Angela's Ashes

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1996

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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

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 14-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 14 Summary

Frank leaves Laman Griffin’s house and moves in with his uncle, Pat Sheehan, whom he calls Uncle Ab (a shortened version of his nickname, “The Abbott”). To stave off hunger, Frank regularly steals milk and bread deliveries, primarily from the homes of rich residents of Limerick. Frank also takes to going early to the market in Irishtown so he can offer his labor to anyone who will accept it. Despite these hardships, he also gains some independence. He still uses Laman’s library card, and the librarian, who is always glad to see him, eventually offers him a library card of his own.

One day while at the library, Frank stumbles upon a book by Lin Yutang discussing sex in graphic detail. Frank finally discovers that babies do not come from the “Angel on the Seventh Step” as his father told him. When the librarian sees what he’s reading, she is outraged and bans him from the library.

In preparation for a job as a telegram boy, Frank washes his only clothes and hangs them outside to dry. As he waits for them to dry, he puts on his grandmother’s old dress to keep warm. He falls asleep and is awakened later in the night. Aunt Aggie is there with her husband, Uncle Pa Keating. They are bringing the drunken Uncle Pat home from the pub. They discover Frank in bed wearing his grandmother’s dress, and Aunt Aggie flies into a rage. She sends him outside to get water for tea, and a neighbor spots him while he is still wearing the dress. Frank is humiliated yet again. Aggie softens when Frank tells her the whole story about his new job and says to him that it’s more than his father would have done.

Chapter 15 Summary

Frank mistakes the starting date of his job as a telegram boy. It is his birthday, and he assumed that he could begin the day he turned 14. He’s wrong, and the female directors mock him in front of other telegram boys. Aggie is there and takes Frank to buy new clothes for his birthday—a rare act of charity that does not come free of her bitterness.

Frank’s first telegram delivery is to his friend Paddy Clohessy’s mother, who tips him when she sees the woeful condition he’s in. When payday finally arrives, Frank treats his brother Michael to fish and chips and a movie. As Frank becomes more familiar with the ins and outs of his job, he realizes that the worst tippers are the wealthiest. He also finds it very difficult to obey the orders of Mrs. O’Connell, his boss, to disregard the pleadings of the poor people to whom he delivers telegrams. When Frank sees their poverty, he feels an obligation to fulfill their very meager requests, which include helping crippled old men get something to eat.

Angela begins spending more time at The Abbott’s residence until she effectively moves in. Now that Frank is working and bringing in money, Angela can no longer collect relief, and Frank must turn over money to support her. Nevertheless, circumstances between Frank and his mother are much better after she leaves Laman’s. Malachy also returns home, and the family is reunited.

Frank receives the task of delivering telegrams to the Carmody residence, which he finds odd because of their reputation for great tipping. The other telegram boys tell him it’s because Theresa, the 17-year-old girl who lives there, has consumption and nobody wants to catch it. As Frank pedals his bike on the way to deliver the telegram, he skids and falls off, scraping and cutting himself. When he arrives, Theresa invites him in; she cleans his cut and tells him to remove his pants and hang them by the fire. One thing leads to the next, and Frank has his first experience with sex. Afterward, he makes a habit of bringing telegrams to the residence, and a relationship develops with Theresa until one day he learns that she has been placed in hospital. The next week she is dead of consumption. Frank believes that he has caused this by having sex with her and helping her commit a mortal sin. Frank is devastated by her death and says that he hopes to never experience something like that again.

Chapters 14-15 Analysis

The desperation of Frank’s situation increases dramatically when Laman kicks him out. At 13 years old, he begins to fend for himself by stealing regularly. He tries to reconcile the immorality of stealing by promising to confess his sins; although he has sunk to new lows, he still tries to do things the right way. The circumstances of Frank’s life highlight the limitations and contradictions of Catholic charity in a city renowned across Ireland as “holy.” That a child is left to fend for himself is a rebuke of the wealthy classes of Limerick, including the Catholic clergy who look down their noses at Frank, his family, and others like him. Theirs is an outdated understanding of faith—one that equates success and financial stability with one’s righteousness; it is the faith exemplified by the friends of Job, who insist that because bad things happen to Job, he must be full of sin.

Throughout his ordeal, Frank searches for work and other ethical ways to gain independence. Though he is impoverished and without much means of making a living, he still holds to the ideal that he can rise above his station. When he turns 14, he lands a job as a telegram boy, and while the job is difficult and low-paying, it gives him a sense of accomplishment. Unlike his father before him, Frank also realizes the responsibility that comes with being a breadwinner, and while he’d much rather keep his money, he knows just how much his family is suffering and agrees to give Angela his wages. These are hard lessons for someone of Frank’s age, but in some ways, it is his age that keeps him hopeful and searching for a better life. That he keeps his hopes alive is in stark contrast to the behavior of his father, who could not endure the weight of being depended upon.

The relationship with Theresa Carmody represents Frank’s further loss of innocence. The complexity of a sexual relationship is itself a rite of passage, but when Theresa succumbs to tuberculosis, Frank suffers the added dimension of guilt. Because of how he has been conditioned to view life, he immediately contextualizes the sexual relationship within his religion. He blames himself for Theresa’s death and worries that he has doomed her to hell. Add to this the complication that she was a Protestant, and the circumstance becomes a central crisis in Frank’s life. Her death is not only the death of a friend; instead, her death marks Frank as a sinner in his own eyes.