Though women throughout many books written by men have been cast out and not really mentioned, Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, does a good job showcasing his mother honesty in his memoir. Nothing is glossed over when readers are shown Angela McCourt. She was a victim of her town Limerick City and her family. She was really the one who tried to shape the family into something she knew could be, but time after time, she failed. Angela McCourt's miscarriages, dying children and drunken husband; she was the victim. .
Within six years, Angela McCourt was pregnant seven times. She had one miscarriage and had to bury three out of her six children before the age of three. The pain of these loses tortured Angela so much that she could not stay in the houses where the children had died. She said she would end up in a mental institution if she had to stay with those memories. The family moved and Angela seemed to cope better, but although the pain seemed to subside, it was still there, it always was there. .
When she was young, Angela married Malachy McCourt, who had just gotten out of jail. There were times in their relationship when he was a decent person to her, but most of the time, he was extremely egotistic. He didn't manage to get a job, and he spent money in the pub instead of food for his family. "She struggled to get at his pockets. Where's the money? The children are hungry. You mad oul" bastard, did you drink all the money again? Just what you did in Brooklyn?" (77) Angela herself suffered from the hunger and the cold and the jeers from other people about her lousy husband; but worst of all, was that Angela had to watch her children suffer because of their father.
When the McCourt's come back to Ireland from America, relatives of the family did not give anyone a warm welcome back. The children's aunt shows her aversion to the family on many occasions. She is not willing to give the family shelter in her house, not even the family's first night in Limerick.