Character Clues

Character Analysis

Actions

Malachy Sr. drinks his wages, Angela begs for money, and Frank steals to feed his family (but not before he says how wrong it is). Actions make the man or woman in Angela's Ashes, not words. We can tell who the good guys are just by what they do – it's pretty black and white. The memoir implies throughout that you can't tell a person's character by what he or she says. For example, how often do we see the people highest up in the church being the least generous, the least compassionate? Or the welfare agency people spouting platitudes that humiliate the poor by their actions? Being a story told by a child, actions are what Frankie sees. He doesn't have the perspective to understand nuance or hidden motivations.

Social Status

Social status determines where you go in life. Life in Limerick doesn't offer much social mobility. If you're born in the lanes, you'll die in the lanes. People stay within the confines of their own groups and are wary of letting in those of a different social class, which is pretty frustrating if you're like Frank and have lots of ambition. Where you are on the social ladder defines who you are. That's why Frank wants to go to America—there, he thinks, you can be anything you want to be.

Young Frank's acutely aware of how he's treated by people in authority or how his family is viewed by those who are better off. But in this memoir, the reader learns to be suspicious of those in better circumstances. More often than not, people in positions of power and authority aren't kind or trustworthy at all. It's rare in the memoir to find adults who can see past Frank's shabby clothes to his intelligence and integrity.

Nationality

Let's just say we wouldn't want to be in Malachy Sr.'s shoes since he's originally from the north of Ireland and the people of Limerick don't take kindly to Northerners. Never mind that Malachy Sr. fought with the IRA and is Catholic (most of the Irish in Northern Ireland are Protestant), but that's not enough. Since his family hails from Northern Ireland it automatically makes him an English-loving traitor. Angela's family attributes much of her misery to the fact that she married someone from the North. The memoir also suggests that Malachy Sr. is discriminated against by potential employers once they hear his Northern accent.

Worst of all, though, is to be English. Anything associated with the English—their accents, their literature, their religion—is great for hating on. (Except when you sneak in English newspapers to look at the pictures of women in skimpy bathing suits and read about adultery and divorces). Now, we don't really meet many actual English people in the book, but the one that we do, Mr. Harrington, outdoes the stereotype by telling Frank he's a crawling, whining, puny Celtic drunk. Men in Limerick might have to go to England to work in the munitions factories, but they don't have to like it.

Clothing

Appearances matter. It's very simple: if you look like you're from the slums, then you get treated like you're from the slums. When Angela goes to buy food from Mrs. O'Connell she's received with a smile. Why? Because she has a nice coat from America. But as soon as Mrs. O'Connell learns that she doesn't have any money she just about kicks her out of the store. Angela and Frank get the door slammed in their faces by the priest who takes one look at their ragged clothes and decides there's no place for Frankie at the school.

So what do you do when you've only got one pair of everything? Do you just stop trying? No, because that means that you don't have self-respect and that you're just like a beggar on the street. What does that mean for the characters in our book? It means that you always wear a collar and tie, because no self-respecting man would leave the house looking disheveled; or you paint your skin using shoe polish so that no one else sees the holes in your stockings. You do everything in your power to look like you're not from the slums.

Names

In Roman Catholicism it's customary to name children after saints and popes. So it should come as no surprise that many of our characters have names with religious connotations. Our main character, Frank, is named after St. Francis of Assisi, a saint known for his compassion, love of nature, and commitment to a life of poverty and humility. Malachy's named after an Irish saint, and Michael and Margaret are saints' names as well. Angela is the feminine version of the name Angel, plus she's named after "the Angelus which rang the midnight hour" (1.23).

In Angela's Ashes names function as a reminder to keep the faith and the Irish pride alive. For example, when Bridey tells Angela she should name her son Ronald after the movie star Ronald Colman, Angela says,

No, says Mam, it has to be Irish. Isn't that what we fought for all these years? What the use of fighting the English for centuries if we're going to call our children Ronald? (7.108)

Angela makes sure all her children have good Irish names.