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Ricardo Chavez
Long
English­10 (H)
13 December 2014
Angela’s Ashes

People from all from all over from Asia to Mexico to Brazil to Central and South America try

and even die just to achieve the goal of getting into the United States due to it’s endless benefits and opportunities this land has to offer. In fact 8.72 million people from Mexico, 1.17 million from Asia, and 1.78 million from Central and South America make up 85% of the 11.4 million immigrants living in the United States. These immigrants all want to fill their hunger for a better life, the American dream, and want to capitalize on the infinite opportunities for example the education, the jobs, and the health care systems. However the American dream does not always become a reality. Dream slayers cause among some of the worst hardships an immigrant will have to surmount. For example, some discriminations: pregnancy, oppression, racial discrimination, and the mighty slayer itself addiction.
Ashes, in the memoir Angela’s Ashes, keenly represent these horrendous feats. Angela Mc Court, in the memoir Angela’s Ashes, has dreams for her family but they come to ruin.

Poverty is one element that has harmed Angela’s family. Since America till their arrival to

Limerick they have moved houses twice after bed bugs and by other economic problems. The third time landed in a two story house on Roden Lane for a price of six shillings and six pence a week. This house has a catch though; the McCourts unknowingly rented the house right next to the lavatory of the whole lane. People day and night walk up and down the lane just to empty
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out their buckets of piss and shit right on the side of the Mc Courts house and their mother even talks about her houses odor smelling so hurriedness that “that lavatory will kill [them] with all diseases”. It shows you that they don’t even have pluming thousands of diseases that can cause cancer, blindness and even death. This leads to one part in the memoir that some even call heart breaking, when Angela’s family doesn’t have any means to light a fire for a cup of tea “till Malachy pulls a loose board off the wall between the upstairs rooms, Mam says, Well, ‘tis off now and we might as well chop it up for the fire.” This is utterly barbaric, to have to chop off a wall from your own house just to boil water for tea.
This is beyond depressing; parents should work or at least try to make enough for their family to at least have a means of food or heat source. Poverty is one of the key factors of desolation in any dream not just Angela’s family. There are cases that people have committed suicide just because they thought it as a means to escape not being able to pay for food or housing, living day by day starving. This is not a way to end ones complications.

Alcohol is another element that has helped dismantle Angela’s family piece by piece, shilling

by shilling. Franks dad Malachy has always had an