A Tree Grows in Brooklyn film. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn begins on a Saturday afternoon in the summer of in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where a tree called the Tree of Heaven grows amidst the tenement houses. Smith wrote A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to inform others about what it was like growing up in a small neighborhood in Brooklyn in the early s. Perseverance through hardship.
This theme relates closely to the American dream motif and the symbol of the tree. The strength of the Rommely women suggests that they can withstand any hardship.
When Francie is born sickly, she perseveres like the tree; her mother never doubts her strength. The tree in the title grows in tenement districts, without water or light, even without soil. It symbolizes perseverance and hope amidst hardship. The conflict in this book in man versus self and man versus society. The characters in this novel are dealing with poverty issues, class issue, perseverance during hardship, education, identity through religion and ethnicity, and gender roles.
Though through all of this the tone is sympathetic. The end of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ties things up nicely and slaps a pretty bow on top. Seriously—things come together pretty neatly.
Francie is off to college at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The tree represents the tenacity and strength of the poor inhabitants of the neighborhood, who survive with little food or money. This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between and and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed.
He dies of pneumonia and acute alcoholism at the age of Katie Nolan Timeline and Summary As newlyweds, she and Johnny work together as night janitors in a school. They like the job and earn a pretty good wage. Katie gets pregnant and as soon as Francie is born, she is driven to make a good life for her kids. Primary among them is the fact that Annie is a lot like Francie—childlike, optimistic, and always hopeful that things will be better.
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The story begins in , in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where eleven-year-old Francie Nolan and her younger brother, Neeley, are spending a Saturday collecting rags, paper, metal, rubber, and other scrap to sell to the junk man for a few pennies. Half of any money they get goes into the tin can bank that is nailed to the floor in the back corner of a closet in their tenement flat. This bank, a shared resource among everyone in the family, is returned to time and again throughout the novel, and becomes a recurring symbol of the Nolan's self-reliance, struggles, and dreams.
Those dreams sustain every member of the extended Nolan family, not just the children. Their mother Katie scrubs floors and works as a janitor to provide the family with free lodging. She is the primary breadwinner because her husband Johnny, a singing waiter, is often drunk and out of work. Yet there is no dissension in the Nolan household.
Katie married a charming dreamer and she accepts her fate, but she vows that things will be better for her children. Her dream is that they will go to college and that Neeley will become a doctor.
Intelligent and bookish, Francie seems destined to fulfill this ambition - Neeley less so. In spite of or perhaps because of her own pragmatic nature, Francie feels a stronger affinity with her ne'er-do-well father than with her self-sacrificing mother.
In her young eyes, Johnny can make wishes come true, as when he finagles her a place in a better public school outside their neighborhood. When Johnny dies an alcohol-related death, leaving behind the two school-aged children and another on the way, Francie cannot quite believe that life can carry on as before.
Somehow it does, although the family's small enough dreams need to be further curtailed. Through Katie's determination, Francie and Neeley are able to graduate from the eighth grade, but thoughts of high school give way to the reality of going to work. Their jobs, which take them for the first time across the bridge into Manhattan, introduce them to a broader view of life, beyond the parochial boundaries of Williamsburg.
Here Francie feels the pain of her first love affair. And with determination equal to her mother's, she finds a way to complete her education. As she heads off to college at the end of the book, Francie leaves behind the old neighborhood, but carries away in her heart the beloved Brooklyn of her childhood.
No matter your age or your place in life the rich prose A Tree Grows In Brooklyn will fuel your dreams and bring joy to your heart as you are transported to another time. View all 14 comments. Loved it from page 1 Slow paced and really descriptive but I loved it. I really enjoyed learning about life back then for the Nolans Highs and lows of life and daily experience I was so emotionally attached to Francie. She was a brillant character and I loved her to pieces.
View all 6 comments. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a quiet, gentle, understated and yet at the same time unexpectedly scathing at times book that offers a window or a view from a fire escape, if you please into a little corner of the world a century ago, and yet still has the power to resonate with readers of today.
After all, the world has moved forward, yes, but the essential human soul remains the same, and the obstacles in human lives - poverty, inequality, cruelty, and blind self-righteousness - are in no dange A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a quiet, gentle, understated and yet at the same time unexpectedly scathing at times book that offers a window or a view from a fire escape, if you please into a little corner of the world a century ago, and yet still has the power to resonate with readers of today.
After all, the world has moved forward, yes, but the essential human soul remains the same, and the obstacles in human lives - poverty, inequality, cruelty, and blind self-righteousness - are in no danger of disappearing. It had pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky.
It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenements districts. If you ask me, I think it's a story of people simply being people, the good-bad-and-ugly of humanity. There are so many things coexisting in the pages of this not-that-long book. On one hand, it's a classic coming-of-age and loss-of-innocence tale centered around the experiences of a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in the first couple of decades of the 20th century.
On another hand, it is a social commentary taking on the uglier parts of human lives and human nature - the parts that Francie was cautioned against writing about as they are quite 'sordid': poverty, vice, exploitation, intolerance. On yet another hand yes, I'm running out of hands here it's a story of American dream - hopeful and determined. I don't want to live to get charity food to give me enough strength to go back to get more charity food.
On yet another hand apparently my 'hands' example may as well involve an octopus it is a chronicle of a struggling Brooklyn family with the love and resentment and strong ties that only the members of the family can try to understand. On some other hand, it's a story of what it meant to be a girl and then a woman in the world of a century ago in America. And, on yet another hand, it is an ode to Brooklyn that through the prism of this book appears to be a universe of its own.
It is also a story of opportunities lost and opportunities gained despite the odds. It's a story about the will to survive no matter what, about iron-clad will and determination, about hope despite the odds, despite being, for all intents and purposes, on the bottom of the barrel.
It's a story about learning to love and respect and compromise and give up - and frequently all at the same time. It's a story about being able to open your eyes to the world around you as you grow up and learning to see this world for what it is, and accept some of it, and reject some, too.
It has love and loss and pain and happiness and wonder and ugliness - all candidly and unapologetically presented to the readers allowing them to arrive at their own conclusions just as Francie Nolan has arrived at hers. Apparently when this book was published in mids, it caused a wave of disappointment and disagreement with the subject matters it raised, the subject matters that some of the public, like the well-meaning but clearly clueless teacher Miss Garnder in this book, probably found too 'sordid' for their taste: the poverty, the pro-union message, the lack of condemnation of female sexuality, the alcoholism, the treatment of immigrants unfamiliar with their rights, the exploitation of the poor and weak ones by those in power - you name it.
It seems there was too much of the social message presented with not enough of polishing it and coating it with the feel-good message. And yet the system - as well as the still-not-understood undershades of human psyche - instead of uniting these people in their hardships ends up somehow pitting them against each other. That privilege was reserved for a small group of girls They were the children of the prosperous storekeepers of the neighborhood.
Francie noticed how Miss Briggs, the teacher, beamed on them and seated them in the choicest places in the front row. These darlings were not made to share seats. No, this book does not fall into the pitfall of somehow glorifying poverty. Allow me to quote Terry Pratchett here: -"Remember - that which does not kill us can only make us stronger. Neither did the fact that if you live in a poor neighborhood and get an education there, you are at a disadvantage as compared to your peers Francie tried to combat that by finding a way to attend a better school in a better area - but using the ways that would surely condemn her in the eyes of the general public had she done it now, like quite a few people try to.
And the fact that as we continue to proclaim the benefits of Democracy as Johnny Nolan did his whole short life while poverty continues to run rampant and the rich continue to be rich is perhaps one of the saddest things that you take from reading this book.
My children must get out of this. They must come to more than Johnny or me or all these people around us. On one hand, Francie and her mother Katie and her grandmother Mary all support the idea of education eventually being able to help you get out of the cycle of poverty.
On the other hand, through Francie's eyes we see the flipside of this belief in American Dream - the shrugging off the problems of the poor by those who are a bit more well-to-do under the mistaken beliefs that a they understand exactly what the poor are going through like Francie's teacher Miss Garnder 'understood' poverty because - oh the horror!
We all admit these things exist. The writer, like the artist, must strive for beauty always. There's really little plot in the way we, modern readers, frequently think of such. Most of the book seems to be comprised of little vignettes connected to each other, placed to shed light on different aspects of the lives of the Nolans and the Rommelys, to present different edges of their personalities and to show the wider picture of the time and the neighborhood where they live.
We get to experience Katie's determined strength, Johnny's unabashed hopefulness mixed with weakness, Sissy's love and disregard for arbitrary societal limitations, and Francie's curiosity and desire for life and learning. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating.
My children will be strong that way. Yes, she is far from an ideal heroine. She is naive and impressionable, sometimes frustratingly so. She can be meek and allow others to take advantage of her and direct her life - to the point when we, readers from the time when women can vote and have achieved some resemblance of equality, start getting frustrated with her.
But she has this insatiable curiosity for life and desire to rise above her low station in life, and inner backbone and character steel that she appears to have inherited from her mother Katie Katie, who is a true cornerstone of this book, the source of its inner strength and resilience that allows the Nolans to have hope for the future - all the traits that make the reader cheer for this quiet and yet determined young woman who will ultimately find out what's best for her in life while always remembering where she comes from.
Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere - be deceitful. Back then I would have judged so many characters harshly, seeing the world from a quite privileged perspective of a person who had the luxury of education and only experienced a few years of significant poverty that was followed by a reasonably comfortable life afterwards.
Now, with a bit more life experience on my shoulders, I cannot help but adore the quiet heart of this story and the different shades of life and people that it portrays. View all 38 comments. Dec 29, Debra rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorite-books. I had heard of this book quite frequently, but for some reason or another never picked it up. Then years ago, my book club decided to read it. What a Joy! What a Pleasure! I loved reading about this young girl who loved to read as much as I did.
How I could relate to her love of going to the library and finding that special book - that treasure! Thus, this book became my treasure. It holds a place on my favorite book list! Francie Nolan is a very poor young girl living in the slums of Williamsbur I had heard of this book quite frequently, but for some reason or another never picked it up.
Francie Nolan is a very poor young girl living in the slums of Williamsburg. Her father is an alcoholic who breezes in and out of their lives. But in Francie's eyes he is a prince.
Children often do not see their parent's flaws or perhaps they have the gift of overlooking. She has her father's heart and desperately tries to capture the heart of her hardworking, often harsh, Mother. Her life is rough. She is a girl who loves to look out her front window on Saturday nights, who loves the chalk and short pencils brought home to her. She finds pleasure in the things she can, while enduring hardships such as no or little heat, lack of proper food, loneliness, assault and loss.
She has an interesting Aunt who always has a "boyfriend" My grandmother would call her a harlot. I would also call her loving and kind to her niece and nephew. This book stirs the emotions of the reader. There is sadness in this book but there is also survival, hope, strength and determination. The character try their hardest. They are flawed, make mistakes, but always try to do the right thing. Beautifully written book. See more of my reviews at www. View all 22 comments.
My story of this book. I never read this back during my school days though I was probably given the opportunity. I had two elective English classes where we were given a choice between three books, this was probably one but I chose another. Sometime within the passing years I bought a copy and put it in the book shelf that is next to my television, where it has stared at me for years, subtly asking ng is it my turn yet? When my friend Brina said she was reading this book and did anyone want to r My story of this book.
When my friend Brina said she was reading this book and did anyone want to read Al ng with her, I looked at the book and thought, go for it. It was finally this books turn. I opened the page Started reading and fell in love with the story of Francie and her family, living in Brooklyn during the early 's. Kate her mother, a very strong woman who worked extremely hard, Johnny her charming, hard drinking Irish father and her brother Neely a short year younger than herself.
Francie was a remarkable character, how she thinks, the special love she had for her father, who despite his drinking managed to be there when she really needed him. We read as this family weathers changes in livelihood, living conditions and the many changes taking place in the world. Although it was Brooklyn it could have been my neighborhood in Chicago, sixty years later when I was growing up.
Somethings had changed, my neighborhood was Irish, Polish and Italian and instead of being secluded but ethnicity we all played together, in the streets sidewalks and alleys. If there was any division it was between those who were Catholic and went to Catholic school and the public's as we called them, who did not.
There were still corner stores and our mothers not driving, we were often sent to the stores. Hard drinking Irishmen, we had those too, the ones who closed the bars and walked home weaving but singing. This book was so easy to identify with, the characters so realistic, well, I was smitten, wanted good things to happen for them.
The one thing that has changed from back then that I envied them for, was the closeness of families, where everyone worked together, remained close. We don't have this anymore in this global world and that's a shame imo. Would I have appreciated all the nuances of family life within this story, the struggles they went through if I had read this when I was in school, I think not. I think reading this as an adult I was more able to identify and understand what each decision cost them, how hard they fought for survival.
I think I read this at the perfect time, plus now it is no longer staring at me unread. View all 29 comments. Aug 23, Fabian rated it it was amazing.
The tree that grows in Brooklyn isn't really about Brooklyn at all. It's an encapsulation of the experience of the immigrant, with the first generation American-born as astonished observer. And liver. She describes things that are fu The tree that grows in Brooklyn isn't really about Brooklyn at all. Even our own America. View all 8 comments. Aug 17, Julia rated it it was amazing Shelves: the-classics.
Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" has been passed down through at least three or four generations and is highly regarded as a classic novel perfect for any young adult bent on entering adulthood and escaping from the gaping clutches of a complicated childhood.
While it was not for those reasons that I first picked up "Brooklyn," I came to regard it as one of the finest books that I had ever read. At first glance, it is a very deceitful book: short; words spaced nicely apart; and, a largis Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" has been passed down through at least three or four generations and is highly regarded as a classic novel perfect for any young adult bent on entering adulthood and escaping from the gaping clutches of a complicated childhood.
At first glance, it is a very deceitful book: short; words spaced nicely apart; and, a largish font size. However, as I began to become more enveloped in the life of a young Brooklyn girl dreaming of becoming big, I realized that this tale was not as easy as the superficial first glance had led me to believe. For one, Francie's sufferings and trials from being the unloved child gave me a special, odd sort of comfort.
If she could survive-no, flourish-living in the slums of Brooklyn with a drunk Irish father and a mother who was not always there for her, why could I not do so in absolute comfort? Granted, my father is not a drunk, nor is he Irish; and my mother is always there for me. Still, as every young adult feels at one point during this trying time, I have often thought that there was no one to whom I could turn for steady support Secondly, Betty Smith wrote the novel in a fluid, page-turning manner.
Her every word supports and encourages the next, while also performing the duty of enticing the reader to keep marching onward. She writes simply and plainly, a very modern woman in a time where their position in society was shifting. Bold, daring, smart, and at the same time reserved, wise, creative, and thoughtful, Smith wrote a protagonist not only for the shifting ways of the early 20th century, but for all time.
View all 4 comments. Shelves: pants-crappingly-awesome , classics , favorites , american-as-apple-pie , bildungsroman , book-club-rg. Francie stood on tiptoe and stretched her arms wide. And the way the stars are so near and shiny. I want to hold all of it tight until it hollers out, 'Let me go! Let me go! But it is also a metaphor for the novel's protagonist, Franc Francie stood on tiptoe and stretched her arms wide. But it is also a metaphor for the novel's protagonist, Francie Nolan.
She is a sweet, innocent girl who grows and flourishes despite a harsh environment of neglect and poverty. I fell in love with Francie. I loved her childlike innocence and the way she could be so delighted with things we take for granted: things like a flower in a brown bowl, freshly sharpened pencils, dancing shadows on her pillow, shiny stars. I love her pluckiness; I loved the way she refused to conform to the mold her teacher tried to force on her, the way she pulls herself out of poverty by working hard, even though it means giving up on some dreams.
But the novel is about so much more than just Francie. This is a beautifully moving portrayal of the human condition and the plight of the downtrodden, similar to the work of Steinbeck, though more hopeful. There is so much American pride coming from the point of view of poor immigrants and their children. The heroes of this book are not great men. They are ordinary people. They are flawed. And they are beautiful. I just want to hold all of them tight until they holler out, "Let me go!
View all 10 comments. Aug 31, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: classics , fiction , historical , 20th-century , young-adult. The story focuses on an impoverished but aspirational adolescent girl and her family living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, during the first two decades of the 20th century. I felt like the last person in the world to have read this book, and based on what everyone has said about it over the years, I expected this to be the next best thing after the Crispy Potato Soft Taco at Taco Bell.
But as I read the first pages, I thought everyone was out of their freaking minds. This , I thought, is what everyone has been raving about for as long as I can remember?
I even did a quick peek at my GR friends list - you people love this book. I couldn't figure out why. It starte I felt like the last person in the world to have read this book, and based on what everyone has said about it over the years, I expected this to be the next best thing after the Crispy Potato Soft Taco at Taco Bell.
It started coming together for me somewhere after the page mark. Things actually started happening, and the chapters weren't just excuses to explain some sort of mundane aspect of Francie's life. I don't need a lot of melodrama in my literature, but there needs to be some sort of conflict. Some sort of obstacle to overcome. Some sort of tension. This book lacked that for a good portion of the story.
When things did get interesting, I started to understand why so many people love this book. Personally I don't love it. It didn't make me weep, though I admit to tearing up maybe once. I think this is another one of those books that I should have read when I was much younger to have a full appreciation for this coming-of-age novel. I can appreciate it for what it is. But it didn't change my life. View all 36 comments. Mar 27, Calista rated it really liked it Shelves: groundbreaking , s , bage-mature , women , genre-coming-of-age , histiorical , award-various , sub-cities , bage-young-adult , classic.
This feels autobiographical. It does seem to be based off the childhood experiences of Betty. The beginning went into the history of the Nolan family and I'm sure this set the stage, but it dragged and I almost stopped reading. I felt like it took forever to read this book. It was worth it. The story does grow inside you somehow. This is not the usual genre I read. They lived poor and there was a stress always about where the money was This feels autobiographical.
They lived poor and there was a stress always about where the money was going to come from. It's good to step into those shoes, but it's still stressful reading for me. They are some tough people. Being a student, living on loans, I have all kinds of fears about money right now and I think this novel tapped into those fears about my future. I gotta move. Francie is our protagonist. She lives in the poor parts of Brooklyn to Irish parents.
They are tough. Her mom wants her to have an education to make something of herself and get out of poverty. She makes Francie read some Shakespeare or the Bible every day of her life. The mother does her best to help Francie get ahead in this world in her way.
Francie learns she enjoys writing. Where the story really took off for me was the exchange between Francie and her teacher. There is a passage that gave me chills it was so powerful.
Francie's father has died and instead of writing her fun and fanciful fluff for her teacher, which she is the number one student in the class, she begins to write about her father. He was a drunk and they had a hard life. Her teacher quotes, Keats poem 'Truth is beauty and beauty is truth. Francie tries to defend herself by saying this is her truth. The teacher tells her that beauty is things that lift the heart like beautiful flowers.
Drunks, poverty and living in the gutter is not beauty, for we don't want to focus on it. While it does make for difficult subject matter, those things are part of reality and seeing a character find beauty in the gutter is quite beautiful. Francie is insulted and she stops writing. She is wounded and confused and she ends up growing up in that moment. She no longer looks up to the teacher.
I think by the work in our hands, Betsy must have gone through something close like this and we can see that if you give your truth, and it is about the hardships of life, it can be beautiful. After this moment, the book got so much better for me and I was engaged. It had me, but I had to read half of it to get there.
I love the ending and where Francie ends up. I love that she gets to go to College. This was not a fun book. Parts of this book were work and parts of it were stressful and parts were slow. But there is something that happens going through Francie's journey that make for quite an experience. I love Francie's evolution. The tree in the title is only mentioned a fraction, but it was pretty powerful at the end.
I'm glad I struggled through this book and finished it. It was worth the struggle. Mar 31, SimitudeSims rated it it was amazing Shelves: book-club-books. I love this book. The character were so colorful and full of life. It's described so we'll that I feel like I lived there too.
No wonder it's a classic. I can't believe it took me so long to read it. View all 3 comments. Feb 14, Julie rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorite-books , grandchildren-on-your-knee , girl-power , coming-of-age , new-york-state-of-mind , mommie-dearest , in-goddess-we-trust.
In the average Caucasian American still believed that people of other races were contaminating swimming pools and public restrooms with their skin and that women of all races were second-class citizens.
Out of this backdrop stepped a skinny white girl from Brooklyn who managed to publish a ridiculously modern coming-of-age novel and introduced the world to Francie Nolan. As well-read as I am, I had not met Francie Nolan until this week of my life, and I feel a great regret for not knowing he In the average Caucasian American still believed that people of other races were contaminating swimming pools and public restrooms with their skin and that women of all races were second-class citizens.
As well-read as I am, I had not met Francie Nolan until this week of my life, and I feel a great regret for not knowing her sooner. Francie Nolan is a life-changing character and this is a life-altering book. I can honestly say that, as much as I loved it, it is not a book I would hand to my husband or son, but I would hand it to any woman over the age of If you can't relate to Francie Nolan, I would go out on a limb and guess that you have lived an enchanted, near-perfect life.
You don't need to have been poor to relate to Francie, you could have been any of the other following things: a daughter of immigrants, a daughter of an alcoholic, a girl who sometimes struggled relating to her peers, a dreamer, a girl. This is a staggering, near-brilliant work of fiction and it has left me with scenes that I will potentially remember the rest of my life. I had tears running down my face throughout several parts, and during one scene in particular, when a mob of angry mothers get their hands or rather their feet on a criminal, I found myself shouting out, "GET HIM!
What you have here is a great and rare celebration of what it means to be a girl. Girls face danger and inadequacies and meanness everywhere, but through powerful aunts who go marching into schools to defend nieces, mothers who take on 2nd and 3rd jobs to cover up for fathers who fail to launch, and grandmothers who make sure their grandchildren are not embarrassed by their imaginations, they can learn that they can make it in this world, and thrive. This book is like a blessing.
It has certainly blessed me. View all 32 comments. Dec 14, Blake Crouch rated it it was amazing. Read concurrently with my son.
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