This novel is a "coming-of-age" story about Frank McCourt's childhood. One of the most revealing quotations from the novel is,
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was of course, a miserable childhood. . . . Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”
McCourt details this miserable childhood in frank, humorous, and honest terms. He does not feel sorry for himself, even though he could. His purpose is to let the reader understand the era that he grew up in and see that "this too shall pass" and you can win in life no matter what your early years may be like. His three main themes in this memoir are poverty, the destructive effects of alcohol, and religion; specifically Catholicism.
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