A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Essay Sample

Poverty is defined as the want of nutrient. shelter. money and vesture that occurs when people can non fulfill their basic demands. It means insecurity. impotence and exclusion of persons. families and communities. It means exposure to force. and it frequently implies populating in delicate environments. without entree to clean H2O or sanitation. In short poorness is merely a deficiency of money. a barrier to mundane life. One tierce of deceases in the universe are due to poverty related causes.

Poverty is a large job in America. I personally have ne’er had to see the adversities that poverty brings people. That doesn’t mean I don’t know what it can make to households. Poverty can either do or interrupt a household. It can coerce closer and helps them happen the strength to transport on. or it can rupture them apart by doing statements about money and nutrient.

Poverty is a cardinal constituent in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. In this fresh characters invariably think about how hapless they are. They are ever believing about how they will but their following loaf of staff of life. or what one vicinity looks like compared to another. Every activity and game is planned around a limited sum of resources. The chief characters aren’t the lone people traveling through adversities in the novel. The whole community has to confront what the Nolan’s are confronting. Children are forced to roll up refuse off the streets and sell it. After the kids have collected their pennies shop proprietors take advantage of them. They sell them confect and hold them play games that they will ne’er win. The games are ever rigged so that the kids won’t win and the shop proprietors will maintain doing money. The Nolan kids are better than most when it comes to salvaging money. Neeley and Francie would divide the money in the most just manner they could. Neeley was in charge of the money though. “‘Eight cents for the bank. ’ That was the regulation ; half of the money they got from anywhere went into the Sn can. ‘And four cents for you and four cents for me’” ( Smith p 8-9 ) . No affair how hard they tried poorness followed them everyplace they went.

Journal Entry # 2- Chapter 11-20: Education:
Education can be formal or informal. Formal instruction is a signifier of acquisition in which cognition. accomplishments. and wonts of a group of people are transferred from one coevals to the following through learning. preparation. or research. Informal acquisition is used to depict acquisition that is done independently.

At a immature age. instruction was the worst thing in the universe for me. As I got older instruction became so much more than that. Education has ever been a large portion of my life. I was ever pushed to make better and better when it came to classs in school. I’m really thankful for that because now if you don’t have an instruction you don’t hold a occupation.

Johnny and Katie had wholly different personalities. but when it came to instruction they had the same positions. Francie and Neeley both had the chance to acquire an instruction. In the novel you can clearly see that Francie was more aroused for school. “School say were anticipated by Francie” ( p142 ) . School wasn’t anything that Francie thought it would be. Francie would ne’er be a teacher’s pet. Merely the misss with newly curled hair and new silk hair bows would acquire that privilege. The school was really full as good. Three 1000 kids crowded into a school that was supposed to be for one 1000. The instructors weren’t qualified and were really average. The cruelest instructors were the 1s that came from the same country that the kids did. Not all of their instructors were atrocious though. There were those occasional nice instructors. but they ne’er lasted long. Francie liked school despite all of the beastliness. inhuman treatment. and unhappiness.

Their instruction wasn’t merely larning arithmetic. they besides took piano lessons with Miss Lizzie and Maggie Tynmore. Katie besides took lessons from the Tynmores. Francie and Neeley ne’er truly paid attending. but Katie was really interested in larning. After every lesson with the Tynmores Katie would learn the kids what she had been taught. Piano lessons were the lone type of lessons that Francie didn’t enjoy.

Journal Entry # 3- Chapter 21-30: Gender:
Even now. in the twenty-first century. it’s still a male dominated universe. Depending on what gender you are. it can hold a large impact on your life. It’s been shown that adult female make 17 % less than their male opposite number. There will ever be that small spot of history that says males were one time considered better than adult females. and that will ne’er travel off.

Gender function is a set of societal and behavioural norms that are considered appropriate for a adult male and adult female in a relationship. Society was one time based on work forces conveying place the money and the adult female taking attention of the place. but in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn it’s wholly different. Katie was the strong 1 who made most of the money. while Johnny was a rummy. Aunt Evy was the strong one while Uncle Flittman was an idiot. Francie was really smart and strived to be better while Neeley didn’t truly care. but Neeley was still the favourite.

Gender favoritism was showed in multiple ways during the novel. Whether it was when it came to who brought place the money or who got to travel to school. Francie wasn’t allowed to travel to high school while Neeley was. Francie was the 1 who really wanted to travel while Neeley was apathetic. Even in the beginning of the fresh Francie couldn’t go into Cheap Charlie’s because it was a boys merely shop. There were “good” homemakers in the novel. They are described as. “The good homemakers. their weaponries filled with bags of veggies and brown paper packages of meat” ( p232 ) . These adult female were considered good because they stayed place and took attention of their kids. Most of the other adult female went out and worked alternatively of remaining place. wholly ignoring what the norm was. The manner that these adult female were working the norm meant nil to them.

Gender roles played a immense function in this novel. Katie and Francie wholly disregarded the gender functions and did something with their lives. They didn’t wait around for a adult male to come and make all of the work for them. They worked difficult to acquire what they needed and finally they did.

Journal Entry # 4- Chapter 31-40: Doggedness:
Doggedness is the continued attempt to make or accomplish something despite troubles. failure. or resistance. Doggedness is decidedly an of import portion in every human’s life. Without doggedness most of the universe would be hapless and homeless.

Doggedness has helped me and everyone around me in so many ways. If my parents hadn’t persevered I likely wouldn’t have been where I am now. I would’ve been populating in Africa. and likely wouldn’t have the chances that I have now. If I hadn’t persevered I wouldn’t have even been in this English category. My doggedness has led me to bigger and better things. Persevering through all of my jobs I’ve acquire chances that most people don’t have.

The Rommely adult female were considered the strongest in this novel. When Francie was born sick she persevered and her female parent ne’er doubted her. When Katie had her kids she merely became stronger. Sissy tried every bit difficult as she could to hold a kid. She when through three hubbies and 10s still born kids. Her hubby John didn’t want to follow though. When Sissy asked him if he loved kids he replied. “Sure I like kids. But they got to be my ain and non some other bum’s” ( p265 ) . Sissy finally tricked her John into believing that Lucia’s kid was her ain. Even though Sissy eventually had her a kid she wanted one of her ain. She went against the norm and went to a infirmary to acquire aid from a physician. Not merely a physician. but a Judaic physician. Katie was surprised that Sissy would make that. but after 10 abortive kids. Sissy eventually had a kid of her ain. No affair how many stillborns Sissy had she wouldn’t give up. Sissy was one of the best illustrations of doggedness in this novel. She tried every bit difficult as she could to hold a kid of her ain. Feigning that Lucia’s kid was hers wasn’t plenty for her. She had to hold a kid of her ain and that thrust got her what she wanted. Sissy had a babe. and it lived.

Journal Entry # 5- Chapter 41-50: The American Dream:
The American Dream is defined as a set of ideals in which freedom includes the chance for prosperity and success. and an upward societal mobility achieved through difficult work. The thought of the American Dream is in the United Stated Declaration of Independence. It says that all work forces are created equal and that they are given certain rights. including life. autonomy. and the chase of felicity. But what does the American Dream truly intend? When immigrants come to America they are non ever accepted with unfastened weaponries. They aren’t given the same chances as others because of their faith or ethnicity. I believe that The American Dream of life. autonomy. and the chase of felicity is precisely that. a dream. There will ever be those people who cut you down because of where you came from or what faith you are. The American Dream is a great slogan to populate but that is it. Although. we are acquiring closer and closer to carry throughing that dream you can state that we aren’t at that place yet. Who knows we might non of all time acquire at that place.

You can state that every individual one of those immigrants in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn were looking for The American Dream. Some were disappointed. They found that when they got to America they weren’t able to happen occupations because of the prejudice against them. Mary and Thomas Rommely both came to America seeking for the American Dream. They left Austria looking for a better life for their kids. The dream of a better life in America drives the Nolan’s to populate their life the manner they do. When Mary Rommely gives her advice to Katie at the beginning of the book. she tells Katie how she should raise her kids so they have more chances. Mary is illiterate and cognizing that Katie and her household can read and compose. makes her believe that the American Dream is coming true for her household. Even though she ne’er got to hear the words. “I. M. Frances K. Nolan. am now in college” ( p 430 ) . she was still proud.

Journal Entry # 6- Chapter 51-56: Subject
I think that Betty Smith is seeking to state that things do acquire better. The Nolan’s were hapless. but finally came out of poorness when Katie married Sergeant McShane. For them to come out of poorness Johnny had to decease. but Johnny wasn’t assisting them come out of poorness anyhow. I think she was besides seeking to state that instruction means a batch to immigrants. For immigrants to hold a opportunity at anything they would hold to acquire an instruction. Education goes along with gender. It’s even harder to acquire someplace if you are a adult female and you don’t have an instruction. Woman were supposed to remain place and take attention of the house. They weren’t supposed to travel out and acquire an instruction. Francie broke down those barriers and got an instruction. She persevered and finally got accepted to University of Michigan at 16 old ages old. Harmonizing to Mary Rommely the American Dream was achieved. but non truly. Katie did stop up holding the chance to mount up the societal ladder. but non because of difficult work but because of matrimony.

There is a batch of things on my screen page. I drew a image of Francie Nolan’s caput. Inside there are symbols that represent her and things she has done in the narrative. The broom and scissors represent her work in the Barber store. The route represents the route she lived on while Johnny was still alive. The ladder coming off the route shows her mounting up the societal ladder when Katie marries Sergeant McShane. The pennies are a symbol of her clip roll uping debris and acquiring pennies for it. The typewriter shows her clip doing money as a typewriter. The sheepskin represents her graduating from secondary school. unlike most childs from her country. The piano keys represent the piano lessons she took with Miss Tynmore. The confects represent the confect that she bought when she sold debris.

The pencil and paper base for her instruction. The musical notes are a symbol of her piano lessons and her male parent and his vocalizing. The books represent the times when Francie would travel to the library every Saturday and read the books at that place. The paper with her name on it represents the first paper she of all time got published. The needle represents the run uping category that she took at the Settlement house. The trigons represent the Neeley’s geometry book that Francie was analyzing from. The ring represents one of the most of import things to go on in Francie’s life. “Katherine Nolan. I’m askin’ to maintain company with you. Object. a weddin’ in the fall” ( p 469 ) . Sergeant McShane asked Francie’s female parent. Katie. to get married him leting Francie to travel to college. The tree on the side represents doggedness. one of the most powerful constructs in this novel.