How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
A few days later Mam tells me give my face and hands a good wash, we're going to the Christian Brothers. I tell her I don't want to go, I want to work, I want to be a man. She tells me stop the whining, I'm going to secondary school and we'll all manage somehow. I'm going to school if she has to scrub floors and she'll practice on my face. (13.41)
Angela's quite the fighter and Frankie had the good luck to inherit that spirit. Through much of the memoir, Frank experiences his mother's tenacity as just his bad luck to be prodded, scrubbed, dragged to school and dance lessons, and forced to look presentable. But we readers can see Angela's determination to keep her family together.
Quote #5
Her face tightens and she's angry. You are never to let anybody slam the door in your face again. Do you hear me?
She starts to cry by the fire, Oh, God, I didn't bring ye into the world to be a family of messenger boys. (13.53-54)
This passage shows Angela at her fiercest in the face of rejection and shaming. Her bright, ambitious son's been treated as a useless kid from the lanes. She can't do anything about it, but she makes sure Frank knows it's unacceptable.
Quote #6
I'll get money some day for a house or a flat with electric light and a lavatory and beds with sheets blankets pillows like the rest of the world. We'll have breakfast in a bright kitchen with flowers dancing in a garden beyond, delicate cups and saucers, eggcups, eggs soft in the yolk and ready to melt the rich creamery butter, a teapot with a cozy on it, toast with butter and marmalade galore. (14.9)
Frank's rich imagination is a huge help in seeing past his wretched life to a time when things might be different. This helps him keep on keepin' on.