A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (novel)
| A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | |
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 First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Betty Smith |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
| Publication date | 1943 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 493 p. |
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1943 novel written by Betty Smith. The story focuses on an Irish-American family in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. The novel is set in the first and second decades of the 20th century. The book was an immense success.
The main metaphor of the book is the hardy Tree of Heaven, native to China and Taiwan, now considered invasive, and common in the vacant lots of New York City.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The novel is split into five "books," each covering a different period in the characters' lives. Book One opens in 1912 and introduces 11-year-old Francie Nolan, who lives in the Williamsburg tenement neighborhood of Brooklyn with her 10-year-old brother Cornelius ("Neeley" for short) and their parents, Johnny and Katie. The family subsists on Katie's wages from cleaning apartment buildings, pennies from the children's junk-selling and odd jobs, and Johnny's irregular earnings as a singing waiter. His alcoholism has made it impossible for him to hold a steady job, and he sees himself as a disappointment to his family as a result. The only antidote to alcohol Johnny accepts is coffee, which enables him to come out of and sometimes stay out of his alcoholic stupors but gives his behavior an odd quality. Francie admires him, however, and relies on her imagination and her love of reading to provide a temporary escape from the poverty in which she lives.
Book Two jumps back to 1900, with the meeting of Johnny and Katie - the teenage children of immigrants from Ireland and Austria, respectively. Although Johnny panics when Katie becomes pregnant with first Francie and then Neeley, and begins drinking heavily, Katie resolves to give her children a better life than she has known. During the first seven years of their marriage, the Nolans are forced to move twice within Williamsburg, due to public disgrace brought about first by Johnny's drunkenness and then by the children's Aunt Sissy's misguided efforts at babysitting them. They arrive at the apartment introduced in Book One.
In Book Three, the Nolans settle into their new home and the children (now seven and six) begin to attend the squalid, overcrowded public school next door. Francie enjoys learning even in these dismal surroundings, and with Johnny's help, she gets herself transferred to a better school in a different neighborhood. Johnny's attempts to improve the children's minds fail, but Katie helps Francie grow as a person and saves her life by shooting a child-rapist/murderer who tries to attack Francie shortly before she turns 14. When Johnny learns that Katie is pregnant once again, he falls into a depression that leads to his death from alcoholism-induced pneumonia on Christmas Day 1915. Money from the family's life insurance policies and the children's after-school jobs keeps the Nolans afloat in 1916 until the new baby, Annie Laurie, is born in May and Francie graduates from grade school in June. The latter occasion allows her to finally come to terms with the reality of her father’s death.
At the start of Book Four, Francie and Neeley take jobs since there is no money to send them to high school. Francie works first in an artificial-flower factory, then in a press clipping office. Although she wants to use her salary to start high school in the fall, Katie decides to send Neeley instead, reasoning that he will only continue learning if he is forced into it while Francie will find a way to do it on her own. Once the United States enters World War I in 1917, the clipping office rapidly declines and closes, leaving Francie out of a job. After she finds work as a teletype operator, she makes a new plan for her education, choosing to skip high school and take summer college-level courses. She passes with the help of Ben Blake, a friendly and determined high school student, but fails the college's entrance exams. A brief encounter with Lee Rhynor, a soldier about to ship out to France, leads to heartbreak after he pretends to be in love with Francie when he is in fact about to get married. In 1918, Katie accepts a marriage proposal from Michael McShane, a pipe-smoking retired police officer who has become a wealthy businessman and politician.
As Book Five begins in the fall of this same year, Francie 17 - quits her teletype job. She is about to start classes at the University of Michigan, having passed the entrance exams with Ben's help, and is considering the possibility of a future relationship with him. The Nolans prepare for Katie's wedding and the move from their Brooklyn apartment to McShane's home, and Francie pays one last visit to some of her favorite childhood places and reflects on all the people who have come and gone in her life. She is struck by how much of Johnny's character lives on in Neeley, who has become a talented jazz/ragtime piano player. Before she leaves the apartment, she notices the Tree of Heaven that has grown and re-sprouted in the building's yard despite all efforts to destroy it, seeing in it a metaphor for her family's ability to overcome adversity and thrive.
[edit] Character List
Mary Frances "Francie" Nolan is the protagonist. The novel begins when Francie is 11 years old. The rest of the novel tells of Francie's life until she goes to college at 17. Francie grows up in Brooklyn in the early twentieth century; her family is in constant poverty throughout most of the novel. Francie shares a great admiration for her drunken father, Johnny Nolan, and wishes for an improved relationship with her mother, hardworking Katie Nolan. Francie's is a "portrait of the American artist as a young girl" and more universally represents the hopes of immigrants in the early twentieth century to rise above poverty. Francie is symbolized by the "Tree of Heaven" that flourishes under the most unlikely urban circumstances and that is also identified with her stepfather Michael McShane's pipe tobacco, the vice the book concludes may be a healthier alternative to alcohol for an Irishman earning a living and raising a family in Brooklyn.
Katie Rommely Nolan is Francie's mother and the youngest of her parents' four daughters. She is a second-generation immigrant with an evil father and an angelic mother who emigrated from Austria. She married Johnny Nolan when she was only 17 years old. Katie is a hardworking, practical woman whose youthful romanticism has been replaced by a frigid realism that often prevents her from sympathizing with those who love her most. She runs her home in such a way that her children are able to enjoy their childhood despite their extreme poverty. Because Johnny is an alcoholic and can rarely hold down a job, Katie becomes the family breadwinner by cleaning apartment buildings. Johnny, however, is more attuned to Francie's hopes of graduating from high school and becoming a writer. As Francie matures and develops an inclination toward academia, Katie realizes she is more devoted to Neeley than to Francie. Katie becomes pregnant just before Johnny dies and survives on her own until she agrees to marry Sergeant Michael McShane, a pipe-smoking local policeman-turned-politician.
Sissy Rommely is Katie's oldest sister and one of Francie's two aunts. Because of her parents' immigration and lack of knowledge in their new environment, Sissy never goes to school and is therefore illiterate. Sissy is kind, compassionate and beautiful, and many men fall in love with her. She is first married at 14, but after being unable to have any live children with her husband Sissy leaves him. She marries two more times without ever getting a divorce. In between marriages Sissy has a number of lovers. She calls each of her husbands and lovers by the name "John" until her final husband, Steve, insists that she get divorced and call him Steve. Sissy has ten stillborn children, and eventually adopts one daughter and finally successfully gives birth to a son.
Johnny Nolan is Francie's father. He is a second generation immigrant from Ireland. He has a protective mother and had three brothers, all of whom died young. Johnny marries Katie Rommely at nineteen. He is charismatic and a loving husband and father. He is, however, also an alcoholic, loved dearly by his family but especially by Francie. When he does have a job, Johnny works as a singing waiter. He has a beautiful voice, a talent that is greatly admired but that is largely wasted because of his reputation as an alcoholic. After Katie tells him that she is pregnant with their third child, he stops drinking and immediately falls into a deep depression that ends with his death from alcoholism-induced pneumonia. He is a dreamer, in sharp contrast to Katie's realistic view of the world.
Cornelius "Neeley" Nolan is Francie's little brother. He is a year younger than Francie and is favored by his mother, Katie. Neeley is a normal child who is more widely accepted by the neighborhood children than Francie. He shows more emotion when his father dies than Francie, who reacts to the loss by becoming even more determined to get an education and rise above her mother's limited vision. Neeley refuses to follow the tradition of Nolan men and determines to never become an alcoholic. He, too, admits with Francie that despite their poverty, the Nolan children's childhood was pleasant.
Eva "Evy" Rommely Flittman is Katie's youngest sister and Francie's other aunt. Considered throughout most of the novel to be in less dire circumstances than Katie. Evy has more of a minor role than Sissy, and deals with the struggles with her lazy husband. At the end of the novel, Evy's husband, Willie, leaves her to travel as a one man band and like Katie, Evy carries on without him. When McShane gives Katie $1,000 upon their marriage, $200 is passed on to Evy - the value of Willie's life insurance policy. Eva has not had several marriages and is not assumed to be promiscuous, as her sister, Sissy, is. She has 3 children, a girl(Blossom),and 2 boys(Paul Jones and Willie Jr.)
Thomas and Mary Rommely are the parents of Katie, Evy, and Sissy; they emigrate to America from Austria just before Sissy is born. While Thomas hates America, enjoys tormenting Mary, and forbids the speaking of English at home, Mary patiently endures her hardships and serves as a moral/practical guide for her daughters. She cannot read or write English, but she encourages Katie to ensure that her children learn the language--also to begin saving money so she can buy land someday. (The Rommelys' other daughter, Eliza, their second oldest, is mentioned only briefly; she became a nun and joined a convent.)
Flossie Gaddis is one of the Nolans' neighbors, a single woman who scares men away as she constantly looks for new relationships. She keeps her right arm covered at all times to hide scars from a childhood accident with a tub of scalding water. She has a brother, Henny, who is dying of tuberculosis.
Lee Rhynor is Francie's first love; a soldier on leave who tries to manipulate Francie into sleeping with him after he won over her heart. When Francie refuses, he goes back to his fiancee.
Ben Blake is a boy Francie befriends during her first summer of college classes. Ben is driven and determined. While he is the object of Francie's affection at first, she feels differently after falling in love with Lee. However, at the end of the novel Francie goes to college with a promise ring from Ben and hope of a future with him.
[edit] Themes
Although the book addresses many different issues--poverty, alcoholism, lying, etc.--its main theme is the need for tenacity: the determination to rise above difficult circumstances. Although there are naturalistic elements in the book, it is not naturalistic. The Nolans are financially restricted by poverty but yet find ways to enjoy life and satisfy their needs and wants. For example, Francie can become intoxicated just by looking at flowers. Like the Tree of Heaven, Brooklyn's inhabitants fight for the sun and air necessary to their survival.
Truth and falsehood are weighed and found equally necessary to survival in Brooklyn. Johnny lies about his family's address in order to enable Francie to attend a better school, presenting Francie with opportunities that might not have been available to her otherwise. Sissy helps Johnny recover from alcoholic withdrawals by appealing to his libido, helping Katie and Johnny to stay together despite Johnny's disease. Katie also explains to Francie about love and sexuality from two somewhat clashing points of view: as a mother and as a woman. This book revises traditional notions of right and wrong and suggests pointedly that extreme poverty changes the criteria on which such notions, and those who embrace them, should be judged.
Gender roles are more fluid in A Tree than in previous novels about young people. As the book takes place before women's suffrage in the United States is achieved, some aspects of this theme are of historical rather than practical interest, yet others remain pertinent. Francie doesn't fully begin to realize her femininity until she can prove useful to her mother in childbirth. Katie's hands grow rough while she performs physical labor while Johnny's hands remain smooth and he wears expensive clothing. As Francie discovers her desire for companionship, she begins to understand the injustices women were often forced to endure when pregnant out-of-wedlock.
Other issues the book addresses include:
- Man vs. his environment
- Education
- Coming-of-age/loss of innocence
- Family
- Exploitation
- love
[edit] Adaptations
- The book was adapted into a 1945 film directed by Elia Kazan, starring James Dunn, Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, and Peggy Ann Garner, who won a Special Academy Award for Outstanding Child Actress of 1945. James Dunn also won an Academy Award for the film, for Best Supporting Actor.
- In 1951, George Abbott produced and directed the story as a Broadway musical, collaborating with the author on the book, and with music by Arthur Schwartz and choreography by Herbert Ross. The show starred Shirley Booth, Marcia van Dyke, and twelve year old Nomi Mitty played Francie. It ran for 267 performances.
- Yet another adaptation was a 1974 "made for television" movie starring Cliff Robertson and Pamelyn Ferdin, which was based on the film's screenplay. This TV movie was a pilot for a weekly series drama which was never produced.
[edit] Pop Culture References
The title of the 1947 Bugs Bunny cartoon A Hare Grows in Manhattan is based on the title of the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. At the end of the cartoon, Bugs shows the book to a pack of menacing dogs and they turn away from him and run to Brooklyn, presumably to make use of the tree.
The third episode in season 4 of Daria is named "A Tree Grows In Lawndale".
Season 1 episode 22 of Ugly Betty is named "A Tree Grows in Guadalajara".
A Super Grover segment in Sesame Street #4224 takes place "where two trees grow in Brooklyn."
This is the favorite book of the character Katerina in the short story Lermontov, by Amanda Michalopoulou
In the track "Some How, Some Way," from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, he raps, "... take hold of my hand. Look, man! A tree grows in Brooklyn."
The opening lines of "Interlude" on Jay-Z's following album, "The Black Album", refer to "...a tree that grows in Brooklyn."
The Lifetime album "Jersey's Best Dancers" includes a song entitled "Francie Nolan".
Rapper Talib Kweli refers to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in Blackstar's track Respiration.
In an episode of I Love Lucy, Lucy schemes to get her husband, Ricky, into a play she wrote called "A Tree Grows in Havana", referring to his Cuban homeland.
In the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers Frank Perconte reads the book while on guard duty
