In Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, McCourt has depicted life in a time span during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The social environment where Frank spent his childhood was in a miserable Irish society. Ireland an extremely patriotic and devout Irish catholic country in a time of great poverty dictates the fact those poor families will struggle though life. Therefore, the social environment of McCourt's life was a struggle for survivals as well as living a dream to provide for himself and his family.

Frank grows up in Limerick, a place of poor and lack of money. This meant families starved and fought for food and resources from Church organizations like St Vincent de Paul society. The McCourt's receive a weekly dole "enough for them to starve on." The detailed visuals Frank describes, "we hear families emptying out their chamber pots in our lavatory shared by twelve families...