A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Analysis

In his ten years of living with her, he was abused, mentally and physically. He would get whipped, cut, beaten, shot, unfed, etc. then the children were not any better in the neighborhood. They would pick on him, insult him and his mother, beat him when he was alone. But there was one person who was there for him, that person was Officer Malley Jones. He was a well respected officer, and that went especially for Johnny, as one day when the other children were ganging up on Johnny, all

Johnny experiences an external, person vs. fate conflict.Johnny was such a brave kid.He sacrifices his life to save some kids that were in a burning church.He saved the kids but then a big piece of wood crushed his back.He had a couple of burns and was sent to the hospital.He was in the hospital for a while but he knew that he wasn't going to make it out.Then Johnny had passed even if he didn't want to it happened.”Do you want to know something, Ponyboy? I’m scared stiff.I used to talk about killing myself…”He drew a quivering breath.” I don't want to die now.It ain’t long enough 16 years ain’t long enough…”(pg.121).This impacted Johnny a lot.Now that Johnny was going to pass he doesn't want to he wants to live and stay to see another day.It made Johnny sad and depressed but he had to stay happy and let his friends know that he is going to pass on happy.Johnny had sacrificed his life to help some very young kids keep on living theirs.

The closet substitute Johnny has to a father figure are the younger men his mother has a one night stand with. Then one day, he meets his mother’s more serious boyfriend, Dan Needham,

Johnny Jeffrey runs from a life of fear and persecution at the hands of his family and moves to a small town to start over on his own terms. Johnny’s life choices are never seen as anything but disappointing and embarrassing to his powerful father. After years spent trying to gain love and acceptance, Johnny comes to the realization that

a. Hook: In the Irish American community of Brooklyn in the 1900’s, immigrants faced discrimination and crushing poverty

The novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is written with warm and honest style, but with a sobering and dismal story about tenement life and growing up with nothing. In the beginning stages of the novel the world is beautiful and simple for children like Francie and Neely. A world where many of the poor children who live in the Brooklyn slums aren’t aware of their dismal predicaments and scrape by with blissful ignorance. What has impressed me the most is how warm and fleshed out the narrative style of this novel is be despite it being told in the point of view of third person omniscient. It exudes humanity and emotion to the point where I sometimes think it's in first person. The narrative changes as Francie Nolan ages and the descriptions

He discovers things about himself and uncovers issues from his uncanny past. this is evident in the footnotes from his mother in this narrative layer. Johnny trusted the footnotes of the documentary that was studied by Zampano, who is blind. The constant mystery of whether the footnotes written by Zampano were real or made up eventually lead Johnny to paranoia about all the things he thought were true in life. Maybe the constant confusion of whether this documentary was fiction or nonfiction drew him to paranoia and insanity which ultimately became the fate for Johnny Truant as well.

Everything you read has a theme. Themes are everywhere and used in everything. Some people call them messages or the secret meaning/ purpose of writing something. In a Tree grows in Brooklyn you can find many themes in the book like never give up on education and money isn’t everything, however I like to think differently and creatively. To start off, I think the theme of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is that even when it's hard, you always know the direction you want and need to go to get back on track.

Betty Smith’s classic tale A Tree Grows in Brooklyn utilizes an assortment of intriguing, relatable characters to tell the emotional tale of a young girl, born into the depths of poverty, and to detail the traumatic life events that occur that shape her into her future self. Set in impoverished Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 1912, this story centers around the Nolan family: hardworking, tough mother Katie, impractical and romantic father Johnny, momma’s boy Cornelius “Neeley”, and the protagonist, eleven-year old Mary Frances “Francie”, a sharp-witted, loyal daydreamer through whom the reader sees life occur throughout the book. Francie’s ability to daydream about a greater life for her and her family help her to escape

Those big,black eyes of Johnny’s always seemed to glow with anxiety and terror. The constant resentment that came from his parent’s broke him badly, yet he was understanding when it came to us and our problems no matter how petty the situation was. Never criticizing us or telling us to “deal with it”, as he had to live with something much worse at home. He had a kindhearted spirit

As of 2010, 70 million children remain uneducated in our modern world. In the 1900’s, conditions were worse, and often times kids were forced to quit school early to work and provide for their family. Women also have it harder as they faced gender inequality throughout their lives. On average, mothers spend more than twice the amount of hours taking care of their children than the father. In the realistic fiction novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, education and gender inequality were obstacles that hinder the Nolan family from achieving the American Dream.

As Johnny grew into an adult he decides to leave home and join the military. While in the military he begins to writing songs and courting a hometown girl named Vivian Liberto. Johnny and Vivian’s courtship was quite different because Johnny was stationed in Germany, which made their courtship difficult. Vivian and Johnny continued to court through numerous letter writing and once Johnny got out of the military he decided to marry Vivian and attempt to begin his music career. However, his wife Vivian was having trouble adjusting to his dream.

Mr. John purcell demonstrates clearly who he is as a father in this story by the actions that were taken. Johnny's father is a man who doesn't give much attention to his child. I believe he focuses on work since he was going for a drink one night with a customer who was buying an industrial site. To continue, he has a wife who cares about her son and tries to keep him in order, but he's still been harsh and impatient with the boy. All in all, he is not the man you would wish to go out in public with.

Johnny’s parents are abusive and don’t treat him with any emotional or physical support. In the book a quote is “Johnny’s father was a drunk and his mother was a selfish slob”. The gang helps Johnny in a lot of ways another quote says “Johnny would have run away a million times if we hadn’t been there. If it hadn’t been for the gang, Johnny would never

Johnny’s internal issues are as equally grievous as his external issues. He practically raised his siblings since he was six years old, and started to work in factories when he was seven. Due to his early start transferring to adulthood, he never really had the chance to experience a jovial and enjoyable childhood. Johnny “had been robbed of a large part of that playtime by being compelled to take care of [his siblings] … he had fallen the part of little mother and father as well” (8). Johnny does not have any pleasurable memories to look back on and confirm that his upbringing readied him to steadily transition to adulthood. His mother is not a major help in his life, consequently making him uphold both roles of provider and supporter when it comes to his family. With no time for himself, it was evident in Johnny’s face that “there was no joyousness in him…