taking letters from Celie's sister
Nettie and hiding them from her.
When Celie finds out she is mad
enough to try and kill Mr. ______, but
Shug prevents her. Together they find
all of the letters and start to read
them.
27. The Color Purple
Nettie goes to Africa with the family and
they set up their mission in a small village
where the Olinka people live. The natives
view Nettie as a second wife of Samuel,
which makes Corrine very jealous. Soon
she stops Nettie from meeting with
Samuel in private or from borrowing her
clothing. After a few years, Corrine comes
down with a fever and passes away after
learning the truth about Nettie and her
adopted children.
28. The Color Purple
Adam and Olivia have become very good friends
with a young Olinka girl named Tashi. Tashi
decides that she must undergo the ritual
scarification ceremony on her face and also the
female circumcision in order to remember her
tribal roots. However, she is so ashamed of the
marks that she soon leaves to join the mbeles.
Adam goes after her and fetches her home
again, but she refuses to marry him because she
is afraid she will not be accepted in the United
States. Adam then gets his face marked as well
so that they look alike, at which point they get
married. The whole family then makes plans to
return home.
29. The Color Purple
After finding her sister's letters, Celie
decides to leave home with Shug. She tells
Mr. ______ she is leaving and jams his
hand with a fork when he tries to hit her.
Before she leaves, she curses him for the
way he has treated her and tells him he is
cursed until he does right by her. In
response he refuses to send her any of
Nettie's letters as they keep arriving.
30. The Color Purple
Celie goes to Memphis with Shug where she
starts making lots of pants. Eventually she gets
so good at designing pants that people from all
over start to order from her. Shug helps Celie
turn the work into a business. Soon thereafter
Celie learns that "Pa" is really not her father but
an imposter who married her mother after her
real father died. Pa's real name is Alphonso. After
he dies Celie receives a phone call telling her
that the house actually belongs to her and Nettie.
She immediately returns home.
31. The Color Purple
Celie fixes up her new house while Shug
takes off with a nineteen year old flute
player for a tryst around the country. Celie
is heart-broken but she discovers that Mr.
______, now called Albert, has finally
made something of his life. After Celie left
he almost died of malnurishment and only
started to recover after Harpo made him
mail Celie the last of Nettie's letters. Albert
asks Celie for forgiveness and they soon
become good friends.
32. The Color Purple
Shug returns and decides to retire.
Her flute player ends up going to
college and Shug has gotten old and
needs to relax. Celie is now quite
wealthy because she also inherited a
dry goods store. She gives Sophia a
job there and keeps running her pant
business as well.
33. The Color Purple
Nettie finally returns home
with Samuel, whom she
has married. Their children
are with them, so Celie
gets to see her real
children now that they are
all grown up. She and
Nettie fall into each other's
arms and lie on the ground
hugging. Celie comments
that she has never felt so
young before in her life.
34. Alice Walker
· 1944: February 9, Alice Malsenior Walker is born
to sharecroppers, Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah
(Lou) Grant Walker in the farming community of
Eatonton, GA.
· 1952: At the age of eight, Alice is accidentally blinded by
one of her brothers while playing a game of "Cowboys and
Indians."
· 1952-58: Alice is ostracized as an outcast because of her
scar. To deal with her feelings of loneliness, Alice begins to
read and write poetry.
· 1958: At the age of fourteen, while visiting her brother Bill
in Boston, Alice is taken to a hospital to have the cataract in
her eye removed. She becomes confident and her life is
transformed.
35. Alice Walker
· 1960: Alice graduates as valedictorian from her high school class.
She is voted most popular student of her graduating class and is
elected queen of the prom.
· 1961: Alice Walker is awarded a scholarship to attend the historical
African-American woman's institution, Spelman College.
· 1965: In the winter, during her last few months of school, Alice
learns that she is pregnant. For three days Alice sleeps with a razor
blade underneath her pillow and contemplates suicide. A friend of hers
locates a doctor to help Alice get an abortion.
· 1965: After the abortion, Alice suffers from anxiety and depression.
She writes poems based on her experiences which she submits to her
writing teacher and mentor Muriel Rukeyser. Her professor submits
them to her agent for review. These poems will become the basis of
Alice's first book of poetry, Once, which will not be published until
three years later.
36. Alice Walker
· 1967: Alice falls in love with Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal who she
marries on March 17, 1967. He later becomes an attorney who
prosecutes civil rights cases in court. They move to Mississippi in
becoming the state's first legally married interracial couple in history.
· 1967: Alice Walker publishes her first short story, "To Hell with
Dying," based in reaction to her depression.
· 1969: Alice's work in Georgia helps her to see the effect poverty on
relationships between black men and women.
· 1976: She and her husband Mel Leventhal divorce amicably.
37. Alice Walker
· 1982: Alice Walker's third Novel The Color
Purple is published and is nominated for a
National Book Award.
· 1982: Alice Walker becomes a professor at
University of California duirng the Spring and
Bradeis University during the Fall.
· 1986: The Color Purple premieres on January
18 in her hometown of Eatonton, GA
