A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Character Analysis

Being a child can be a piece of cake since there is usually nothing to worry and stress about. Children have no exposure to the brutal world. They only know what it’s like to be a minor as they remain in their small bubble of innocence. Education may not seem like an important and crucial matter for an eleven-year-old. Generally, they recieve all the love from their family. In Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie’s, the protagonist, coming of age story demonstrates her discovery on a few issues about adulthood through 6 years of her life. Specific themes- loss of innocence, importance of education, and desperate for love- all teach her about the responsibilities and reality of adulthood as she develops into a mature form of herself.

Francie starts off with an childlike perspective on life because of her lack of experience on dealing with mature topics. Not to mention, Francie was once a ittle girl who found delightment collecting metal and receiving pennies from it. Nevertheless, as she became more accustomed to the reality and responsibilities of an adult life, she lost her sense of innocence. As a child Francie was unaware of the impoverished life her family lived and the struggle her mother faced to put food on the table everyday. Francie’s mom, Katie pretended that she never had a problem with feeding the family and because of this Francie accepts the fact that starvation was normal. However, one day Francie lost her sense of innocence when the doctor who gave her the vaccine shot described her as, “Filth, filth, filth, from morning to night. I know they’re poor but they could wash. Water is free and soap is cheap. Just look at that arm” (Smith 146) and right then she realized her muddy, dirty hands were not normal. Francie loses her mother’s trust when she realized that moment her mother had lied to her all this time about the penurish life of her family. The distrust she had in her mother depicts her loss of innocence since guiltless, young children usually rely on their mother’s trust more than anything. The new concept she learned that day was only poor people apparently had muddy hands and apparently her mother wasn’t always telling her the truth. Another moment that signifies Francie’s shift to adulthood was when she experienced sexual violence herself. She then comprehended the cruelty that lives within the minds of adults around her as one day a rapist-murder nearly made her a victim of sexual harassment. Francie experienced this horrific event and “stared at the exposed part of his body in paralyzed horror” (255) and right then she underwent something no child should. She then found out