Angela’s Ashes: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

Frank turns sixteen, and goes to a pub with Pa Keating. There he drinks his first pint of beer, and talks with Pa Keating about his new job with Mr. McCaffrey. As the evening goes on, the men in the bar talk about the recent news: now that World War II is over, the Nazis are being tried for war crimes. Footage of the Holocaust was shown at Nuremberg, proving that the Germans were willing to massacre innocent Jews.

After a long night of drinking, Frank staggers home. Inside, he finds Angela waiting for him. Angela insists that Pa Keating should have known better than to let Frank drink so much. Frank yells that he can do whatever he wants now, but then he vomits all over himself. Angela weeps.

The next morning, Frank wakes up and ignores Angela. He goes to the statue of St. Francis, and realizes that he’s given up on his patron saint, as Francis didn’t help when Frank prayed for the life of Theresa Carmody. Frank begins to weep. Suddenly, a hand grabs him—it is Father Gregory, a local priest. He asks Frank to tell him what’s the matter, as he sees that Frank is clearly suffering. Gregory urges Frank to repent his sins. Frank agrees to confess his sins before Saint Francis, with Gregory listening. Frank tells Francis about having sex with Theresa, getting drunk, and fighting with Angela.

After Frank falls silent, Father Gregory waits a few moments, then begins to talk to Frank. Gregory explains that Theresa has undoubtedly gone to heaven—she would have been provided with a priest at the hospital, and thus confessed her sins before dying. This surprises and inspires Frank, as he didn’t know that Theresa had confessed before her death.

Shortly after turning sixteen, Frank begins his job with Mr. McCaffrey. He meets McCaffrey, who tells him that he’ll be labeling piles of newspapers to indicate where they’ll be delivered, and occasionally delivering them by himself. Frank will work with a team of boys around his age. There’s Gerry Halvey, the messenger boy, who takes the labeled newspapers and delivers them, and Eamon and Peter, two delivery boys. One day, Gerry Halvey doesn’t show up for work, and Mr. McCaffrey angrily tells Frank that he’ll have to deliver newspapers that day. Frank delivers papers. Then, in the afternoon, Mr. McCaffrey tells Frank that they’ll have to go back to every delivery spot. The paper that day has printed information about birth control, which is illegal in Ireland. McCaffrey and Frank travel to shops, tearing the offending pages out of every single newspaper, over the protests of the shopkeepers. Later, Frank makes a whopping eight pounds selling back copies of the article to curious people.

Frank settles into his new job. He labels newspaper piles, and sometimes rides a bicycle to deliver them himself. He makes extra money in tips by delivering papers, and slowly, he saves money with the goal of moving to America one day. Meanwhile, Malachy Jr. gets a job working in a stockroom. Angela has begun a job taking care of an elderly man named Mr. Sliney. One day, Frank goes to visit Angela. They remember the cause of their argument years ago: Laman Griffin.

Frank visits Mr. Sliney while he’s seeing his mother. Mr. Sliney is very old, and near death. He greets Frank, about whom he’s heard a lot from Angela, and mentions that he used to know Mr. Timoney, who’s recently gone blind and died.

Frank continues with his job. In his spare time, he reads the newspapers, improving his reading skills. He continues thinking about Theresa Carmody, but believes that she’s in heaven. As the months go on, Frank wins Mr. McCaffrey’s respect for his hard work and attention to detail. Meanwhile, Malachy Jr. goes to England to work in a boarding school, but he’s soon fired for his abrasive manner. He then finds work shoveling coal at a factory. Both Frank and Malachy Jr. dream of going to America one day.