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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

 Betty Smith
 

Key Facts

 
full title ·  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
 
author · Betty Smith
 
type of work · Novel
 
genre · Bildungsroman (novel about the moral development of the main character); a coming of age novel
 
language · English
 
time and place written · Chapel Hill, North Carolina, early 1940's
 
date of first publication · 1943
 
publisher · Harper & Brothers
 
narrator · Omniscient
 
climax · Sergeant McShane asks Katie Nolan to marry him.
 
protagonist · Francie Nolan
 
antagonist · Poverty
 
setting (time) · Between 1900 and 1918
 
setting (place) · Williamsburg, Brooklyn
 
point of view · Omniscient
 
falling action · The Nolans move out of their home and get ready for the wedding. Francie says good-bye to Brooklyn before she leaves for college.
 
tense · Past
 
foreshadowing · There are more instances than can be listed. Henny's death foreshadows Johnny's. Katie's ability to read and write, unlike her mother, foreshadows that Francie will gain a higher level of education than Katie. The scene at the Mattie Mahoney picnic foreshadows the marriage of Katie and McShane.
 
tone · Mostly sympathetic toward the characters, sometimes childlike or contemplative
 
themes · Poverty and class issues; education; gender and sex; perseverance through hardship; ethnic and religious identity
 
motifs · Fall from innocence; American dream; Songs and singing
 
symbols · The Tree of Heaven
 
 
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