I Feel sorry for malachy (father) - Angela's Ashes (2000) Discussion

[–] starlitebrite91 18 years ago

As someone mentioned, it is a lot easier to hate him when reading the book. He just came off as a lazy drunkard who loved his family, but obvioulsy not enough to stop drinking and take care of them.

Be carefull not to get sunburnt, or we will have to rub you down with SPF SEXY!

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] wolfspirit-5 18 years ago

I felt bad for him at times and others I just wanted to smack him!

I don't think he was a bad father or man. He was an alcoholic who didn't have his feet on the ground and who wasn't very dependable. I think he was a good father because his children loved him and he was always telling them stories and stuff. He was a guy who needed professional help, but in those days that wasn't happening.

||http://www.harrypotterla.com|| - The largest HP site in Spanish

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] futuremrs-szmanda 18 years ago

What you people aren't seeing is that achoholism is a disease, even if you want to get rid of it, it is one of the hardest things you could ever go through. If you ever had a family member affected by it you would understand that Malachy was a pretty good father considering he was drunkl all the time. Yes he did spend all their money, but he wasnt a violent drunk...he didn't cheat on Frank mother. Malachy was a pitiful excuse for a father, but he did do what he was able to.

La verità nulla menzogna frodi

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[–] TheRealDeal19 16 years ago

"Did was what he was able to" doesn't equal a good father. Because you aren't a violent or philandering doesn't make you a good father. Fathers (and mothers) have many roles they are supposed to be able to take care of, and if you let one of these roles go all to hell, you're not being the best parent you can be. He spent money that could have gone to some of his doomed babies. He left the wife, making her situation with her cousin come into play. You can be a drunk and not be that selfish. Its like his reality literally did not exist when he drank. Useless. He was COMPLETELY useless..

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[–] laurangl95 17 years ago

I kinda felt sorry for him, at times he really tried, he really wanted to get a job but he couldn't since he was from Northern Ireland. so he drank, because he felt hopeless. i just really hated the fact that he drank up all the money for the baby. =/

I Tom Felton

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] PressingSilence 18 years ago

I don't think he was useless. He loved Angela, and that's evident in the book. And also - consider the fact that he's just a kid.
He's probably no older than 19 when he met Angela, not to mention who WOULDN'T want to drink after all of that *beep*

He was an alcoholic. Alcoholism is a disease. One with this disease cannot say "Right, well, I'm just gonna stop this now," and go on with their day.

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[–] plnorman 18 years ago

I have read the book and not seen the movie.
Desperate? Yes - for alcohol. Useless? Much worse than just useless. He was total self-absorbed, a weak person of no character. Busy making babies but not interested in being a father. Notice that, half-way through the story - Angela (finally!!) decides to stop having sex with Frank's Dad. He immediately leaves home with an excuse that he is leaving for England to find work. No way. If she won't put out, he's outta there. He'll go to England to find someone who will give him sex, and he still can find a way to drink himself to death.
I feel sorry for him, but I feel much more sorry for the kids he bore.

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[–] cubearcub 18 years ago

How could anyone feel sorry for this piece of crap? I just finished reading 'Tis and he ain't much better in that one too.

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[–] TemporaryOne-1 17 years ago

I have read the book and not seen the movie.
Desperate? Yes - for alcohol. Useless? Much worse than just useless. He was total self-absorbed, a weak person of no character. Busy making babies but not interested in being a father.

In the book, Frankie related how his father warmed the stove and water every morning and made the children their breakfast of bread [and sometimes an egg] and tea, he related how his father told them fantastical stories, and he related how his father would sometimes clean them up.

It can also be inferred from the book that Malachy taught Frankie and Malachy to be respectful and prideful.

Notice that, half-way through the story - Angela (finally!!) decides to stop having sex with Frank's Dad. He immediately leaves home with an excuse that he is leaving for England to find work.

He does not "immediately leave home with an excuse that he is leaving for England to find work".

He stays with her after she refuses to have sex with him, for at least four months.

Angela and the children notice other families eating better food and buying radios because other fathers traveled to England to work. Angela ridicules Malachy and tells him to go to England to work and send his money home. He does not want to work, is literally forced out by Angela, and begrudgingly leaves.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] WarBringer 17 years ago

In a way, I felt sorry for him at certain parts. He really seemed like he was trying at times, but most of the time he did just come off as a drunk. He couldn't really help it, but at the same time he didn't try to make things better.

Like most people, I was pissed off when he spent the baby's money on beer. That, and him putting his mug on the coffin. There were some other parts too, I think.

But one thing that pissed me off is when Angela had an "affair" (should we say) with Laman. She didn't want to have anymore kids with Malachy but risked having them with Lamar. I know she was probably desperate or lonely with Malachy gone, but it still bugged the hell out of me (as it did Frank)

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[–] lilmikey03 17 years ago

"But one thing that pissed me off is when Angela had an "affair" (should we say) with Laman. She didn't want to have anymore kids with Malachy but risked having them with Lamar. I know she was probably desperate or lonely with Malachy gone, but it still bugged the hell out of me (as it did Frank)"

I believe that Angela slept with Laman so their family could continue living there. There was nowhere else for them to go and Angela certainly couldn't have gone out and got a job, so she did what she could and gave Laman what he demanded. It's obvious she would have endured a lot of humiliation so her family could live in a house with a roof over their heads when she began emptying Laman's chamber pot, so it's not hard to believe she would have slept with him as well.

I've frequently not been on boats.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] thisismynick 16 years ago

But one thing that pissed me off is when Angela had an "affair" (should we say) with Laman. She didn't want to have anymore kids with Malachy but risked having them with Lamar. I know she was probably desperate or lonely with Malachy gone, but it still bugged the hell out of me (as it did Frank)

I agree with lilmikey03...
A woman back then had few options when it came to supporting her family. Malachy desserted them. You want to be delusional and think that he stayed chaste for the rest of his life???
Heck no!!!!
Whether it says so in the book or not you know Malachy didn't stay loyal. All this bullcrap that has always existed that it's okay for men to sleep around but a woman is her husbands property (and NOT vise-versa) and she's every filthy name in the book if she so much as looks at another man! So the people who say that Angela cheated on Malachy need to step back into reality.
Angela slept with that gross Laman, which was wrong, but like half the people on this board defending Malachy for whatever reason, I'll defend Angela instead.
Malachy left when things got too hard for him. Angela didn't have that choice and she did what she had to do to ensure the survival of her family. Unfortunately prostitution, of one form or another, was more than likely the only way, unless you came from or married into money.

Angela did lay into Malachy but she was probably sick of his drinking up all the money. She was evidently doing her wifely duities. Too bad he wasn't doing his husbandly duities, except for the one that took place in the bedroom.
And that comment of his about her looking towards eternal damnation because she wouldn't have sex with him, pissed me off!
Who would want to risk having more kids when you can't feed the children you already have??? Or the risk of them dying when they had already experienced that pain??? All he cares about is getting his rocks off.
And eternal damnation for saying no to your husband for sex?????? but it's okay for him to let his children starve and freeze to death just so he can have some alcohol???
He was a no-good, lazy, selfish, drunken piece of garbage.

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[–] joyceday 12 years ago

I haven't seen the movie yet but just finished the book and I never felt any sympathy for Malachy because he had such an exaggerated opinion of himself that he considered everything beneath him when he was nothing but a self-absorbed drunkard even compared to some of those around him who were drinking their lives away. I dreaded when he would get a job because you knew that the family would be cut off from their public assistance and that he would drink all the money away. What did he think was going to happen to his family while he was in England throwing all his money away? And we are supposed to have sympathy for him? Why didn't he at least move back to Northern Ireland where he would be more welcome and send money home from there? Because that would require actually being a man instead of his son having to be one before his time.

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[–] Jonny_B_Lately 10 years ago

I haven't read the book...yet.

I think a short narration in the movie really explains the father. Frank McCourt says his father is the holy trinity.

Throughout the film we are told Malachy is undesirable simply because he's Northern Irish.

Watta ya lookn here for?

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[–] seekermatt 9 years ago

he failed not only his wife, but his children as well.
he deserves no sympathy.
alcoholism? he's still responsible for his actions.
no excuses.

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