A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Pgs 388-493)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Blogpost #5

            It was Christmas again and a year had passed since Johnny’s death. Since they had a bit more money, they went to buy Christmas presents for each other. After that, the Nolan family went to church and prayed for the repose of Johnny’s soul. Soon after, it was the beginning of 1917 and on the roof with Neely, Francie had some thoughts. She said that even though she loved her family, she had wanted somebody to love her in a different way. In the New Year, the Nolans became accustom to their new routine after Johnny’s death. While talking with Katie, Francie stated that she had disapproved with Neely’s shows in the saloons, which included playing the piano. A few months after, people were scared of the upcoming war and Francie, reading newspapers as her job, was asked by her mother if the war had started yet. Then on April 6^th, 1917, Francie read the title of a newspaper. The war had started and Francie, gathering certain objects, placed them in an envelope as a remembrance of that day. Since Francie’s boss fired everyone except her, he, his wife, and Francie tried to run the business alone. Soon, Francie was put off work and she went searching for a new job. Since Francie lost her job and the new school year was coming up, Katie began to worry about how she’ll send her two children to school. Francie took up a new job and became a typist; she thought that it was amazing that she could type something and people thousands of miles away would receive it. Francie’s job was during the night and Katie thought of a plan. Francie could still work at night and go to school during the day, but Francie refused. Even though she had fought for her education last year, now she reused to go to high school. Then Francie thought of something; she thought that if she could do that for college instead of high school, it would be possible. She went to a summer college and took classes. There, she met a guy named Ben, who was a honorable student and had his life planned out already. They befriended each other and Francie soon fell in love with him. Ben was 4 years older than Francie and Ben confessed that he liked her. When the summer education ended, Ben left but he promised that if she wrote that she needed him, he would be there. Then time pasted and by the beginning of 1918, Francie thought of her father, who she had not remembered in a long time. In the spring, Francie met a solider named Lee Rhynor and Francie soon fell madly in love with the man. The way she had felt about Ben was ‘like’ and the way she felt about Lee was ‘love’. Lee had to go back to his home before his unit leaves and before they separated, Francie had promised to devote herself to him. When she received a letter a few days later from his mother, Francie discovered that she was used and played by Lee, and that Lee had married someone else. Francie was saddened by this and thought that wants somebody to need her, not the other way around since her heart was broken. The next day, Officer McShane came over for dinner. He was an officer and long ago when Francie was little, he had asked her if Katie was her mother. Throughout the novel, he would show up and think to himself that he would marry Katie. He came over and proposed to Katie, who accepted not only because he was rich, but that she needed a man at night. At the end of Book 4, Neely and Francie talked about how they pity Laurie because she would grow up with money and that she couldn’t experience the fun times they did when they were growing up. Francie was soon leaving her job secretly and next week, she would be going to a college in Michigan, thanks to Ben’s tutoring. Ben had proposed to Francie but said that in four years he would receive her answer since she was still young. On Francie’s last Saturday, she visited all the old places that she had went to when she was younger. As Francie was packing for college, she went through all of the stuff she was going to pack. Then, when Neely asked Francie to iron a shirt, Francie saw how alike he was to Johnny. Then, the novel concludes with Francie saying bye to her younger self as she is about to leave her home.

“How do I look, Prima Donna?” (Smith 490).

I chose this quote as my last quote for this novel because while reading this part, I became emotional. In the beginning when Johnny was still alive, I remember reading about Francie, a thin little girl, ironing her father’s shirt before he left to do his job. While reading this scene with Neely and Francie, I saw also saw how similar Neely was to Johnny. In this scene, Francie, who is much older now, is doing the same action as she was doing for her father long ago, but now for Neely. When Neely asked Francie that question above, I remembered about the scene with Johnny and Francie long ago and how now this must have been very nostalgic to her. Also, Johnny would call Francie ‘Prima Donna’ as a nickname and here Neely is doing the same.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Pgs 294-388)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Blogpost #4

            After Johnny’s death, the Nolan family was numb with his loss. They forgot about Christmas and Neely’s birthday; ever since the funeral, Francie and Neely haven’t shed a tear. As they were wandering around in the streets, they let their feeling out and return home. When they came home, Katie announced to them that she was going to be both their mother and father. Katie, though she didn’t admit it to anyone, was lonely without Johnny because he would always provide some amount of money or food that would keep the family going. Now that he wasn’t there anymore, Katie had trouble because the job she was doing wasn’t enough. Katie allowed Francie and Neely to work for a bartender that was familiar with Johnny. When they baby was born, she was named Annie Laurie, or Laurie as she was called; she was named after one of the songs Johnny used to sing. Before Laurie was born, Francie was writing a play for her graduation. What she wrote about was what her English teacher called ‘ugliness’ because it was about the truth about man, poverty, hunger, and all the depressing topics. Francie didn’t understand why her writing was ugly and told her to burn them, while chanting ‘I’m burning ugliness’. When Francie did go home, she wrote some more about a rich spoiled girl who asked for fancy desserts. When Francie realized that she had just written about hunger in a twisted way, she burned all of her writing. After Laurie was born, Francie’s and Neely’s graduations were coming up. Since Katie was going to Neely’s, she wasn’t going to Francie so Sissy went instead. Francie, expecting no flowers on her desk for her graduation, was surprised that she found a bundle of roses from her dead father. A year ago, Johnny had told Sissy to remind him to send flowers for Francie’s graduation, in case he had forgotten. Francie broken into tears. After their graduation, Francie and Neely went to work, even though they were underage. They brought home their paychecks and presented it to Katie, who quietly shed tears of happiness for the extra cash. Six months later, Francie was laid off and she went job hunting. She was hired at the Model Press Clipping Bureau, where her job was to file out papers. Later, Francie’s job was to read and mark big time newspapers. When the school year was near, Francie asked her mother if she could continue her education. Katie had decided that Neely, who doesn’t want to, was to go back and Francie would keep working, which caused a disruption between mother and daughter. Even after Francie had apologized, they knew that their relationship wasn’t going back to the way it was before.

           

            “They had no one in all the world but Mama” (Smith 329).

            I chose this quote because what Francie was thinking to herself during this part made me very emotional. Francie was thinking in fragments about what would happen to her and Neely if their mother was gone and after that Francie began to frantically apologize to God. Before, Francie had told Neely that she didn’t believe in God since he took Johnny, who didn’t do anything wrong in her eyes. Now she was praying to God and begging him not to harm or take away Katie since without her, Francie and Neely couldn’t survive in the world. While reading this, I became caught up in her emotions that I even I started became hysterical in a teary way, not a hysterical terror way like Francie.  

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Pgs 195-293)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Blogspot #3

            Around Thanksgiving time, Francie did a few things: she told a lie, was found out, and discovered that she had a talent for writing. Her teacher learned that Francie was lying for her own selfish sake and told her to write down her imagination to separate it from reality; Francie did and discovered that she wanted to be a writer when she grows up. On the night of Christmas Eve, the poor children in the neighborhood go to the Christmas tree shop and there, the store owner throws unwanted trees to kids, where they stand and catch it; if they succeeded, they keep it and if they don’t then they don’t. Francie and Neeley both tried to catch the grandest tree there, which they achieve and dragged it home. Everyone in the building was surprised and they joined in with Johnny’s choir. Katie, watching all of this happened, thought about the future and how she doesn’t want her children to turn out like them and that an education is the key to not becoming in the place they were now. Katie thought about Francie and how she’s growing up and distancing herself away from her mother, how she might find out Katie’s affection towards Neeley more, and how Francie doesn’t understand Katie. This entire thought process she thought of when her family was merrily dragging the Christmas tree up to their flat.

            Between Francie’s 11^th and 12^th birthdays, Francie noticed that she was growing up. She was looking past the little white lies her parents would tell to her and Neeley and her view was beginning to change. During the summer, Johnny had the notion that his children should love the sea and he took them and a neighbor’s child along to go fishing. The trip ended in disasters because the children became sick, the bought fish turned rotten and the neighbor didn’t understand Johnny’s idea and yelled at him. Ever since Francie found out she like writing, she kept a diary. She wrote about how she would never befriend a woman after she saw an incident with the neighborhood women. They were gossiping about a 17 year old single mother and how she shouldn’t stroll about with her child. Katie told Francie that she should be an example to her but Francie didn’t think like her mother and believed that women were devils. Francie wrote in her diary up to the fall and in the entries, she mentions her dad coming home quite a lot because he was sick. In her last entry she wrote a questioned asking if she was curious about sex, but then answered it with a yes. A sex crazed was going around with students in their school. They were curious about it and when Francie asked Katie about it, Katie told her; Francie was one of the lucky students that were told the truth, instead of having to go and test it out for herself.

            There was a rapist going around the neighborhood around this time and he killed a little girl down the streets. Parents protectively watched their children come home and the streets were quiet. When time went by without any trouble, the pervert struck again. He was about to attack Francie but Katie wounded him with a pistol. Francie wasn’t hurt but was given medicine to make her numb and she was told that it was all a dream, which she fell into believing. Sissy, Francie’s aunt, had wanted a baby terribly but her child was unable to survive for long so she came up with a plan. She heard about a family that was ashamed of their pregnant daughter; Sissy offered to take the baby after he/she has been born and she tricked her husband. Since there was no evidence that it wasn’t Sissy’s baby and since she stuck with it, everyone just believed her.

            Francie had a habit that she couldn’t go to sleep unless she was sure that her father, singing when he walks through the door, was safely home. When he did come home, he was singing the last verse of a song, in which he never sang before, which was about a death. Francie knew that her father wasn’t drunk but for some reason, she cried that night. When it was Christmas again, Katie was playing the piano and the children were eating their dinner; the atmosphere was tender but it changed when Johnny came home without singing. He started shouting how he hated how he hadn’t touch alcohol in a long time, and how he lost his job. Johnny died three days later. The first day he left, the second day he didn’t come home and everyone started looking for him. The third day, Katie was called to the hospital and saw that Johnny had contracted pneumonia. Katie used the money in the tin-can bank to buy a plot of land for the grave and on the death certificate, Katie told the doctor to write down pneumonia for the cause of death only, not including that alcohol was involved. After the funeral was done and the Nolans arrived back home, Katie started crying and Sissy tried to calm her down, saying that it wasn’t good for the unborn child, meaning that Katie is pregnant again.

“We’ll not have Johnny with us long” (Smith 208).

            I chose this quote because when I read it, I could interpret that Johnny was going to die soon. This also brought me back to a quote before, on page 123, “Francie didn’t notice that he said my last home instead of our last home” (Smith 123). When I also read this the first time, I didn’t fully understand what Johnny meant by this and ponder over this quote for a few minutes, but with no lead. As I read further into the novel, I began to think that something was going to happen to Johnny and it was confirmed by this quote. Even before in Francie’s diary, when she said Johnny kept being sick, my hypothesis grew stronger. Now I was sure Johnny was going to die and he did past away.