The Lack of Opportunity

The manager was surprised because Frank writes his address, Little Barrington as the street, instead of Little Barrington lane that is the fact. The manager reminds him that it is lane and can not be changed to be street even only the name. The conversations above shows that a name of place which is a lane cannot be changed to be another state which is street. It also implies that people who are from the lane are banned to wish a higher level of place. People who are from the lane also get discriminative treatment. There’s no opportunity for them to reach a higher level of their life such as working in the civil service or government, go to university or even run the world. It can be seen when Frank avoided to meet the boys from Chritian Bothers’ School by taking the lane instead of the street everytime he goes to school. He avoided them because of their appearance that looks luxurious. “We go to school through the lanes and back streets so that we won’t meet the respectable boys who go to the Christian Brothers’ School or the rich ones who go to the Jesuit school, Crescent College. The Christian Brothers’ boys wear tweed jackets, warm woolen sweaters, shirt, ties and shiny new boots. We know they’re are the ones who will get jobs in the civil service and help the people who run the world. the Crescent College boys wear blazers and school scarves rossed around their necks and over their shoulders to show they’re cock o’the walk. They have long hair which falls across their foreheads and over their eyes so that they can toss their quiffs like Englishmen. We know they’re the ones who will go to univeristy, take over the family business, run rhe government, run the world. We will be the messenger boys on bicycles who deliver their groceries or we’ll go to England to work on the building sites.” McCourt, 1996: 272 Frank sees the boys of Christian Brot hers’ School as the repectable boys who comes from rich family. It can be seen from their appearance by wearing tweed jackets, warm woolen sweaters, shirt, ties and shiny new boots. They’re are the ones who will get jobs in the civil service, go to university and run the world. It is different with him and the boys from the lane that will be the messenger boys on bicycles who deliver their groceries or go to England to work on the building sites. The statement above shows that people who are from the lane is only able to work for filling the daily necessaries without any opportunity for increasing the level of life for instance working as a messenger boy. There will be only boys who have much money and good appearances that can have the opportunity to be success. Frank realizes that the opportunity will not come for him who is from the lane. The class distinction has also gotten him fed up and realizes who himself is and it makes him to bury his dream to be a Jesuit 49 . “Id like to be a Jesuit some day but theres no hope of that when you grow up in a lane. Jesuits are very particular. They dont like poor people. They like people with motor cars who stick out their little fingers when they pick up their teacups.” McCourt, 1996: 245 Frank has a dream to be a Jesuit. Frank sees that the life of a Jesuit is very peaceful. He can see it everytime he go to Jesuit Church for a Mass. They live in the warm place, sleep in a bed with sheets blankets pillows, get up to a nice warm house and a warm church with nothing to do except 49 Member of a Roman Catholic religious order called the Society of Jesus that was founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1534; cunning person, deceptive person say Mass hear confession. But, in the statement above, Frank realizes that he is a person from lane. And there is no hope for people from the lane like him to be a Jesuit. They prefers to take the boys from the rich people, like people with motor cars who stick out their little fingers when they pick up their teacups. It shows that there is no opportunity, especially for poor people to be a part of Jesuit as the particular organization of the country. Another proof that shows the lack of opportunity in Ireland is the moment someone from Christian Brothers slaps the door in Frank’s face. Frank who is known as the smart boy is not also given an opportunity to reach the higher level of his school. It can be seen when Frank’s teacher, Mr. O’Halloran, told Frank’s mother about how bright Frank is and suggest him to continue his school to secondary school. Mr. O’Halloran send him to Christian Brothers’s School. But, when Frank and his mother went to Christian Brothers to inquire about further schooling, the people from the school instead slamed the door in his face and refused him. “She knocks on the door at the Christian Brothers and says wants to see the superior, Brother Murray. He comes to the door, looks at my mother and me and says, What? Mam s ays, This is my son, Frank, Mr. O’Halloran at Leamy’s says he’s bright and would there be any chance of getting him in here for secondary school? We don’t have room for him, says Brother Murray and closes the door in our faces.” McCourt, 1996: 289. The rejection above has completed the proof about the lack of opportunity for poor people to get the success eventhough they are very smart and talented. They are not seen by conscious choice or decision, but, they are prefered to be seen by appearance rather than by aspects of condition of the individual.

c. The Uncivilized Country

In the early pages, Frank has stated the condition of Ireland, especially the weather. The weather in Ireland is really worse that can cause many kinds of disease perch to the body. “Out in the Atlantic Ocean great sheets of rain gathered to drift slowly up the River Shannon and settle forever in Limerick. The rain dampened the city from the Feast of the Circumcision to New Years Eve. It created a cacophony of hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes, consumptive croaks. It turned noses into fountains, lungs intobacterial sponges. “McCourt, 1996: 11 The condition of Ireland which is always wet is implied above from the rain that gathered and settle forever in Limerick. The rain itself has indicates the cold and wet circumstance of Ireland that led to a lot of different kinds of diseases can attack Frank and the people who live in Ireland. The condition of Ireland is also depicted through how Frank compare Ireland with the downstair room in his house. His new house that is placed in Roden Lane has two rooms on the upstair and two rooms on the downstair. In the winter months, the downstair is fulled by flood because the rain come down the lane and poured in under their door. Meanwhile, in the upstair, the room is dry and warm. Frank gives the names for the downstair and upstair according to their condition to make him easy call both of them. The downstair is called as Ireland and the upstair is called as Italy. Its cold and wet down in Ireland but were up in Italy. McCourt, 1996: 235 Frank compares the condition of Ireland with the downstair room in his house which is cold, wet and filled by terrible flood. This comparation implies that Ireland is the worse place to live that the condition can threat their healthy. The risk of healthy does not only comes from the damp weather in Ireland. It is also caused by the condition of the house that is indeed worse for Frank and people around him. There is no lavatory in their house, but the only lavatory they have is placed beside of his house that is the lavatory for the whole family in the lane. It means that he must split up the lavatory with many people and it is awfully worse for their healthy. The condition of Ireland has leads it as the uncivilized country where it has no the well system of life in their country as the providing of lavatory for each house, especially poor people. Instead of using the lavatory that is placed outside the houses, Frank see them use the chamber pot for having a pee. The first time Frank sees that habit of using the chamber pot is when Frank firstly arrived in Ireland from his long journey from America in his four years old. Frank and his family firstly went to his grandparents’ house in Belfast 50 and sleep over in 50 Port and capital city of north Ireland there for a few days. On one night, Frank got up and poked his father asking for a toilet. But his father instead ordered him to use the chamber pot placed under the bed. Frank felt astonished while he firstly sees the chamber pot. “I want to ask him what he’s talking about for even I’m bursting I feel strange peeing into a pot with roses and maidens cavorting, whatever they are. We had nothing like this in Classon Avenue where Mrs. Leibowits sang in the lavatory while we clutched ourse lves in the hall.” McCourt, 1996: 49 Frank feel strange about the chamber pot and even he really need to have a pee, he can not use the chamber pot at all. Frank is unfamiliar to that habit. In the statement above, Frank compares this habit with the life in Classon Avenue, Brooklyn, America. He says in the quotation above that in America, there is nothing like this where people using the chambor pot for the toilet. In contrast, everyone in America has a proper live where people can have toilets and life happily like Mrs. Leibowitz who is singing in toilet. All Frank experiences above show that Ireland is not a good country for living in due to its condition that harm their healthy because of how the life in Ireland that is seemly not proper for health. Thus, Ireland can be said as the uncivilized country which is the characteristics that can depict Ireland as the Orient.

d. The Conservative Country

As Frank said in the early pages about the miserable Irish Catholic childhood McCourt, 1996:11, it is clearly that Frank lives in the religious