Angela's Ashes: The Influence of Malachy McCourt on Young Frank's Life

Going through the book of Frank McCourt's autobiographical account of his life and the life of his family, it is easy to see that Malachy McCourt is not a good influence on his family. He is often without work, but what is worse, when he has work he often drinks away his wages instead of bringing the money home to his family. Even when he does not have work, he often spends his dole money on alcohol, and even at one point drinks away the five pounds his father sends the family when Michael is born. But even with all this, it cannot be said that he is only a bad influence. At those times when he is sober, Malachy shows his love for his wife and his love for his sons, and he manages to make his sons feel special in their own way. This is what Frank feels the most, even though as he gets older he often gets angry at his father for abandoning them for alcohol.

Malachy shows Frank that he is special from a very early age, while the family is still in America. It begins with the story about Cuchulain, which Frank's father tells only to him. This makes it special and makes Frank think of the legend of Cuchulain as "my story". This is why he often gets angry at other boys when he hears them tell the story of Cuchulain on the street. It is not simply his story, but it is his bond to his father, and Frank treasures it from early childhood.

The McCourt family struggles constantly because of the father's drinking problem, but when he is able to control his "affliction," the family is actually happy. This happens because Malachy, when he is sober, is both a loving husband and caring father. He has his male chauvinistic views about some things being beyond a man's dignity to do, but this is not surprising considering that they live in a patriarchal Catholic society. If not for alcohol, he often makes sacrifices for his family by giving up his food for his children and wife. He is also not abusive to his wife Angela or to his sons. His way of dealing with frustration of their situation is to go for long walks in the country.

Frank's feelings about his father are summarized well around the age of eleven, when he has time to spend alone with his father in the mornings and see him as a person that he came to love in the first place. He says: "I think my father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and the prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland. I feel bad over the bad thing but I can't back away from him because the one in the morning is my real father" (p. 210). From his father, Frank learns that it is a man's duty to take care of his family even when he is tired, hungry, and does not really want to do it. Frank shows this care fully for the first time when he steals food for his brothers and lemonade for his mother when Angela comes down with pneumonia. Even before that, however, Frank shows that he knows what kindness means towards someone even worse off than he is when during school lunch he gives a raisin from his bun to Paddy Clohessy instead of trading it for something that other boys were offering him for the raisin.

The bad example that Malachy offers actually also benefits Frank because it shows him what a man is not supposed to do. Frank wants to grow up to be like his father in some things and not to be like him on other things, which makes for an ideal combination. Sacrifices made by his mother play a big role in his decision as well, but as a boy, Frank associates more with a male parent, which shows that Malachy's influence was also strong.