PLOT - 2

Rites of Passage - As Frank grows up, Angela has two more sons, Michael and Alphie. Like all Catholic boys in Ireland, Frank faithfully participates in the rites of passage of the Church. At 10 he attends his First Communion but eats so much he gets sick and throws up the wafer that symbolizes the body of Christ. On his confirmation day at 13, he falls ill with typhoid. During his 14-week hospital stay, he discovers his first lines by Shakespeare in a history book, and he is hooked. Although the priests warn him of the dangers of books and girls, like many teenagers he disregards their advice. In the public library he reads about the lives of the saints until the librarian throws him out when she catches him reading a book on human anatomy. He listens to Shakespeare on a neighbor's radio, and from his friend Mickey Molloy, a self-proclaimed authority on girls and a young man who reads as much as Frank does, he begins to understand human sexuality.

Mature Beyond His Age - All along, Frank tries to help his mother put food on the table and coal in the stove by taking odd jobs. His ability to read and write gets him his first job reading for Mr. Timoney. He also works for Grandma Sheehan delivering lunch to a lodger but loses the job when he eats the lunch himself. He works for Uncle Ab delivering newspapers and for a neighbor, Mr. Hannon, delivering coal. Frank becomes used to seeing death around him, for the combination of disease and poverty claims lives that might have been spared in better circumstances.

When Frank's father goes to England to find a job and rarely sends money back home, Angela and her children can no longer make ends meet. After they burn the wallboards to keep warm, they are evicted from their house in the lanes and forced to move in with Angela's cousin Laman, who exploits their desperate situation. Angela must serve him and even sleep with him in exchange for free shelter.