No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. 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. The one tree in Francie’s yard was neither a pine nor a hemlock. Her teacher tells her to go home and burn these writings and say "this is ugliness, this is ugliness, this is ugliness." Francie finally submits enough to be able to end the conversation and leave the room, but she's holding strong to who she is and where she comes from. She has been writing about her life, about her father, about her childhood. The teacher is trying to shame Francie into writing only about the beautiful, precious things of life. Francie has a confrontation with an English teacher. One of the themes is in fact being true and honest.
The characters are very human, very fallible. It doesn't try to make people better than they are. It is a character-driven, family-focused historical novel. It is not a fast-paced action, adventure novel. I loved her observations.Ī Tree Grows In Brooklyn is rich in detail AND rich in characterization. Truth does not equal beauty as Francie learns. It is a book that embraces ALL of life: the big things, the little things: no matter how ugly or beautiful. The book has a good number of flashbacks letting readers get to know all the members of the family before getting good and settled in Francie's life. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is set circa 1910-1918 in Brooklyn, New York it is very much a coming-of-age novel focusing on Francie, yet expanding to include several generations of her family.
Readers get the chance to get to know Francie, the heroine, her brother, Neeley, her mother, Katie, her father, Johnny, her aunts, Sissy and Evy, and her grandmother, Mary Rommely.
Oh how I loved Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
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