Sebastian

=Seb's Reading Log (Researcher, Discussion Director, Passage Master, Connector)= __Researcher and Vocab:__

May 16th, 2008 __Vocabulary:__ Loquacious (description of the father) - tending to talk a great deal. Pg. 11, paragraph 3. Pious (description of the mother) - devoutly religious. Pg. 11, paragraph 3. Consumptive (description of the people of Ireland) - affected by a wasting disease, especially tuberculosis of the lungs, or connected with such a disease. Pg. 11, paragraph 4. Catarrh (description of the people of Ireland) - runny nose. Pg. 12, paragraph 1. Novenas (description of the people of Ireland) - recitation or prayers. Pg. 12, paragraph 3. Porter – wine. Pg. 13, paragraph 2. Hangdog (description of the father) – looking guilty or sad. Pg. 15, paragraph 2

__Key Points:__ Limerick - is a city and the county seat of County Limerick in the province of Munster, in the midwest of the Republic of Ireland. Toome - is a small village in County Antrim, bordering County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on the northwest corner of Lough Neagh. Country Antrim – Northern Ireland. Galway - is the only city in the province of Connacht in the Republic of Ireland. Belfast - is the capital of Northern Ireland. Andersontown - It is also known as Whiteside town or Townland Ballinfeigh.

__Summary:__

Frankie and his brothers live in poverty with their mother and drunken father. The first chapter is written in the first person view of Frankie himself, when he is growing up. The key points that are shown in the first chapter is America in the depression, the Irish situation for most, and effects of a drunken father on family, a large family at that. He is 5 and he is forced to learn and see things that no 5 year old should see. He must take care of his siblings, and cope with depressed mother due to a lost child. His father is a heavy drinker and loses his job, so that means almost zero money for the already poor family. But the family finds a way back to Ireland with out their father due to the grandmother and aunts suppling the money to get back.

May 20th, 2008 __Summary:__

Ch. II Upon return to Ireland, the McCourt family visits Malachy's family. The grandfather is accepting, but the Grandmother not so much. Since low on money, they go to the IRA for pension, but the IRA has no records of Malachy's time in service. They spend the night in police barracks and wake up to find that people have collected money for the family to make a trip to Limerick. They meet Angela's mother, who is just as cold as the last Grandmother. Time passes and Oliver dies, then Eugene dies six months later. Angela's depression becomes so bad that doctors prescribe pills for her nerves.

Ch. III The family moves to a new street so that to forget the lost children, but in the end just have another child. The children at school make fun of Frankie and his poverty, but the teacher says that if anyone else makes fun of the McCourt's he will whip them. The family goes through more poverty issues due to Malachy's drinking problem. They have a pig head on Christmas day because they can not afford anything else.

In the return back to Ireland, and facing many social and family issues, Frankie asks his father a many questions about things that are going on, but is always met with the same response. "I will tell you when your older." Given the circumstances of Frankie's life, and all the things he's already seen in life, do you think its right for his father to keep certain things from him?

May 21th, 2008 __Summary:__

Ch. IV The McCourts have moved into a new neighborhood and Frankie becomes good friends with an eleven year-old name Mikey who brings in cross-eyed, but brings in the money for his family. He reads a lot and knows much about adult things in life, and relays it in bits and pieces to Frankie. Mikey's mother often goes to the insane asylum, and bakes a lot of bread before for the boys while shes gone. She likes going to the asylum, thats whats so odd about her. Frankie battles with religion, he sees it as a way to be good and impress, while his father is not so bring on religion.

Ch. V Frankie learns what happens when people are angry each other and do not wish to end it in a brawl; they give each other the silent treatment and simply "don't talk to each other." Three years pass and Frankie's father still doesn't have job due to the drinking. He is now almost ten. Frankie joins the Arch Confraternity so that his mother can boast about her good Catholic children even though they are poor.

__Passage Master:__

"The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live. My brothers are dead and my sister is dead and I wonder if they died for Ireland or the Faith. Dad says they were too young to die for anything. Mam says it was disease and starvation and him never having a job. Dad says, Och, Angela, puts on his cap and goes for a long walk." Page 113, Chapter IV, Paragraph 2. This quote is a good representation of the internal conflicts that Frankie has to face as a child of his age. It helps us better understand the point of view of this child.

"Mam says, I'm a martyr for the fags and so is your father." Page 138, Chapter V, Paragraph 3. This boy is a 6 or 7 and he already has his mother saying these kinda things to him, and he understands it. This takes a rare insight into what the mother thinks and says.

May 22nd, 2008 __Summary:__

__Ch. VI__ Frankie is now in Fourth Form school year, and is taught by a short stout man who gives out his apple peals to the boys who answer difficult questions. The character Fintan is introduced as a faggish looking and acting boy, who is also very Catholic. Frankie's fourth form teacher ends up teaching Fifth Form geometry which upsets the Fifth Form teacher greatly and goes into a fit about it. Mr. Clohessy knows Frankie's mom from dancing with her a long time ago when they were younger.

__Ch. VII__ The McCourts money is still being spent by Malachy for drinking money. So Frankie ends up getting two jobs, one with Mr. Timoney, and one with Uncle Pat. Just as Mr. Timoney becomes a kinda friend to Frankie, he gets carted off because of his Buddhist views and they call him demented. There is a new son in the McCourt named Alphonsus. The grandfather sends a bank check for 5 pounds, but Malachy Snr. uses it for drinking.

__Connector:__ Im wish to make a very strange connection, one that involves drinking and poverty then to addiction and poverty now. In downtown, some of you may notice the homeless walking around, or sitting and standing the in same place for hours. You wonder how these people get to these homeless? Well most of these people have lost their life to some form of an addictions or another, they waste all their money on the drugs. Much like Malachy who takes his families money and drinks it all away. Thus why they are in poverty.

May 23rd, 2008 __Summary__:

__Ch. VIII__ Frankie is now ten and prepares for his Confirmation. A boy that goes by the name "Quasimodo" tells him and some others boys that if they pay a shilling each they can watch his sisters bath. Well, while Mikey is watching from the spout outside the window, he has a fit/vision and they all get in trouble. Frankie then is confirmed, but does not go around with the other boys because he get ill. He bleeds first from the nose, and then the mouth and anus, basically any place that can bleed, did. He is diagnosed with Typhoid fever and is sent to the hospital to recover where they think he is going to die. He makes a recovery, and so does the girl in the room next door. They become friends and read poetry to each other until they get in trouble for talking and Frankie gets moved upstairs to the old fever ward where no one is situated, so he is alone. He is in the hospital for three months and a half, but makes it out of the hospital, but sadly the girl does not and dies in the bathroom. Upon returning to school, Frankie must repeat 5th year because he missed so much school. But after praying to a Saint Frances, and writing a essay which catches the attention of Mr. O'Dea, he is moved up to 6th year.

__Vocabulary__ Cod (page 187, 2nd paragraph) – something fake, or a hoax. Gawk (page 190, 2nd paragraph) - to stare stupidly; gape. Sacrilege (page 190, 4th paragraph) - the violation or profanation of anything sacred or held sacred. Sacristan (page 190, 5th paragraph) - an official in charge of the sacred vessels, vestments, etc., of a church or a religious house. Blight (page 198, 2nd paragraph) - any cause of impairment, destruction, ruin, or frustration. Pine (page 201, 2nd paragraph) - To wither or waste away from longing or grief.

__Research__ KTBLASH: Seb this Research is awesome! Way to go above and beyond as the "Researcher" role!
 * BBC** - British Broadcasting Station.
 * Typhoid fever** - also known as enteric fever, bilious fever or Yellow Jack**,** is an illness caused by the bacterium //Salmonella enterica// serovar Typhi . Common worldwide, it is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with faeces from an infected person.[2] The bacteria then multiply in the blood stream of the infected person and are absorbed into the digestive tract and eliminated with the waste.
 * Confraternity** - is a lay, Roman Catholic organization created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety.
 * Diphtheria** - “pair of leather scrolls," is an upper respiratory tract illness characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane (a //pseudomembrane//) on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity.[1] A milder form of diphtheria can be restricted to the skin. It is caused by //Corynebacterium diphtheriae//, an aerobic Gram-positive bacterium .[2]
 * Great Famine** - was the first of a series of large-scale crises that struck Europe early in the 14th century, causing millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marking a clear end to an earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th to 13th centuries. Starting with bad weather in the spring of 1315, universal crop failures lasted through 1316 until the summer of 1317; Europe did not fully recover until 1322. It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism. It had consequences for Church , State, European society and future calamities to follow in the 14th century.
 * Battle of Kinsale** - was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland. It took place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, at the climax of the Nine Years War.
 * De Valera** - was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland. Co-owner of one of the Irish Press Newspapers, he served in public office from 1917 to 1973, holding the various Irish prime ministerial and presidential offices.

__May 27th, 2008__

__Summary

Ch. IX, X, XI__ Angela tells Malachy Snr. that she will not have anymore children, and this bothers Malachy greatly, because his wife is not preforming her "wifely duties." She is so tired of being poor that she contemplates going to work in England, for good pay, but instead Malachy Snr. goes off and promises to send back the 5 pounds weekly. In reality he never sends any money for months. Frankie has obtained conjunctivitis in his eyes and is sent off to the hospital where he runs into Seamus again. Seamus comes in regularly and recites poetry to Frankie and the rest of the ward. Seamus though soon leaves for england to get better pay then mopping floors. Still no money comes for the McCourts, so they have to get public assistance. Angela catches pneumonia and the boys must resort to stealing to survive. The house doctor comes and says that she must be taken to the hospital and that the boys must live with Pa Keating where Pa Keating is a nice man but aunt aggie beats and screams at them. After his mother gets better, and his father goes back to England, Frankie starts a soccer team with is brother and calls themselves "The Red Hearts of Limerick" because of his mothers dress from her dancing days. They beat a rich team which means a lot to him. Frankie then starts delivering coal because he is strong enough and old enough, but he gets so much in his eyes that he must miss a day from work, and his partner mr. malloy misses work to and pronounced never to work again due to his legs.

__May 28th, 2008

Summary

Ch. XII, XIII__ Malachy Snr. comes back and says that hes turning a new leaf. He arrives the day after Christmas, which is a day later then he had told his family and the gift he has for them is a half eaten box of chocolate. But then he just leaves again once the meal is over. Frank is old enough to realize the it would be best if he didn't make confrontations with the rich children. Angela is becoming more and more sick, and ends up staying in bed alot more. Michael has a habbit of bringing in sick and dying men and dogs. No one knows why, he just does. Frankie and his family get evicted from his house due to lack of payment for four weeks. The live with their cousin Laman, who only drinks on Friday. Family starts to die, Frankie's grandmother, aunt and uncle pass away. Also, Malachy has left to join the Army School of Dublin. People around Frankie have been telling him that he is very smart and bright and that he should continue schooling instead of taking a messenger job, but that is the only door open to him. Frankie begins to worry about the fact that he is sinning by masturbating, and frank upset by the fact that his mother is sleeping with Laman. After getting a fight with Laman, and having him try to beat him, Frankie leaves to live with his uncle Ab.