ipl-logo

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Essay

736 Words3 Pages

Tenement districts in Brooklyn throughout the early 1900s provided challenges that entire families were forced to handle. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, by Betty Smith, depicts the Nolan family facing difficulties that even children had to overcome while they lived in one of these districts. Francie Nolan, the main character of the novel, is faced with the greatest difficulty of them all: growing up. Poverty was one aspect of Francie’s life that caused her to lack certain fundamental features of a regular child’s life. This is shown through Francie consistently being without food due to poverty, and having to discover for herself in a very difficult way that hunger was a painfully real issue. Food is essential to a growing child and while she may have grown accustomed to hunger pains, Francie was deprived of important nutrients. When the family did have food, it was often only bread or inexpensive meat; vegetables were not by any means a staple in the Nolan’s diet, causing their immune systems to suffer. In addition to this, Francie had to work rather than continue her education, because her family desperately needed money after her father’s death. Much of Francie’s young life revolved around school and her writing, making school very meaningful to her. The fact …show more content…

Poverty deeply impacted Francie’s experiences as she matured, as it prevented her from having the nourishment that she needed. Her womanhood also brought difficulties that men were not faced with, resulting in Francie’s agonizing realization that her world was a man’s world. Her need for love as she grew was also influenced, because her parents, in truth, were not the guardians that she required. However, when faced with challenges, she persevered, and eventually achieved her dream of attending college. Francie’s story is one to be admired, for her determination to succeed, despite having the world turned against

Show More
Related

  • Abram Auguste: Law School Personal Statement

    1157 Words  | 5 Pages

    Abram Auguste Law School Personal Statement I was awoken by the screech of tires, and the grisly thud and crunch of metal colliding. I have only experienced a few fender benders, but I woke to a different feeling. The time moved slow and sound amplified as the car flipped and went airborne over the guard rail lobbing thirty feet onto opposing traffic on the highway. As I lie distorted in the rear seat, a combination of blood and gasoline drenched my clothes and leaked down my flesh wounds.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Is The New Brooklyn Economy

    739 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Borough’s residents paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent” (Bonislawski, pg.2, pp.3) Due to the “remodeling” of Brooklyn, the rent has drastically gone up. This is a way of purposely chasing out the poor to make room for the “trendies”. With the belief of a new and better Brooklyn will lead to more money and better neighborhoods, it feels like those that were born in Brooklyn are being forced out of it. A new source of capitalism has taken place, a capitalism based off of the “hip and trendy” in order to draw in the more financially efficient. “Trying to evade, principles of development is economically futile” (Jacobs.chpter1.pg8, pp.1) it’s true that we can’t continue to evade the new development of a environment because it will lead to an economic

    Read More

  • Significance Of Francie Nolen In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

    942 Words  | 4 Pages

    Francie Nolan begins the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as an innocent young girl living with her mother, father, and younger brother, Neeley, in a tenament neighborhood of Williamsburg. Her bright, observant nature allows her to be joyful despite her family’s poverty and her father’s drinking. While Francie grows older in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, she “comes of age” through her increasingly trying experiences as she loses her childlike innocence, but gains immense strength in character and wisdom. The heroine’s childhood is littered with hardship that prominently contributes to her maturation and transition into adulthood.

    Read More

  • Summary Of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

    527 Words  | 3 Pages

    Unique Title Francie Nolan was a very special girl who went through a lot and still kept living her life normally. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, by Betty Smith is about a young girl named Francie and her family troubles. Her family troubles are very hard. Her father is a drunk and doesn't give her mother enough money to sustain them, so her mother also has to work. Her mother is beautiful and everyone in their neighborhood pity's her for have married Johnny Nolan (Francie father) and Francie has a lot going on with her family with just this, but there is more to the story.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

    135 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mary Frances “Francie” Noles is the main character of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn; a story about a poor second generation immigrant family living in Brooklyn during the early 1900s. Despite the fact Francie is a young child, she has been made to endure the hardships of living in extreme poverty. She is inquisitive, lonely, resourceful, curious, and honest. Francie’s endearing, childlike wonderment and compassion are contrasted perfectly by her analytical, wise-beyond-her-years perception of the world. Francie’s nativity protects her from the sadness and demoralizing conditions of tenement life, but the hardships she can understand are surmounted by her tremendous strength of will making her a likeable character.

    Read More

  • Octavia Butler Research Paper

    1027 Words  | 5 Pages

    Octavia Butler demonstrates that being educated is very important for survival then food, shelter, and safety, because an education can give you all of those things. When Lauren had to leave her home she had to depend on herself to survive. She is armed with a lot of information. She knows her city like the back of her hand and most importantly, where water is, and what plants she can eat and not eat. She learned all of this information from reading books from her father’s library.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

    729 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is also shown when Francie is able to “throw [the coffee] away rather than to drink it”(14). The mirage of wealth in both of these cases helps the Nolan family to remain steadfast in their daily life and in pursuit of a better one even if their situation is the complete opposite than what they

    Read More

  • God's Existence In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    When one is lost, God is the founder, but what happens when his presence is nowhere found. The novel of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith talks about a second generation Irish family who lives in a poor neighborhood that has a tree called The Tree of Heaven due to its growth in cement no matter if it watered or not. Throughout the novel the the topic of God’s nature being his holiness is addressed through the serious events that Francie and her family experience. God is known to be just, but in the novel he allowed Francie and her good family to suffer a lot. For example, Gods arms is whom everyone relies on to be safe, but where was God when this happened to Francie, “He slipped and the exposed part of his body touched her bare leg...

    Read More

  • Childhood In The Book Thief

    1252 Words  | 6 Pages

    For most people, childhood is a time that should be celebrated because of the bliss and innocence one experiences then. For others, it is the complete opposite. Childhood for those few can be described as being full of uncertainty and fear. In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak portrays Liesel’s childhood and adolescence as a time of tribulation and terror after being separated from her family, having to conform to a society she did not agree with, and living surrounded by war and violence. At only nine years of age, Liesel was separated from her biological family.

    Read More

  • Parental Influence In The Glass Castle

    1956 Words  | 8 Pages

    It is crucial to Jeanette’s development that she recognizes the need to be independent and to acknowledge the drive and determination required to succeed in life. Without the ability to persevere and push oneself past their fears, a person will inevitably fail, something Jeanette will not tolerate. In another example, while

    Read More

  • The Braddock Family In Cinderella Man

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many families suffered from economic hardships as well as emotional distress. Therefore the Braddock family overcame there challenges which are not having much to eat, not having money, and not having a place to live. To start with, one of the problems the Braddock family had was not having enough food to feed the whole family. For example, in

    Read More

  • Theme Of Greed In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

    1393 Words  | 6 Pages

    When people are poor, they often have a lot of problems in their life. They struggle through every day, but they learn to appreciate everything that they have. However, when people are going through tough times, they often think that money will solve all of their problems. In “A Raisin In The Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, she guides the audience through a black family -- impacted by the need for money -- living on the south side of Chicago. The Younger family gets Lena Younger’s dead husband’s insurance check and buys a house in a white neighborhood, and they save the remainder of the money for Beneatha’s medical degree and for starting a liquor store.

    Read More

  • Marxist Criticism In 'The Lesson'

    723 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marxist Criticism, specifically the Hegelian Dialectic is applicable in Bambara’s short story, “The Lesson”. Social class is predominant at the time “The Lesson” was written and the story focuses on the main character, Sylvia’s perception of her own class, the struggles that it brings and what she is then introduced to by Miss Moore. The Hegelian Dialect can be applied to this story as the transformation ensues within Sylvia upon her enlightenment of the difference in social classes. What appeared to be anger, frustration and resentment within Sylvia, undergoes a conversion into an upheaval curiosity of a newfound “culture”. Does the enlightenment occurring within Sylvia, present a new synthesis of which she uses as a platform for change?

    Read More

  • Brief Summary: The Tree In The Sky

    263 Words  | 2 Pages

    This drawing represents how Melinda was before she was raped and also represents the trauma and mistrust she has in people and the insecurity she has in herself after all the damage and problems she has had. The tree in the top represents the insecurity and the weakness Melinda has. The sky is a colored mixed by grey, dark blue and a little bit of black, the color grey means depression and boredom, the color dark blue means anxiety and the color black means fear, mystery and aggression. The tree is not in its natural color, it is a gray color that represents that it is dry and nobody pays attention to it and it is solitary, it does not have leaves and some branches are broken by the errors and problems that she has representing that no matter

    Read More

  • Crooked Tree: A Short Story

    227 Words  | 1 Pages

    One of the regular vendors who walked along the trail, once in the morning and once at dusk, was a local girl of 15 named Taize - known as the “cashew girl” - for that nut was all she sold, carrying a wide tray full of packages on her head. From the time I arrived, she had greeted me with a wide, happy smile, and strove to walk at my side whenever possible; however I never gave her much thought. Today, because of the slippery and muddy conditions due to the recent rains, she toted her cargo with an unusually cautious stride. For the reason that this morning I had not seen a human being on the ground except Ricardo, as usual, which his master considers a four-legged humanoid - and probably spent the night enduring the storm under my lounge chair - I walked slowly by the girl’s side, which obviously made her blistering happy.

    Read More

More about A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Essay

Open Document