Angela's Ashes

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1996

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-11

Chapters 12-13

Chapters 14-15

Chapters 16-19

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 16-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 Summary

Frank delivers a telegram to a grieving Englishman, Mr. Harrington. His wife’s corpse is laid out in the home, and Mr. Harrington orders Frank inside, where he forces him to drink sherry and hurls insults at Frank. Mr. Harrington leaves the home to get more whiskey, and while alone, Frank pours some sherry on the corpse in a baptismal ritual because he is worried about Mrs. Harrington not being Catholic. Mr. Harrington catches Frank in the act and hurls more insults at him. Frank becomes sick and vomits on Mrs. Harrington’s rosebush outside the window, which makes Mr. Harrington irate and violent. Frank escapes out the window as Mr. Harrington launches all kinds of objects at Frank, including sherry bottles and ham sandwiches. When Frank returns to the telegram office, he is immediately fired. Fortunately, the parish priest intercedes on Frank’s behalf and Frank’s job is reinstated.

Frank begins a side job writing threatening letters for Mrs. Finucane, a woman who lends people money. The letters are so well written that the customers who owe money immediately begin to pay their debts. She is so delighted with Frank’s skill at writing threatening letters that she allows him some tea, but she shows her stingy side when he asks for bread.

As Frank nears his 16th birthday, he has a conversation with Uncle Pa about taking the post office exam so that he can become a full-time worker there. Pa tells him that he needs to follow the will of his heart rather than do what others expect him to do. As Frank arrives at the post office for the exam, he notices a job posting that reads, “Smart Boy Wanted” (334). He considers the choice in front of him and decides to pursue the “smart boy” job, which turns out to be with Eason’s, a company that delivers The Irish Times (considered a Protestant newspaper) and other publications. Frank gets the Eason’s job, and—much to the derision of the post office directors, Mrs. O’Connell and Mrs. Barry—he quits his job as a telegram boy.

Chapter 17 Summary

On the eve of his 16th birthday, Frank meets Uncle Pa at South’s Pub for his first pint. Traditionally, a father would buy his son the first pint, but since his father has again abandoned his family, Frank gets his first from his uncle. In fact, Uncle Pa buys him two and Frank becomes drunk. Uncle Pa tells Frank to go straight home, where Angela accuses Frank of being like his father. Frank lashes out at Angela over the incident with Laman Griffin in the loft. Things escalate and Frank slaps her across the face. The next morning, in a miserable and guilty state, Frank seeks a priest to confess his sins. He appeals to St. Francis, his namesake, for mercy and cries. A Franciscan priest named Father Gregory approaches Frank and very gently coaxes him to reveal his sins to St. Francis. Father Gregory assures Frank that Theresa is in heaven, and his words and kindness soothe Frank.

Frank begins his job as a messenger boy at Eason’s. Soon after, Mr. McCaffery (his boss) appears in a complete panic and tasks Frank with riding his bike around Limerick, stopping at every store and customer to find every copy of John O’London’s Weekly. In the magazine is an advertisement for birth control. Two of Frank’s coworkers, Eamon and Peter, tell him to rip the pages out but not to hand them all over to McCaffery. They hatch a scheme to sell the single page ad on the black market. The profit from the scheme is large, and Frank’s earnings inch him closer to his goal of going to America.

Angela has taken a job as a maid looking after an elderly man named Mr. Sliney. The conflict between Frank and her has abated somewhat, and she invites Frank to Mr. Sliney’s house on occasion to share tea. Frank’s job as a messenger boy has become easier for him, which allows him more time to spend reading the papers and magazines.

Chapter 18 Summary

Frank speeds up the year-by-year unfolding of his story in the final chapter. He goes from 17 to 18 to almost 19 as the chapter opens. All the while, Frank saves money and continues to write threatening letters for Mrs. Finucane. She eventually passes away, and since Frank knows where she hides her money, he steals some of it so that he can get the last bit that he needs for passage to America. At long last, Frank confirms with a travel agency the trip he will take.

The year is 1950, and as the departure to America nears, Frank’s family holds a party for him. The family has mixed feelings (as does Frank), and the party takes on a somber tone until Uncle Pa tries to snap everyone out of it. Frank does not reveal the final moments he has with Angela; instead, the narrative shifts from the party to Frank on the boat. While there, his emotions swing from elation to remorse and regret.

Rather than docking in New York City, the ship travels up the Hudson to Albany, with a stop in Poughkeepsie for the night. An Irishman from Mayo named Tim Boyle brings Frank and a traveling priest ashore and then takes Frank and the priest to a party that some women are holding while their veteran husbands are out hunting. Frank spends a memorable evening at the party drinking strange beer and engaging in acts considered lewd and sinful by his companion, the priest.

Chapter 19 Summary

Chapter 19 consists of a single word, “’Tis,” which is the title of the sequel to Angela’s Ashes, which recounts Frank’s experiences after coming to America.

Chapters 16-19 Analysis

The incident with Mr. Harrington is significant. Throughout most of the book, Frank hears various adults speak about the tension that has existed for hundreds of years between the English and the Irish. The Irish resent England’s conquest of the country, the legacy of which accounts for the generational poverty experienced by the people in this book. The English view of the Irish, as the book portrays it, is best represented by Mr. Harrington. He has an obvious bias against Irish people—particularly their Catholicism. He is quick to rely on stereotypes of Irish people as alcoholics or lazy: When offering Frank a drink, he says, “You Irish quaff at every turn. Barely weaned before you clamor for the whiskey bottle, the pint of stout” (327). At this stage of the story, Frank is only 14—a fact that doesn’t seem to register with Mr. Harrington. He is shocked when the alcohol makes Frank sick—a sure sign that he believes the stereotypes he hurls at Frank.

The Mr. Harrington anecdote also represents the ways in which the English have turned Irish people against themselves. When Frank returns to the telegram office afterward, his bosses automatically assume his guilt. They fire him on the spot, and they also demean and humiliate him. However, when a Catholic priest intercedes on Frank’s behalf, Mrs. O’Connell and Mrs. Barry change their views and return to resenting the English for their mistreatment of the Irish.

Frank’s ambition to move to America gains momentum as the later chapters unfold. When Frank turns 16 and takes a job with Eason’s, it is a risk: He leaves behind a sure job at the post office. This foreshadows Frank’s growing penchant for pushing past his limitations, and when the time arrives to travel to America, he is prepared. While he idealizes America, believing in the adage that it is the land of opportunity, his experience in taking risks and succeeding also gives him the confidence that such a major decision demands. Nevertheless, as the trip nears, Frank wavers. He second-guesses his decision. It is the same story when he is on the ship. He doubts himself and wonders if he should have stayed in Limerick and accepted his apparent fate of living an impoverished, lower-class existence. It is partly his aversion to going without for his entire life that keeps him motivated, but it is unclear if Frank would have had the nerve to go through with his plans without experiencing the successful gamble at Eason’s.