Tis by Frank McCourt

Angela’s Ashes, the author’s earlier book, is about Frank McCourt’s childhood in Ireland growing up in poverty. This book is about his immigration to the United States.

Initial thoughts: Stop whining! You are so morose! Stop doubting yourself so much. How can you complain when you didn’t come from a war torn area like the people in our last two books (Rwanda, Sudan). You are born in America, you speak English, you look like everyone else, you went to college, etc.

Discrimination based on religion seems different than based on race. In the last three books we read, it’s hard to hide your race, but you can “hide: what kind of religion, class, language, or sexual orientation, sometimes even gender.

We talked about being pessimistic vs. being optimistic. Sometimes a cultural group is more of one than the other. Some folks in the group from Irish heritage mentioned that the Irish seem pessimistic and melancholy. The poverty is apparent in McCourt’s story; he seemed to be ashamed of his mother getting an allotment.

We spent some time talking about our own ethnicities (German, Greek, Taiwanese, Native American, Irish) and the experiences of our grandparents/ancestors. Topics included poverty, not having cars/having a car, being sheep herders, chicken coop cleaners, being soldiers in WWI or WWII, being able to get jobs/or not gets jobs, and whether it was the female or male ancestor who made the income.

Key questions we asked ourselves about our ancestry:

• Which of our family’s generation immigrated to the United States?
• Which generation was the first to go to college?
• How many uncles/grand parents served in the military?
• Was the culture of origin supportive?

In other countries, you have to test to get into college – in the U.S., it’s all about the money. If you can pay for college, you can go to college. We considered the question, “What is the way out of poverty?” and noted that it is different at different times in history. These came to mind (if not through education): Military Service, Factory Work, Marriage.