Research Paper On A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Betty Smith, the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 15, 1896. As a child, she was an avid writer, and in eighth grade, she received her first “A” on a writing composition for school, leading her to aspire to become a writer. Betty Smith’s family was poor growing up and had few resources. Like Francie Nolan, the main character of her novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith grew up in Williamsburg and her father had an alcohol addiction. In Williamsburg, where Betty Smith grew up, she says, “‘Williamsburg was a poor and sordid neighborhood’...‘but picturesque….with children of Irish, German, Italian, and Jewish immigrants. We all fought to retain our…speech patterns…A cohesive Brooklyn accent resulted”’

Nancy Pfeiffer, Betty’s daughter, when interviewed about her mother, describes Smith as “a feminist back in the 1920s and ‘30s before the movement even developed. She didn’t get on a soapbox and talk about it. She lived it and she wrote it” (Pfeiffer 6). Some of her works with feminist undertones included “heroic women like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Narcissa Whitman, [and] women’s issues like abortion” (Pfeiffer 6). When asked about why she decided to write A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith had different answers for different people. In a conversation with her mother, she says that “‘It started when I was eight years old. I was playing in one of those Brooklyn streets one sunny afternoon and I saw a group of right-minded housewives throw stones at a mother who wasn’t married. I grew up wanting to protest in some way against intolerance. So you see, Mama, the beginning of this novel really started when, as a child, I began to notice the world of Brooklyn around me’” (Jasmine 2018). In addition to her conversation about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with her mom, Smith “was always altering incidents to make them into stories. She couldn’t help it. She often said about “Tree” that she didn’t write it the way it was, but the way it should have been”(Pfeiffer 11-12).

“‘Maybe,’ thought Francie, ‘she doesn’t love me as much as she loves Neeley. But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better’ (Smith 330). “‘No I don’t want to need anybody. I want someone to need me… I want someone to need me.’ She wept again, but not so hard this time” (Smith 464). Francie also lost her father, the man (and person) that cared most deeply for her. The loss of Johnny sent Francie into a deep spiral where she was seeing the world through a very dark lens, and only focusing on the negative, grim parts of life. Her writing became darker and her play, which she was so proud of, was replaced with one that was less real, and the one thing that helped her cope with her father’s death, writing, was criticized because it was too unhappy. “After our little talk you can see why we can’t use your play for graduation.’ ‘I see.’ Francie’s heart all but broke” (Smith 321). Francie could not win, she was always overshadowed by those around her, and it began to get to her. She longed for someone, for anyone to care for her as much as she cared for those around her, and it started to deeply affect her