love for his mother and brothers even hilarious that he is willing to sacrifice his childhood times to help his mother and work hard in order to gain some shillings to
his mother so that they can buy some food to eat and clothes to wear on Aull, sec.3.
Aull also states “The memoir of Frank McCourt is a wonderful memoir that is valuable to read because we can learn not only about the Irish culture that covers
almost all element inside the story but also the human spirit that McCourt shows to us in order to struggle and survive in desperate condition” Aull, sec.3.
C. Theoretical Framework
The approach and the theories that I have stated are used to help the analysis of the study. In this part, I would like to explain what approach and
theories that are used and how they are applied in the analysis of the study. The first aim of the analysis is to describe the character of Frank as the
major character of the novel. In order to describe his characterization, I use the theory of character by Henkle about the differentiation of major character and
minor character. In this study, it is used to reveal the characterization of Frank. Forster’s theory is also used to find out whether Frank’s characterization is flat or
round. Furthermore, the theory of characterization proposed by Murphy is used to
analyse what sort of person Frank is described in the novel. Murphy’s theory is used in this analysis to discover and obtain the description of Frank’s character.
There are several ways to describe Frank’s character that I used from the nine ways
that Murphy proposed. Those are personal description, character as seen by other, speech, reaction, direct comment, thoughts and mannerism.
The second analysis is to find out the causes of Frank’s struggle for life and his motivation. The theories that are used in this study are that motivation; the
human basic needs theory and struggle for life. Proposed by Beck, Morris, Bootzin, and Kalish these theories are applied to find out the motivation of Frank’s struggle
for life since he happens to experience many problems in his life. I also use the human basic needs theory by Maslow, to support the analysis and to find out the
basic needs of Frank that cause him to struggle. Furthermore, the struggle for life theory by Braun, Linder, Asimov and Morris is also applied to help the analysis of
Frank’s success to struggle for life.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter is divided into three parts, namely the subject matter, the approach and procedures. The subject matter discusses the novel itself, Angela’s
Ashes: A Memoir of a Childhood. The approach states the approach that is used in analyzing the novel and the main character. Meanwhile, procedures state the
explanation on the steps of writing this thesis.
A. Subject Matter
The novel analysed in this study is entitled Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir of a Childhood that was written by Frank McCourt. The novel was published for the
first time in 1996 by HarperCollinsPublishers London. The novel used in the study was published in 1997 by Flamingo, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. It
consists of 425 pages and is divided into 18 chapters. The novel Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir of a Childhood by Frank McCourt starts
with the narration of Frank, the main character, about the reason why his family has to return to Limerick, Ireland. Frank is born in Brooklyn, New York in a great
depression era from Irish immigrant parent s. His father is Malachy McCourt and his mother is Angela McCourt. With three younger brothers, Malachy Junior, the
twins Eugene and Oliver and a younger sister named Margaret, Frank realizes that his family belongs to a poor family. The family lives in a poor condition, because
Frank’s father never has steady jobs and he always spends his money in pubs, drinking, but on the other hand he is a loving father to his children. Angela,
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