Angela's Ashes by Frank Mccourt Essay

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Forbes writes from a perspective of literary theory heavily influenced by Judith Butler's postmodern analysis of identity as 'performance.' McCourt "the adult author, reflective, witty, older, wiser, and entirely in charge of the text, [is] the one who fashions each page of the memoir" even when he speaks in the voice of the Limerick community or the voice of himself as a child (Forbes 2007). Just like an author of fiction, he performs an Irishman who has made good in America and uses narrative tools to create that identity, as well as the identity of his mother. He renders his mother -- his poor, oppressed mother, the mother of dead children and the wife of an irresponsible alcoholic -- very different than the far stronger and resilient, and more socially connected individual witnessed by community members like Steinfels. McCourt's command of the collective voices of the community through reconstituted dialogue and also by chronicling their perceptions of his mother (as seen through his eyes) gives his memoir and authorial tone that is entirely literary in nature but which has been believed as history.

In an interesting facet of the narrative technique noted by James B. Mitchell, because McCourt does not perform an interior childhood identity whose survival is in question -- "he never allows us access into the younger 'Frank's cognitive processes through the device of an interior monologue...he must instead rely upon exterior dialogue and construct a community identity that is still a product of his own consciousness" (Mitchell 2003). McCourt creates those members of the dialogue and voices of the community and calls them objectively true -- although his memoir is a storyteller's masterful performance that can only render his current perceptions.

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When he does adopt a child's voice is a "faux naive narrative voice" with a "selfless sense of responsibility, bordering on masochism" which "has helped secure the book's vast audience, since the innocent veracity of children is sacrosanct in American society, and a child racked with guilt tells a particularly compelling tale" even though the book suspiciously has a literary quality in its overall tone (Mitchell 2003).

Memoir by its nature is a kind of lie. But the 'reality effect' of McCourt's work is intense. This is partially due to his skill as a writer, his masterful and seamless use of narrative tropes that create reality but cannot be reality, such as perfectly recollected literary scenes, and voicing the collective 'we' voice of the community. McCourt's tale plays upon cultural cliches of immigrant narrative that feel true because they feel familiar. The desire of the reader to believe that it is true is intense, given the verisimilitude created by the narrative style, but ironically the more 'true' a memoir like McCourt's may feel, the less true it may be. And in a final irony, despite the bleakness of the events he recounts "interest in McCourt as an historical figure has actually helped invigorate and refocus Limerick's tourist trade, as American readers of Angela's Ashes arrive to visit locations described in the book" for the sense of reality conveyed is so intense readers feel they can hear, smell, see, and touch McCourt's memories, despite all logical evidence of what they may know about the unstable nature of memory (Mitchell 2003).

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