A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

by Betty Smith

TW: racism, antisemitism, sexual assault, alcoholism, and death of parent

“An American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century”

At eleven years old, Francie Nolan lives with her parents, Katie and Johnny,  and younger brother, Neeley, in a grouping of tenement houses in Brooklyn, New York. The year is 1912 and she’s surrounded by noisy neighbors, her family, and everything a burgeoning teen dreams and worries about. The story follows her as she grows from child to adult, her first days at school to her last; through grief, laughter, and journeys through the city. 

Like other classic Bildungsroman novels, there’s a sense of growth and kinship with Francie. “It is nothing less than a portrait of the artist as a young girl, and Smith set out not only to record a young life but to show where a writer's ambition and will come from”, Robert Cornfield said in a review. I push back on his assumption that all the book is, is a “portrait” of herself. Certainly, there are many similarities between the author's life and the novel, but that’s not all it is. And certainly, we can’t attribute everything of Francie to Betty Smith, or vice versa. 

What I do agree with in his statement is this part: “Smith set out not only to record a young life but to show where a writer's ambition and will come from.” A Tree Grows in Brooklyn gives us a glimpse at life for this family of over 100 years ago. There are so many small moments, family traditions around holidays and ways the family got by in times of financial struggle that are, in Cornfield’s words, almost a ‘record’ to Francie’s life. 

While the story follows her, it also follows a cast of characters around her. It feels like a series of vignettes. Reading this gave me the feeling I get when walking through an antique shop. As my hands pick up different objects, I begin to wonder who’s selling them and the stories behind them. There are so many threads that wind their way through the story. Life is a struggle, it can be difficult at times and full of dark moments, but there’s also hope, and laughter. There’s always a sliver of brightness to cast the shadows out. 

Some reviews I read deemed these vignettes as negative. That they weighed the book down with unnecessary story, but I found the opposite. These glimpses into other people’s lives, like Katie’s youth, created such a dynamic, emotional connection. 

This, I think, is the strength of the book. Cornfield puts it this way, “It gives the detail that illuminates the past -- the coffee pot, the air shaft, the barber's cup, and chalking strangers on Halloween. But it is the book's emotional life that has kept it in print.” That emotional life, our insights into the lives of the character’s and the real detail in that, connect us through the decades.

Francie and her family are not extraordinary. They don’t cure diseases or have superpowers, but they do have characteristics that we all strive to have: determination, grit, ambition, kindness, and love. These are what we take from the book and what makes it a book that’s been read for almost a century. 

One example of this is the use of song. The Nolans are oftentimes without financial security. Everyone who can, must work and their meals and hobbies are impacted by a lack of money. Songs, though, are free. It brings their family together, it gives Johnny his job and happiness, it builds communities between the children. 

This book also contains many examples of racism, antisemitism, and misogyny. It’s an ever present aspect of the novel so I felt it best to mention here as well.  

Out of many classics I’ve read, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is easy comparatively to read. The prose isn’t difficult to digest and the topics, while complex are filtered through Francie’s point of view.

Further reading: 

I think Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a great read, similar in that it's about sweeping family stories. 

Quotes: 

“She was made up of more, too. She was the books she read in the library. She was the flower in the brown bowl. Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with her brother whom she loved dearly. She was Katie's secret, despairing weeping. She was the shame of her father stumbling home drunk. She was all of these things and of something more...It was what God or whatever is His equivalent puts into each soul that is given life - the one different thing such as that which makes no two fingerprints on the face of the earth alike.” 

“And that's where the whole trouble is. We're too much alike to understand each other because we don't even understand our own selves.” 

“There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly . . . survives without sun, water, and seemingly without earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it.” 

“Katie had a fierce desire for survival which made her a fighter. Johnny had a hankering after immortality which made him a useless dreamer. And that was the great difference between these two who loved each other so well.” 

“In their secret hearts, each knew that it wasn’t all right and would never be all right between them again.”