Francie admires him because he is handsome, talented, imaginative, and sentimental, as she is. His alcoholism has made it difficult for him to hold a steady job, and he sees himself as a disappointment to his family as a result. 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. Francie relies on her imagination and her love of reading to provide a temporary escape from the poverty that defines her daily existence.

The novel is split into five 'books', each covering a different period in the characters' lives.īook 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 main metaphor of the book is the hardy Tree of Heaven, whose persistent ability to grow and flourish even in the inner city mirrors the protagonist's desire to better herself. A surge of confidence has swept through me, and I feel that maybe a fellow has a fighting chance in this world after all.' One Marine wrote to Smith, 'I can't explain the emotional reaction that took place in this dead heart of mine. It was also released in an Armed Services Edition, the size of a mass-market paperback, to fit in a uniform pocket. The manuscript started as a non-fiction piece titled They Lived in Brooklyn but was reclassified as a novel with the title we now know and became hugely popular from the very first printing. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1943 semi-autobiographical novel written by Betty Smith.

Smith betty a tree grows in brooklyn