84 pages • 2 hours read
Betty SmithA Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1943A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Trees
A Tree in Brooklyn includes several references to trees and leaves, most of which connote perseverance. In the opening of the novel, 11-year-old Francie is outside her flat on the fire escape, fixated on the “one tree” in her yard. The tree is of a type that “grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps,” and Francie admires the tree’s “struggle” (6). The struggle of the tree parallels aspects of Francie’s own life. Born in a lower-class tenement in New York City, Francie receives about as much physical nourishment as this lone tree. Like the tree, however, she perseveres despite her surroundings. Although her family has little money, she finds ways to move forward in life and to be successful.
Katie comments at one point that her “children will be strong” like a tree is strong—“because its hard struggle to live is making it strong” (95). Francie becomes tough because she must deal with so many predatory adults and judgmental peers, and because she often has to fight off physical hunger. The neighbors’ belief that the tree should be cut down also parallels Francie’s experience with the doctor telling her she should be sterilized.
Leaves also take on a special significance for Francie after Sissy tells her she is “trembling like a leaf” (155), an expression that makes her think about the tree in the yard. Later on, she requests Katie sing “Little Leaves” to her and Neeley, as she seems set on identifying as a leaf rather than as a tree, a choice that bespeaks her loneliness and her constant desire to be a part of something larger.
The Bowl at the Library
Throughout this novel, Francie is intrigued and greatly affected by her physical surroundings. As such, a simple decoration like a decorative bowl at the library, which would have no significance to most passersby, holds great significance to her. The bowl, which described as “a little golden-brown pottery jug at the edge of the librarian’s desk,” comes to represent possibility for her (23). The jug’s contents change with the season: holly at Christmas, “a few sprigs of bittersweet” in fall (23).
The changing contents of the bowl fill Francie with hope for a better life and keep her from feeling trapped in a meaningless existence. As long as the bowl can continually be refreshed and filled with joy, so can she. She is especially happy when an unexpected plant appears, such as one summer when nasturtiums are placed in it. This shows Francie’s love for change, something readers also experience in Francie’s desire to frequently change professions and her need to read a new book each day. Francie eventually realizes what that bowl means to her, and as a teenager she thanks the librarian by saying, “I just want to say about that brown bowl…what it has meant to me…the flower always in it” (486). The fact that the bowl always stayed full and fresh gives Francie the confidence she needs to see herself as capable of this same regeneration.
Roller Skates
Roller skates appear a few times throughout this novel, always as a symbol of Francie’s seemingly unattainable freedom. The first time Francie mentions roller skates, she is with her brother at Cheap Charlie’s penny candy store, describing all the possible prizes that she and the other children might win in the penny lottery. One of the most lusted-after prizes, which no one ever won, was a pair of roller skates. The roller skate wheels are rusted and hanging just out of reach. To Francie, the skates represent motion, freedom, and the ability to glide away from her problems. The fact that they are rusty indicates to Francie that even freedom isn’t perfect, but this does not stop her from wanting to obtain them.
The next pair of roller skates that catch Francie’s attention are a pair she sees hanging in Gabriel’s Hardware Store when she is walking with her father. She and her father stop to admire the skates, something Francie realizes Katie would never do: Johnny is a dreamer, and Katie is much more realistic; Johnny thinks it valuable to imagine freedom, whereas Katie just sees it as a distraction. Johnny “talked as though he would buy Francie a pair one day” (38). This reflects Francie’s relationship with her father: He was constantly trying to find some way to deliver her to freedom, but he never could get beyond talking about it, just like he never gets past looking at the roller skates in the window. Francie also sees a pair of roller skates while she is window shopping one Christmas, but this pair is so gilded that Francie gets “dizzy” just looking at it—calling to mind the way too much freedom can sometimes overwhelm and confuse.
