Vorschlag B1

Life in the Ireland and the USA

Der vorliegende Vorschlag enthält in Aufgabe 3 alternative Arbeitsanweisungen.

Outline what the reader learns about Frank McCourt's biography and the circumstances of his life in Ireland and the USA. (Material 1 und Material 2)

(30 BE)

Examine Frank McCourt's images of Ireland and the USA, his experiences and his attitude towards both countries, also taking into account language and stylistic devices.

(40 BE)

Choose one of the following tasks:

3.1

"The immigrant's heart marches to the beat of two quite different drums, one from the old homeland and the other from the new. The immigrant has to bridge these two worlds, living comfortably in the new and bringing the best of his or her ancient identity and heritage to bear on life in an adopted homeland." (Mary McAleese, former Irish president, 1997-2011)

Comment on this statement, taking into account the experience of Frank McCourt and other American immigrant experiences dealt with in class.

(30 BE)

3.2

"The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know." (Material 2)

As a journalist of the New York Times, you are asked to write an article for a special edition on "The Immigrant Experience". Write an article on immigration to the USA assessing the quote, referring to material dealt with in class.

(30 BE)

Material 1

Frank McCourt: Childhood in Limerick (1996)

In his memoir "Angela's Ashes", Frank McCourt presents his childhood in Ireland. The following excerpt takes place in the 1930s.

My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was

born. Instead, they returned to Ireland when I was four, my brother, Malachy, three, the twins, Oliver

and Eugene, barely one, and my sister, Margaret, dead and gone.

When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable

childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable

childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare

with the Irish version; the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother

moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they

did to us for eight hundred long years.

Above all – we were wet.

Out in the Atlantic Ocean great sheets of rain gathered to drift slowly up the River Shannon and settle

forever in Limerick. The rain dampened the city from the Feast of the Circumcision to New Year’s

Eve. It created a cacophony of hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes, consumptive

croaks. It turned noses into fountains, lungs into bacterial sponges. [...]

In pubs, steam rose from damp bodies and garments to be inhaled with cigarette and pipe smoke laced

with the stale fumes of spilled stout and whiskey and tinged with the odor of piss wafting in from the

outdoor jakes where many a man puked up his week’s wages.

The rain drove us into the church – our refuge, our strength, our only dry place. At Mass, Benediction,

novenas , we huddled in great damp clumps, dozing through priest drone, while steam rose again from

our clothes to mingle with sweetness of incense, flowers and candles.

Limerick gained a reputation for piety, but we knew it was only the rain.

Frank McCourt: Angela's Ashes, New York 1996, S.9-10

Material 2

Frank McCourt: Emigration (1999)

Frank McCourt's memoir "'Tis" is about his emigration to the USA. He left Ireland in 1949. In this passage he is on the ship taking him to New York.

Then the peculiar thing would happen. I’d sit on a deck chair in a lovely October sun with the

gorgeous blue Atlantic all around me and try to imagine what New York would be like. I’d try to see

Fifth Avenue or Central Park or Greenwich Village where everyone looked like movie stars, powerful

tans, gleaming white teeth. But Limerick would push me into the past. Instead of me sauntering up

Fifth Avenue with the tan, the teeth, I’d be back in the lanes of Limerick, women standing at doors

chatting away and pulling their shawls around their shoulders, children with dirty faces from bread and

jam, playing and laughing and crying to their mothers. I’d see people at Mass on Sunday morning

where a whisper would run through the church when someone with a hunger weakness would collapse

in the pew and have to be carried outside by men from the back of the church who’d tell everyone,

Stand back, stand back, for the lovea Jaysus. [...] I’d sit on that deck chair and look into my head to

see myself cycling around Limerick City and out into the country delivering telegrams. I’d see myself

early in the morning riding along country roads with the mist rising in the fields and cows giving me

the old moo and dogs coming at me till I drove them away with the rocks. I’d hear babies in

farmhouses crying for their mothers and fathers whacking cows back to the fields after the milking.

And I’d start crying to myself on that deck chair with the gorgeous Atlantic all around me, New York

ahead, city of my dreams where I’d have the golden tan, the dazzling white teeth. I’d wonder what in

God’s name was wrong with me that I should be missing Limerick already, city of gray misery, the

place where I dreamed of escape to New York. I’d hear my mother’s warning, The devil you know is

better than the devil you don’t know.

Finally he arrives in New York and he finds a job cleaning the lobby of a hotel.

New York was the city of my dreams but now I’m here the dreams are gone and it’s not what I

expected at all. I never thought I’d be going around a hotel lobby cleaning up after people and

scouring toilet bowls in the lavatories. How could I ever write my mother or anyone in Limerick and

tell them the way I’m living in this rich land with two dollars to last me for a week, a bald head and

sore eyes, and a landlady who won’t let me turn on the light? How could I ever tell them I have to eat

bananas every day, the cheapest food in the world, because the hotel won’t let me near the kitchen for

leftovers for fear the Puerto Ricans might catch my New Guinea infection? [...] When you’re in

Ireland it’s hard to believe there are poor people in America because you see the Irish coming back,

Returned Yanks they’re called, and you can spot them a mile away with their fat arses waggling along

O’Connell Street in trousers too tight and colors you’d never see in Ireland, blues, pinks, light greens,

and even flashes of puce. They always act rich [...].

It’s magic to go back to Limerick in my mind even when it brings the tears. It’s hard to pass through

the lanes of the poor and look into their houses and hear babies crying and women trying to start fires

to boil water in kettles for the breakfast of tea and bread.

Frank McCourt: 'Tis New York 1999, S.13-15, 49-51

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Note:
Our solutions are listed in bullet points. In the examination, full marks can only be achieved by writing a continuous text.

The two excerpts from the memoirs by Frank McCourt titled "Childhood in Limerick" (1996) and "Emigration" (1999) give readers insight into his childhood in Ireland, his dream of New York, and reveal the reality he experienced when that dream finally came true.

Introduction
Referring to the task and excerpts

he was born in NY, where his parents met and got married
has four siblings - three brothers and one sister, although it appears that his sister is not alive anymore
the whole family returned to Limerick (Ireland) when McCourt was four
he describes his childhood as miserable - especially when originating from a catholic family
childhood was shaped by poverty, an alcoholic parent, sorrow, and rain

Main Body
Childhood in Ireland

the author leaves Ireland in 1949, full of exciting expectations, and makes his way to New York - the city of his dreams
is employed as cleaner in a New York hotel
does not earn enough money to eat nutritious and wholesome food - he eats bananas, the cheapest food, every day
because of his eye infection, which he probably cannot afford to treat, he is denied access to the hotel kitchen to get leftovers
all in all his life in the USA is also marked by poverty - a fact he does not bare to admit back in Ireland

Adulthood in New York

Frank McCourts image of and attitude towards Limerick and New York are stressed by language as well as stylistic devices used
furthermore, the way his experiences are described has a fundamental influence on how the reader perceives both countries and emphasizes the change of attitude he undergoes throughout the excerpts of his memoirs

Introduction
Referring to the task and thesis

the first paragraph begins with a conjunction that his parents „should have stayed in New York“ (l. 1) which implies that in his opinion things for sure would have been better in the US than in Limerick (Ireland)
to highlight the fact he goes on that „[i]t was, of course, a miserable childhood“ (l. 4), emphasizing how bad it actually was is stressed by phrases with negative connotations as well as anaphoric structures „worse … ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.“ (l. 5/6) arranged in a syntax
every fact he lists about why his childhood was so miserable he embellishes with a negatively connotated adjective $\rightarrow$ „the poverty, the shiftless loquacious father, the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire…“ (cf. l. 8-10) the enumeration underlines how poor the circumstances of his childhood in Limerick were
he thus illustrates the bad image he has of his hometown as well as uses metaphor of men "puk[ing] up [their] weekly wages[.]" (l. 18) to underline the fact once more how poor Limerick's citizen were and yet still wasted money on unnecessities like alcohol

Main Body
Limerick marked by sickness, poverty and negativity

the rain is a symbol of Limerick's negative, depressing and hopeless atmosphere - this becomes clear as the author devotes the entire last paragraph to the subject of rain (cf. l. 11 - 22)
it is present throughout the year, illustrated by the metaphor that it begins with the "feast of circumcision" (January 1st) and lasts until "New Year's Eve" (cf. lines 13/14), leading to the thought of lacking sunshine and showing what an oppressive mood must prevail in the village
the author attributes a lot of power to the rain, blaming it for diseases and probably deaths, although he does not say so
although he lists that the rain leads to "...hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes, consumptive croaks." (l. 14) and he uses metaphorical expressions to further emphasize this fact: "It turned noses into fountains, lungs into bacterial sponges." (l. 15)
McCourt, following the rule of three, describes how the rain drove them into the church for "[our] protection, [our] strength, [our] only dry place" in an anti-climax arranged $\rightarrow$ as if it were the evil to be protected from
overall McCourt depicts Limerick as a place marked by poverty, sickness, and despair

Rain as symbol for the hopelessness and depressing atmosphere

the author spends his life in a wishful imagination - of which he actually does not know whether it mirrors reality - thus repeatedly uses the subjunctive "I would" ("Emigration" (1999) l. 1, 2)
he has an unrealistic imagination of New York for instance that every citizen of New York is "looking like movie stars, [with] powerful tans, gleaming white teeth[,]" ("Emigration" (1999) l. 4) using the rule of the three for description
his dreamlike vision of New York comes to an abrupt end and the turning point initiated by his mother's metaphorical warning that "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know" ("Emigration" (1999) l. 18/19)

Imagination of New York: City of his dreams

his change in attitude is evident when he no longer speaks about New York in the subjunctive and language with positive connotations but uses the past tense in the first sentence of the paragraph, which is that „New York was the city of [my] dreams…“ ("Emigration" (1999) l. 20)
how much he regrets his choice of coming to New York is emphasized by rhetorical questions which are marked by anaphoric structures „How could I ever write […]. How could I ever tell […]“ ("Emigration" (1999) l. 22 and l. 24)
therefore he would have to admit that he was fooled by his dreamlike imagination of New York
that he would be one of those judged returnees which are called "Returned Yanks" ("Emigration" (1999) l. 28)
his attitude toward Limerick also changes, which is underscored by language, when he e.g. begins to describe his memories of the return as magical ("Emigration" (1999) cf. l. 31-33)

New York: Reality

all in all, it can be concluded that Frank McCourt's attitude toward Ireland and the USA changed over time
his initial image of Ireland - his place of origin - is presented negatively and depressing
his image of the USA, is presented as the place of his dreams and stressed by the strong use of linguistic devices
towards the end of the second memoir, however, McCourt’s image changes when he realizes that his imagination of the USA does not mirror reality and begins to see Limerick in a different and magical light

Conclusion

3.1

McAleese, the former Irish president's statement addresses the challenge for immigrants to adapt and reconcile the identity formed by their origins as well as new cultural values and norms of their new homeland.
However, the extent to which immigrants are able and willing to adapt to their new home depends on numerous factors, which may be personal, social, and political, for example.

Introduction
Referring to the quote and thesis

the reasons for people to leave their country or origin and live in a new place are manifold
people are driven by a wide variety of motives to leave their homeland
reasons can be external, such as the desolate economic situation, political and social conflicts, or insecurity due to war in the origin
but also intrinsic in nature, such as the desire for a geographical change, to get to know a new culture, or even work-related changes

Main Body
Reasons for emigration

how well the migrants adopt behaviors following country-specific values and norms and integrate fully often depends on the circumstances of immigration
furthermore it certainly depends on the individual itself as well as on the environment and on how well immigrants are accepted without prejudice and encouraged by political regulations and support
immigrants usually face a variety of challenges when starting a new life abroad no matter if they are leaving home by choice or fleeing from war, hunger, famine, and persecution
they are faced by language barriers, lack of employment opportunities, limited access to health care, finding save and affordable housing, fighting prejudice s.o.
the government, society, and an environment must support those that immigrate and make them feel welcome and accepted

Challenges for immgrants

McCourt, for instance, chose to migrate to the USA thriven by the desire for a better and healthier life in New York
he believed the change of residence could accomplish his pursuit of happiness
however, can the difference between imagination and reality be very sobering - how McCourt had to learn (cf. "Emigration" l. 20/21)
he seems to have even fewer options and a life full of sickness compared to Ireland with less support; even though he did not especially say so
in addition, Frank McCourt's memoir also addresses the previously mentioned challenges upon his arrival in the U.S., where he found only low-payed employment as a cleaner and lived in poverty (cf. "Emigration," pp. 23/24)
suffered from an illness and could not afford the medical care to have it treated (cf. "Emigration" l. 25/26)
despite all his attempts, McCourt was ultimately unable to integrate as he wished, to live "comfortably in the new" homeland, as McAleese put it in her statement
he was so plagued by poverty, disease, and prejudice that he failed to bridge the two worlds and instead chose to flee back to his homeland in his memories

Frank McCourt's experiences

all in all, to summarize and surmise, McCourt's example is not uncommon, and most immigrants suffer from the same challenges
more supportive policies need to be created so that immigrants have the opportunity to fully integrate, bridge the two worlds, and, as McAleese claims, balance the best of their origins with their new home.

Conclusion

3.2

The Immigrant Experience

For many people, leaving their place of origin and settling in a new environment is a gateway to more freedom, more opportunities, and overall better life.
At least, that is what they believe.
People like to turn a blind eye to the fact that the opposite could actually be possible. Immigration to foreign countries often presents challenges that are alien and overwhelming to individuals. According to this fact the expression "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know[.]" is often referred to.

Introduction

people are driven by a wide variety of motives to leave their homeland and up to date America is still one of the most popular choices for migrants
reasons for emigration can be external, such as the desolate economic situation, political and social conflicts or insecurity due to war in the origin
reasons can also be intrinsic in nature, such as the desire for a geographical change, to learn about new cultures or work-related changes
despite the many reasons, all immigrants have one thing in common: together they all believe that they can find a better and happier life in the USA
the rather poor living conditions on side of the place people left behind can be referred to the quote as the devil you know
one knows how to deal with and navigate life in the familiar places that is called home, how to deal with difficulties, and where to get help or support (e.g. family, friends, or the community)

Main Body
Seeking a better life

when non-Americans think of the U.S., they usually think of it only as the land of opportunity
if you ask someone what they know about America, they would probably say that it is the country where anything is possible
among immigrants, the idea of America as a promised land circulates, where you only have to work hard to achieve this life, this material success, a house, nice cars, and full bank accounts

Hopes and Dreams

the reality, however, can be shocking and frustrating
when immigrants come to the US they face a complicated immigration process
instead of being greeted with openness and impartiality - immigrants are confronted by conflicted circumstances and face a country that's torn apart by despair, frustration, and inequality
the social gap in the U.S. is enormous and has widened already during President Ronald Reagan's regency and has tensed during President Trump's years in office
the poor lower class, which includes most immigrants, has few employment opportunities, inadequate education, and is housed in condemned buildings in high-crime areas, and often has limited food choices as well as health care options
these critical circumstances are metaphorically referred to in the proverb as "the devil you don't know"
it is a fact that immigrants do not know what they are getting into when they come to a foreign country like the U.S. and have no idea of the living conditions there, how to deal with difficulties, don't know where to get support from

Reality

therefore, it can be said that even if the circumstances in the country of origin are miserable and hopeless, the local people live in poor and desperate conditions and yet have the support of the community and know how to deal with the local conditions
In conclusion, it can be said that the proverb "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know[.]" depicts a very accurate picture of reality, given that even though the living conditions in both places are inadequate, it is more important to have the support of the community and to be familiar with the prevailing conditions than to face an evil of which one knows nothing.

Conclusion

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