A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," written by Betty Smith, is a poignant coming-of-age novel set in early 20th century Brooklyn that follows the life of Francie Nolan, a young girl from a struggling working-class family. The narrative explores the challenges faced by Francie and her brother Neeley as they navigate poverty, family dynamics, and their quest for education and self-improvement. Their mother, Katie, works tirelessly as a janitor to provide for the family, while their father, Johnny, battles alcoholism, complicating their lives further.
Throughout the story, themes of resilience, the pursuit of dreams, and the harsh realities of urban life emerge, as Francie finds solace in her love for reading and learning. The backdrop of Brooklyn serves as a character in itself, illustrating the vibrancy and struggles of immigrant life. The novel poignantly depicts milestones in Francie's youth, including her first job and the loss of her father, which shape her identity and aspirations.
As she matures, Francie faces the complexities of relationships and societal expectations, ultimately striving for a brighter future. The titular tree symbolizes hope and growth, representing the enduring spirit of those who struggle yet continue to flourish despite life's adversities. This work remains a significant exploration of the female experience and the American dream, resonating with readers across generations.
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
First published: 1943
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Bildungsroman
Time of plot: Early twentieth century
Locale: Brooklyn, New York
Principal characters
Francie Nolan , a Brooklyn girlNeeley Nolan , her brotherKatie Nolan , her motherJohnny Nolan , her father
The Story:
For their spending money Francie and Neeley Nolan rely on a few pennies they collect from the junk collector every Saturday. Katie, their mother, works as a janitor in a Brooklyn tenement, and the money she and their father earn—he from his Saturday-night jobs as a singing waiter—is barely enough to keep the family alive and clothed.
After their Saturday-morning trips with the rags, metal, and rubber they collect during the week, Francie visits the library. She is methodically going through its contents in alphabetical order by reading a book each day, but on Saturdays she allows herself the luxury of breaking the sequence. At home, sitting on the fire escape, she can look up from her book and watch her neighbors’ preparations for Saturday night. A tree grows in the yard; Francie watches it from season to season during her long Saturday afternoons.
At five o’clock, when her father comes home, Francie irons his waiter’s apron and then goes to the dry-goods store to buy the paper collar and muslin dickey that will last him for the evening. It is her special Saturday-night privilege to sleep in the front room, and there she can watch the people in the street. She gets up briefly at two in the morning when her father comes home and is given a share of the delicacies he salvages from the wedding or party at which he served. Then, while her parents talk far into the night, Francie fixes Saturday’s happenings in her mind and gradually drifts off to sleep.
Johnny Nolan and Katie Rommely meet when he is nineteen and she is seventeen, and they are married four months later. In a year’s time, Francie is born. Johnny, unable to bear the sight of Katie in labor, gets drunk, and when the water pipes burst at the school in which he is janitor, he is discharged. Neeley is born soon after Francie’s first birthday. By that time, Johnny is drinking so heavily that Katie knows she can no longer rely on him for the family’s support. In return for free rent, the Nolans move to a house in which Katie can be janitor.
Francie is not sent to school until she is seven, and Neeley is old enough to go with her. In that way the children are able to protect each other from would-be tormentors. Seated two-at-a-desk among the other poverty-stricken children, Francie soon grows to look forward to the weekly visits of her art and music teachers. They are the sunshine of her school days.
By pretending that Francie goes to live with relatives, Johnny is able to have her transferred to another school that Francie sees on one of her walks. A long way from home, it is, nevertheless, an improvement over the old one. Most of the children are of American parentage and are not exploited by cruel teachers, as are those from immigrant families.
Francie notes time by holidays. Beginning the year with the Fourth of July and its firecrackers, she looks forward next to Halloween. Election Day, with its snake dances and bonfires, comes soon after. Then follows Thanksgiving Day, on which the children disguise themselves with costumes and masks and beg trifles from storekeepers. Soon afterward comes Christmas. The year Francie is ten and Neeley nine, they stand together on Christmas Eve while the biggest tree in the neighborhood is thrown at them. Trees unsold at that time are thrown at anyone who volunteers to stand against the impact. Bruised and scratched, Francie and her brother proudly drag their tree home.
The week before Christmas, when Francie is fourteen, Johnny staggers home drunk. Two days later, he is found, huddled in a doorway, ill with pneumonia. The next day he is dead. After the funeral, Neeley is given his father’s ring and Francie his shaving mug, his only keepsakes aside from his two waiter’s aprons. To his wife, Johnny leaves a baby, due to be born the following spring.
In March, when their funds are running low, Katie cashes the children’s insurance policies. The twenty-five dollars she receives carries them through until the end of April. Then Mr. McGarrity, at whose saloon Johnny does most of his drinking, comes to their rescue. He hires Neeley to help prepare free lunches after school and Francie to do housework, and the money the children earn is enough to tide them over until after Katie’s baby is born.
Laurie is born in May. In June, after their graduation from grade school, Francie and Neeley find their first real jobs, Neeley as errand boy for a brokerage house and Francie as a stemmer in a flower factory. Dismissed two weeks later, she becomes a file clerk in a clipping bureau. She is quickly advanced to the position of reader.
In the fall, there is not enough money to send both her children to high school, and Katie decides that the more reluctant Neeley should go. With the money Francie earns and with Neeley’s after-school job at McGarrity’s saloon, the Nolans have more comforts that Christmas than ever before. The house is warm; there is enough food; and there is money for presents. Fourteen-year-old Neeley receives his first pair of spats, and Francie almost freezes in her new black lace lingerie when they go to church on Christmas morning.
When the clipping bureau closes with the outbreak of the war, Francie gets a job as a teletype operator. By working at night, she is able to take advanced college credits in summer school that year. With the help of a fellow student, Ben Blake, she passes her chemistry and English courses. Francie is eighteen when she has her first real date, with a soldier named Lee Rhynor. The evening he is to leave to say good-bye to his parents before going overseas, Lee asks her to marry him when he returns. Francie promises to write him every day. Three days later, she receives a letter from the girl he married during his trip home.
Katie also has a letter that day. Officer McShane has long been fond of Katie. Now retired, he asks her to marry him. All the Nolans agree to this proposal. As the time approaches for the wedding, Francie resigns her job. With Katie married, she intends to go to Michigan to college, for with Blake’s help, she succeeds in passing the entrance exams.
The day before Katie is to be wed, Francie puts the baby in the carriage and walks down the avenue. For a time she watches the children carting their rubbish into the junk shop. She turns in her books at the library for the last time. She sees another little girl, a book in her hand, sitting on a fire escape. In her own yard, the tree was cut down because the tenants complained that it is in the way of their wash, but from its stump a shoot is growing.
Bibliography
Gelfant, Blanche H. “Sister to Faust: The City’s ’Hungry’ Woman as Heroine.” In Women Writers and the City: Essays in Feminist Literary Criticism, edited by Susan Merrill Squier. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984. Examines the common attributes of female protagonists such as Francie Nolan, whose physical hunger parallels her longing for knowledge and self-awareness.
Ginsberg, Elaine K. “Betty Wehner Smith.” In American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present, edited by Lina Mainiero. 4 vols. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1982. Offers information about Smith’s professional career and her works, including a brief assessment of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Pearlman, Mickey. “Betty Smith.” In Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Catholic Writing, edited by Daniel J. Tynan. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1989. Discusses the biographical elements of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and includes background information regarding Smith’s similarity to the protagonist Francie Nolan.
Prescott, Orville. “Outstanding Novels.” The Yale Review 33, no. 1 (Autumn, 1943): 6-12. Provides an assessment of Smith’s character development within the novel and examines the elements of local color or regionalism in the work.
Sullivan, Richard. “Brooklyn, Where the Tree Grew.” The New York Times Book Review, August 22, 1948. A comparison of the common elements in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Smith’s later work. Focuses on related themes, settings, and characters, emphasizing the superiority of the first novel.
Szalay, Michael. “The Vanishing American Father: Sentiment and Labor in The Grapes of Wrath and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” In New Deal Modernism: American Literature and the Invention of the Welfare State. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2000. Analyzes literary works that center on the New Deal, demonstrating how the federal government significantly altered the social category of “artist.” The chapter on A Tree Grows in Brooklyn examines how Smith’s novel and The Grapes of Wrath express the specifically American conflict between individual freedom and group affiliation, and how this depiction is a response to the changed relationship between the individual, society, and the state.
Yow, Valerie Raleigh. Betty Smith: Life of the Author of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Chapel Hill, N.C.: Wolf’s Pond Press, 2008. The first published biography of Smith. Recounts the events of her life, describing how her experiences in a blue-collar world influenced her fiction. Analyzes her novels, discussing how Francie and the other protagonists are working-class women who become self-directed and confident.