A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Character Analysis

The main character is sent by his father to stay with his grandmother. This is where you learn that the strong heart runs in the family. This is true because she is a seventy-eight year old woman and will still patch out two acres of corn and make enough bread for the winter to do what she can to keep her family feed.  In her old age she hasn’t kept the best health. Some days she is too sick to get out of the bed. The main character takes care of her he cooks all the meals for her and helps her start to feel better. Living with her he hears stories of his father and how he is an honest man. Also his grandmother tells him about his grandfather and all the great things he would do.  Living with his grandmother is a great experience for the main character because she brings him history of his family and teaches him many things on how to live a content life.

The setting changes while Francie continues to mature into a woman. She becomes 16, and is beginning to lead a life of her own. The family leaves the grieving they had for Johnny behind. Not only does Francie start out with a clean slate, so does the rest of the Nolan family. After the two and ½ years of mourning for Johnny, Sergeant Mc Shane asks Katie to marry him. War rages through the country. While he and Katie make arrangements for the fall wedding and gifts of money and whatnot, Francie makes headway in her personal life.

When people plant seeds into the ground, the seeds usually bloom into a beautiful plant. However, with growth comes obstacles. Weather and roadblocks cause delays or disruptions in growth. It takes strength and courage to move past these obstacles, just as Taylor has throughout Kingsolver’s novel, The Bean Trees. In this novel, Kingsolver plants certain tones and social issues as a way to make it her own.

While most authors would shy away from the topic of sex, Smith does not. Smith builds a theme of judgment on someone’s choice of partner and sexual encounter. Francie begins to question more and more about sex as she grows older. Francie was born out of the strong attraction her mother felt for her father (Zonana). Aunt Sissy, Katie’s sister, hung around the kids a lot as Francie grew up. Aunt Sissy held the attention of many men who were attracted to her and she loved the attention. Aunt Sissy was very inconsistent with who she stayed with and for how long. Aunt Sissy was judged many times from other women for her inconsistency. Wives of the husbands Aunt Sissy caught attention of were jealous of her for their husbands had a stronger attraction to Aunt Sissy than their own wives. Francie was introduced to men having an attraction to women by Aunt Sissy. As Francie grows older, she notices more things like women getting jealous over other women for their love life and the “good women” of the neighborhood judging people who are not ashamed. Francie meets a girl named Joanna who lives in her neighborhood. Joanna had a child out of wedlock and she was not ashamed of it. She loved her baby with all her heart, but the “good women” got jealous of Joanna for she was not ashamed. Joanna and the father of her child were still close after she was pregnant. They had a good relationship and most of the women

It all begins when Blanche Morton, moves in with her sister, Kate Jerome’s family, as a result of her husband passing away. Instead of being an independent woman, and taking care of her family, she depends on her brother-in-law Jack for; financial support, guidance, and the nurturing of her children, as if they were his obligation. Unfortunately this situation causes a great deal of tension between

Speak Essay “ A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree” (Spike milligan). Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda that got raped at a party, ever since then she lost all her friends and struggled talking to people in high school. The tree in the book Speak is a motif in the story that symbolizes the growth of Melinda. First, she is assigned to draw a tree and thought it was too easy, Then, she tried stepping it up by adding color to the tree, finally, she built confidence in herself and agreed that she can do a better on drawing a tree.

Francie Nolan is an 11-year-old girl with a vivid imagination and dreams of someday becoming an author. However, she is limited by her surroundings, for she lives in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Her family has barely enough money to buy food and other necessities of life. Her mother is Katie Nolan, a strong, steely woman who meets every challenge that comes her way head-first, and her father is Johnny Nolan, an idealistic father whom Francie loves very much, but is an alcoholic. Francie is sure that Katie loves her brother, Neeley, more than herself, and she attaches herself to her father.

Betty Smith 's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn presents the problems of a child growing up, the coming of age when one meets challenges and overcomes obstacles. The protagonist, Francie Nolan, undergoes a self-discovery as she strives to mature living in the Brooklyn slum despite its poverty and privation. Thus, Smith 's thematic treatment of the struggle of maturity has become for the reader an exploration of loneliness, family relationships, the loss of innocence, and death and disease.

Judging a person solely on their looks discounts what is on the inside. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Sissy, the main character’s aunt, is seen as flirtatious and selfish. If you don’t know her you would think she just acts like a flirt but, if you look closer you see how affectionate and caring she really is.

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

The author lets us experience the conflict and choose the sides of the family that best describe our own sense of belonging. We become accommodated with the protagonist early on, it is the one dreaming for a better life...fortunately, dreaming about success is the motivation that keeps this family sleeping at night and working during the day. Its a story of a dysfunctional family that works together for a common cause, and

She looks forward to moving away like others in her town. She admits she will not be missed at her job and at nineteen, without the former protection of her older brothers, she is beginning to feel "herself in danger of her father's violence.” This danger she sees is taken away when she meets her suitor, the sailor, Frank who promises her a better life away from these hardships she has faced.

In my personal library, I’d include The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, Divergent, by Veronica Roth, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. The protagonists in these books deliver a message of hope about the power of the individual, each in a different way.

The tree in protagonist's yard is evidentially a significant element to the story. It's a figurative reference as to how one can still prosper, even when exposed to massive inconveniences. The Tree of Heaven and Francie are very parallel in certain ways. Of course it is odd to differentiate a human and a tree, because of this, I had wondered what made the author make The Tree Of Heaven a relevant part of the story. Incidentally, the tree and Francie both sprouted in a infelicitous manner.

The resentment within the young girl’s family is essential to the novel because one can understand the young girl better as she makes her decision.