and thinks that God will not listen nor forgive his mistakes. Based on Frank’s speech with his grandma and the conversation between
Frank and his parents and the Father in the church, we can conclude that Frank is an honest person. For him, it will be much better to tell the truth about his mistakes
rather than lying to other people and especially to God. He knows that God is always watching him from above and He knows every time Frank makes mistake.
He is afraid of God and that is his main reason to confess all his mistakes so that God will forgive him.
4. Caring
Frank may have the odd manner like his father, but he really cares about others. He shows his love and care toward the entire members of his family and
even to the people that he knows. His father has already been a drunkard since he arrived in New York. Even
after he marries Angela Sheehan, he is never able to stop his bad habit. He often spends all his wages on drink only and leaves his family starving at home. The
thing that often happens is that he loses his job in the third week because he spends his money in the pubs and is too drunk to go to work the next day. This condition
makes Frank feel very sorry for his mother and all the troubles caused by his father. I crawl to bed with Malachy and the twins. I look out at Mam at the kitchen
table, smoking a cigarette, drinking tea, and crying. I want to get up and tell her I’ll be a man soon and I’ll get a job in the place with the big gate and I’ll
come home every Friday night with money for eggs and toast and jam and she can sing “Anyone can see why I wanted you kiss” 21-22.
Frank’s reaction to such condition shows that he cares about his mother and he
wishes that he could do something to help his mother and ease her pain. He wishes
that he would grow up soon and replaced his father’s place to earn the money for his mother and his brothers so that he would not see her crying aga in.
Frank shows most of his love, attention and care for his twin brothers Oliver and Eugene. Both Frank and Malachy have to take care of the twins and play with
them in the playground to help their mother to have a rest with their little sister Margaret. Because of his love, Frank is even willing to steal a bunch of bananas
from the Italian grocery for the twins who are always hungry so that he can feed them.
My mother tells me all the time, Never, never leave that playground except to come home. But what am I to do with the twins bawling with the hunger in
the pram? I tell Malachy I’ll be back in a minute. I make sure that no one is looking, grab a bunch of bananas outside the Italian grocery shop and run
down the Myrtle Avenue, away from the playground, around the block and back to the other end where there’s a hole in the fence. We push the pram to a
dark corner and peel the bananas for the twins 26.
It can be seen that his love for his twin brothers makes him be willing to steal a bunch of bananas for them. He wants to satisfy both Oliver and Eugene by
feeding them though the way he gets the food is absolutely wrong. Frank does not only show his care and love for his family but also to his
uncle, Pat Sheehan that allows him to help sell the “Limerick Leader”. He feels angry when Declan Collopy insults his uncle and makes him fight with Declan.
Uncle Pat says, “Go ‘way, go ‘way, or I’ll walk on you”. “Ah shut up, Mr. Stupid that was dropped on your head”. He pushes uncle Pat
on shoulder and knocks him back against the wall. I drop the papers and run at him but he steps aside and punches me on the back of the neck and my
forehead is rammed into the wall and it puts me in a such rage I can’t see him anymore. I go at him with arms and kegs and if I could tear his face off with
my teeth I would but he has long arms like gorilla and he just keep pushing me away so that I can’t touch him 199.
It is clearly that he is willing to fight with Declan because he does not want other
people to insult his family, especially his uncle that is paralysed. Though sometimes his uncle Pat treats Frank badly, still Frank cares about him and is
willing to help him selling the “Limerick Leader”. Since Malachy Sr. often hurts his wife through his drinking habit, makes
Frank able to know what his mother feels. Once his father takes all of the five pounds for drink that his grandpa from the North has sent for his little brother
Alphie. Frank feels hurtful by his father’s conduct. However, he is never able to hate his father.
My heart is banging away in my chest and I don’t know what to do because I know I’m ragging inside like my mother by the fire and all I can think of
doing is running in and giving a good kick in the leg and running out again but I don’t, because we have mornings by the fire when he tells me about
Cuchulain and de Valera and Roosevelt and if he’s there drunk and buying pints with the baby’s money he has the look in his eyes Eugene’s had when
he searched for Oliver and I might as well as go home and tell my mother a lie that I never saw him and couldn’t find him 209.
Another proof about Frank’s loves toward his father is: I know when Dad does bad thing. I know when he drinks the dole money and
Mam is desperate and has to beg at the St. Vincent de Paul Socie ty and ask for credit at Kathleen O’Connell’s shop but I don’t want to back away from
him and run to Mam 237.
Frank’s thought and speech show that he feels mad with his father’s behaviour. He feels the same as his mother especially when his father uses all the
money and spends his wages to buy pints in the pub. He really loves his mother and even thinks to hurt his father but on the other hand, his love toward his father
makes him unable to hurt him. At a young age, Frank has to face the truth that his father barely brings the
money to the family since they moved to Limerick even when his father worked in England. It makes him want to find a job so that he can bring home the money that
his family needs to buy food, coal and clothes. He then works for Mr. Hannon and help him deliver coal from one house to another, but unfortunately he has to quit
the job because of the coal dust will destroy his eyes. “She says, You can’t be delivering coal with the state of your eyes. The dust
will surely destroy them”. I want the job. I want to bring home the shilling. I want to be a man.
“You can be a man without bringing home a shilling. Go upstairs and lie down and rest your two eyes or it’s a blind man you’ll be” 302.
Through Frank’s speech, it can be seen that his loves toward his family make him take the on burden to be a man in the family. He wants to work without
considering his own health as long as he can bring home a shilling for his mother so that the family can have something to fill their bellies.
The economic condition of the family is getting worse. Since they are unable to pay the house rent, they have to move to Laman Grifin’s house. Laman is the
cousin of Angela and he allows the family to live with him. There, Laman treats Angela disrespectably and it makes Frank very angry.
He throws money at me to go to the shop for a few sods of turf and wood for kindling. I don’t want to go. I want to hit him for the way he treats my mother
but if I say anything he wont let me have the bicycle tomorrow after I’ve waited three weeks 324.
It is clearly that Frank never wants to see other people treat his mother unrespectably like what Laman did. He has to control his emotion so that Laman
will not hurt him or his mother. He knows if he does something wrong to Laman then he will hurt his mother again. His care towards his mother makes him willing
to do anything for her. As time goes by, Frank is able to find a job that enables him to save some
of his money so that he can go to America and give some to his mother. He, then,
works as a messenger boy where he has to distribute the Protestant’s Newspaper. His mother never likes his job because that job is the lowest job that a person can
do in Limerick. When the time of his departure to America nearly comes, Frank feels the regret that he has to leave the family.
Surely I should have stayed, taken the post office examination, climbed in the world. I could have brought in enough money for Michael and Alphie to go to
school with proper shoes and bellies well filled. We could have moved from a lane to a street or even an avenue where houses have gardens. I should have
taken the examination and Mam would never again have to empty the chamber pots of Mr. Sliney or anyone else 420-21.
Through his speech, it can be seen that Frank feels regret about his decision to go to America to pursuit his dreams. He feels sad because he has to leave his
family and he also feels guilty because actually he can stay in Limerick and have a good job in the post office so that he can help his family. He is very sad because he
can give a better life to his mother and his brothers; to live in a good house, to fill their bellies with enough food and buy them decent clothes. He wishes that he did
not have to go to America but it is too late because he already has the ticket that will bring him to America.
Based on Frank’s reactions, thoughts and speeches we can conclude that he really cares about his family. He shows his love not only to his twin brothers, his
uncle Pat Sheehan but also to his beloved parents. Though his uncle never treats him right, he still wants to help him in selling the “Limerick Leader” and fights for
him because he cares about his uncle like he cares about his family. Though his father is not a perfect family man, still he loves him, considers him as his beloved
father and is never able to hate him. Frank does not want to see his family suffer. That is why he wants to have a proper job that enables him to bring home the
money that the family needs and become the family man that takes all the responsibility that his father rarely shows.
5. Hard Working
