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Similes
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—A Glorious Thing to Die:
After Eugene dies, Frank mulls over the messages of martyrdom he hears from his father and his communion teacher in a moment full of situational irony and pathos. His father claims “it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland,” while his communion teacher insists “it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith," but Frank is confused:
The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live. My brothers are dead and my sister is dead and I wonder if they died for Ireland or the Faith. Dad says they were too young to die for anything. Mam says it was disease and starvation and him never having a job. Dad says, Och, Angela, puts on his cap and goes for a long walk.
Situational irony appears here in the disconnect between the glorified idea of dying for a cause and the harsh reality of everyday survival that surrounds Frank. While the adults all around him preach the nobility of dying for faith or country, Frank’s own siblings have all died quietly and ignobly at home of starvation and illness. Frank’s siblings have passed away not for any grand cause, but from poverty and medical neglect. When Angela points out that “disease and starvation” are to blame for the family’s suffering, not a noble mission, Malachy Sr. reacts frustratedly and leaves. As in other situations where he’s accused of something bad, Malachy Sr. refuses to accept any blame.
The author also uses pathos here to make the reader see just how pitiful Frank’s situation is. Frank’s quiet questioning of whether “anyone in the world would like us to live” is eerily somber and mature for a young child. He doesn’t know whether living is even considered a good thing. Even though he’s watched his father painfully grieve his dead brothers and sister, Frank is confused because Malachy Sr. also repeatedly glorifies death to his sons.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Champion Pint Drinker:
Frank describes his friend Mikey’s father, Peter, as a “great champion” who wins drinking contests at pubs, and his mother as someone who is always in and out of mental institutions. In doing so, the narrator uses situational irony and hyperbole to describe the tragicomic dysfunction in Mikey’s family:
Mikey’s father, Peter, is a great champion. He wins bets in the pubs by drinking more pints than anyone. [...] He’s such a champion they could chop off his fingers and he’d carry on regardless. Nora Molloy is often carted off to the lunatic asylum demented with worry over her hungry famishing family. [...] It’s well known that all the lunatics in the asylum have to be dragged in but she’s the only one that has to be dragged out, back to her five children and the champion of all pint drinkers.
McCourt uses situational irony to show the dark reality behind Peter’s uncontested title of "champion" pint drinker. Although Frank admires Mikey's father, he’s too young to understand at this point in the memoir that Peter’s “victories” in the pub come at the expense of his family’s welfare. The pints he is drinking are not free, so being known as a “champion pint drinker” really means that he is wasting his very limited money on alcohol. Instead of making life better for his family, Peter’s “success” ironically deepens their poverty. The hyperbole in “they could chop off his fingers and he’d carry on regardless” also exaggerates Peter’s commitment to drinking. He’s able to keep drinking almost endlessly because he makes himself vomit up what he’s already consumed. Even if his fingers—which he uses to make himself vomit so he can drink more—were removed, Frankie thinks he’d still keep on behaving in the same way. Even though his family have nothing, Peter is willing to waste their money twice—first on drinking the pints, and then on vomiting them up so he can drink more.
McCourt uses further situational irony as he describes the effect of Peter’s drinking on Mikey’s mother, Nora. Nora frequently seeks refuge in the “lunatic asylum,” which for most people would be considered a punishment or a last resort. However, because things are so bad at home with “her five children and the champion of all pint drinkers,” instead of trying to avoid being brought in, Nora must be “dragged out” of the asylum to return to her responsibilities. Even the indignity and confinement of an early 20th century mental institution, it would seem, is preferable to her hardscrabble life at home in the Lanes.
Related Themes:
