Frank McCourt's Teacher Man... again!

I decided to share my adopt a writer "project" that I did for my Creative Non-fiction class last semester. As you may have noticed from the title, this post is about Frank McCourt's book, Teacher Man, which I have reviewed in the past here. I am putting this up because I am doing another analysis of his writing style, but in a different format and I wanted to eventually share that as well to compare the two. This might not interest everyone, but as an English Writing major, this is some of the work I do at uni. Nevertheless, I hope you get something out of reading this (and my other posts ;)

Teacher Man by Frank McCourt is a memoir about his 30 years of experience teaching. His career as a teacher helped in his next career as a writer, providing him with content and experience with the English language. Teacher Man is one of McCourt's books and has a distinct style. Diction, point of view, informal/ slang language, dialogue, punctuation, and imagery, are some ways McCourt differentiates his writing style of Teacher Man.

Diction is clearly one of the important ways that a writer's style stands out. Within a writer's word choice is what point of view they are writing in. For example, McCourt chooses to write his book in the first person point of view. He uses "I" right from the start, making it obvious to readers that this book is a personal account, but worth sharing, hence the memoir. McCourt begins by writing, "Here they come. And I'm not ready. How could I be? I'm a new teacher and learning on the job" (11). McCourt stays in the first person perspective all the way to the end. He concludes Teacher Man with, "The bell rings and they sprinkle me with confetti. I am told to have a good life. I wish them the same… I'll try" (258). In the first quote, readers might sympathize with McCourt as a new teacher, but by the end, readers get a sense that McCourt survived teaching that year. By using first person pronouns, McCourt establishes a relationship with his readers.

Furthermore, McCourt uses informal/ slang words, both as his own and quoted from other characters in his book. When McCourt recounts an unexpected visit from a parent, he writes it the way the parent spoke. On page 92 it is written, "This teacher here to learn youse kids. Youse don’t lissena the teacher youse don’t graduate. Youse don’t graduate youse wind up on the piers in some dead-end job. Youse don’t lissena teacher youse doin' yourselves no favor. Unnerstand what I'm tellin youse?" McCourt even mentions some of his students saying “management could kiss their ass” (141). Later on, McCourt says himself, “You know your role: if the little buggers piss you off from time to time, suffer man, suffer”(152). McCourt doesn’t hesitate to incorporate both formal and informal speech in his writing, making his work casual and adding variety.

Along with his informal word choice, McCourt adds a lot of dialogue in Teacher Man, but not in the typical way with proper punctuation. For example, McCourt writes, “Petey said, Yo teacher, that’s my sandwich you [et]. Class told him, Shaddap. Can’t you see the teacher is eating? I licked my fingers. I said, Yum, made a ball of paper bag and wax paper and flipped it into the trash basket. The class cheered. Wow, they said, and Yo, baby, and M-a-a-an. Look at dat” (17). Just like the above quote from a parent, McCourt adds the student’s reaction just as they must have said them. Many times, people speak and write differently depending on their environment, but here McCourt keeps the language authentic to how it was said.

Finally, a writer’s use of details comes into play with their style. McCourt describes scenes for readers to visualize what he wants them to “see”. For example, McCourt adds details to help show his nervousness as in, “I toy with the implements of my new calling: five manila folders, one for each class; a clump of crumbling rubber bands; a block of wartime composition paper flecked with whatever went into the making of it; a worn blackboard eraser; a stack of white cards…” (11). These little details help readers paint a picture in their head while reading. When describing a student’s reaction to hundreds of little watercolor jars, McCourt writes, “He pushes back the hood and the hair flames. I tell him I’ve never seen such red hair and he grins. He works at the sink for hours, spooning out the old paste into a large pickle jar, scrubbing the caps, arranging the jars on shelves… Could he take the jars home? His cheeks are wet”(98). Readers can picture these and many more scenes unfolding before their eyes thanks to McCourt’s imagery.

The overall book has a specific way it was organized. Teacher Man was broken up into three parts: It’s a long way to pedagogy, Donkey on a thistle, and Coming alive in room 205. These three parts separates the book into a beginning, middle, and end of McCourt’s journey through the American education system. It all begins though, with a prologue, introducing McCourt a bit, but more importantly, his subject on teachers. There are a total of 18 untitled chapters, which many authors choose to do too. The chapters speak for themselves so titles aren’t really necessary.

Frank McCourt’s memoir is not only a good read for future or current teachers, but it also provides an idea on his personal writing style that anyone could appreciate. His word choice is easily noticeable where he uses a variety of informal/ slang language incorporated in dialogue. McCourt’s imagery shows readers what is going on in his scenes that he describes and his point of view keeps the personality of his memoir intact while providing readers a glimpse of his life-long experiences. Overall, there is much to gain out of reading Teacher Man.