A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The day after the funeral, Katie sends Neeley and Francie on a walk. On their walk, they see a sign that reminds them of their father, and both start to cry. Francie expresses her bitterness that God did not save Johnny. She tells Neeley she believes in Jesus but not God, which makes Neeley uncomfortable. Back at home, Katie treats them to hot chocolate and marshmallows and then has them all read from the Bible together. They all think about Johnny but do not voice their thoughts out loud. At the end of the night, Katie is uncharacteristically affectionate, kissing the children and announcing, “From now on […] I am your mother and your father” (299).

Katie must work more jobs than ever to keep the family afloat, but she refuses to let Francie quit school, even when Francie offers. As time wears on, however, Katie loses many of these occupations because she is pregnant. There is an eight-week period in which she can’t find any way to support them, so she confers with her sisters to work out a plan. They both suggest Francie quit school and go to work. Before Katie has to take them up on this idea, though, the saloon owner, McGarrity, whom Johnny was close with, steps in and offers Francie and Neeley jobs working for him after school. Francie and Neeley accept his kind offer, happy to have found someone who adores their father. The work for McGarrity is easy, but he keeps hovering over them, trying to get them to talk to him like Johnny once did. This causes consternation in Francie and Neeley, who can’t tell what he wants from them.

Just before Katie gives birth, Katie and Francie visit Katie’s mother, who is now living at Sissy’s. While they are there, Katie’s mother insists Johnny has been helping them from the other side of the grave through McGarrity, an idea Francie very much likes. Francie holds Sissy’s new baby and notices that Sissy isn’t wearing her usual perfume. She points this out to Katie, who says Sissy doesn’t need the perfume any more now that she has a family. Francie tries to make sense of this, but she starts to get a headache. She blames the headache on “life,” which Katie says is “silly” given the cloistering climate of Sissy’s kitchen, a comment that makes Francie laugh for the first time since her father died (318).

Francie and Neeley are confirmed by the church. At school, Francie is reprimanded for writing about “ugly subjects” such as her father and told to write from her imagination, not from her experience. The teacher tells her to focus on beauty and says that poor people aren’t beautiful, they are “lazy.” She then tells Francie she won’t be using the play Francie has been working so hard on to be performed at graduation, explaining that it has too many ugly parts. She asks Francie if she would like to write a play using someone else’s idea, but Francie does not want to. Her teacher then tells her to put an end to her “sordid” stories. Francie is unsure what this term means, so she looks up it. When she realizes what the definition of sordid is, she gets mad and tells her teacher not to use that word to describe her family. The teacher reads this as insubordination, causing Francie to back down and beg forgiveness. The teacher forgives Francie but tells her she must burn all of her recent work. Francie tries to follow her teacher’s advice and begins writing a novel about a rich version of Francie. She quickly becomes disgusted with it, however, and decides to take her teacher up on another of her suggestions—to burn her work. Francie burns the work her teacher loved, however, instead of the stories about her father.

After the burning, Francie becomes “hysterical” thinking that her mother might die in childbirth, leaving Francie and Neeley with nothing (329). She compulsively seeks out Katie, hoping to find her alive and cleaning. After what seems like an interminable search, Francie finds Katie working at one of her jobs. Francie demands to know if Katie thinks Francie and Neeley are equally attractive, which exasperates Katie, who is very far along in her pregnancy and still working very hard. She asks Francie to go easy on her and then tells Francie she needs to make some girlfriends. Francie says she “hate(s) women,” and Katie says she does, too, but that doesn’t make it right for Francie to be so lonesome all the time. Katie then mentions Francie’s writing, but Francie quickly informs her she has quit that pursuit. Katie suspects that something bad happened at school, and she asks Francie if she got a bad grade. Francie denies this and then says she has to go work for McGarrity. Katie stops her and asks Francie to help her carry the cleaning supplies home. She tells Francie she needs her to “stay close” over the next few weeks so that she can be on hand when the baby comes. Being “needed” by Katie makes Francie happy. 

As the arrival of the new Nolan gets closer, Francie starts having to miss school and work to help Katie around the house. Neeley takes over her duties at McGarrity’s so they don’t have to lose any more income. Katie tells Francie that a woman should never allow a man in the room while she is giving birth, as the experience might lead him to be “unfaithful.” Francie agrees, not realizing her mother is trying to compensate for the absence of Johnny. Katie has Francie gather an overnight bag for Neeley, and Francie gives it to Neeley as soon as she sees him approaching. She tells him to go to Evy’s to spend the night so his mother can give birth without the presence of men, and to send Evy in his place. When Francie gets back from giving her brother directions, Katie is sweaty and bloody. She asks Francie to read some of her writings to her, but Francie admits she burned them all. Katie tells her she feels guilty for having missed the chance to read them, but Francie assures her mother it’s okay. She then recites Shakespeare to Katie, as she is too ashamed to share the stories she wrote about Johnny.

To Francie’s great relief, Evy then shows up to help care for Katie. Not long after Sissy arrives, the women decide to save their money and birth the baby themselves. They close Francie out of the birthing room, and Francie falls asleep. She is awoken by Evy demanding she go into town for some items her mother needs. Francie tries to protest, but Evy is insistent. As she is leaving, Francie can hear her mother scream and decides she is happy to have been sent out on an errand. When she gets back, the baby has been born, and Francie realizes she was duped into leaving so she wouldn’t witness the childbirth. She learns that this was Katie’s wish, so she lets it go and holds the new healthy baby girl. She then feeds Katie some crackers, thinking that her mother already looks much healthier than she did a few hours ago. Katie then has her get the family Bible so Francie can record the birth of the baby, whom Katie names Annie Laurie after one of Johnny’s favorite songs.