A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Where does the "tree" referred to in the title grow? (A) In Francie's backyard (B) In tenement districts (C) Out of cement (D) All of the above
All of the above
Florry Wendy - 10 year-old girl at the end of the novel. She sits on her fire escape & watches Francie get ready for her date.
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MOTIF American dream
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THEME Education
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THEME gender and sex
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While on the fire escape, she observes her neighbors in the windows. Mr. Fraber's horse & wagon comes home eventually, driven by Frank, a nice young man who all the girls love. The small maroon wagon is an advertisement for Dr. Fraber's dentistry practice, & Frank's job is to drive slowly through the streets, pulling this moving billboard. Frank begins to clean the horse, Bob, with great care.
Flossie Gaddis, who lives beneath the Nolans, comes out to flirt with Frank, who is uninterested, and refuses to go out with her. Francie feels sorry for Flossie, and contrasts her with Francie's Aunt Evy, who is more successful chasing after men.
On the other side of the yard is the school, and one day Francie sees a girl clapping erasers together. Showing off, she comes closer to Francie to let her touch them, and then spits in Francie's face.
Francie begins to dislike blackboard erasers, which before seemed like enchanting objects.
Who shoots the sex offender in Brooklyn? (A) Johnny (B) Sergeant McShane (C) Neeley (D) Katie
Katie
Man in the Tree Lot - A gruff but warmhearted man, he feels bad chucking the tree at Francie and Neeley. Like many characters in Brooklyn, his rough speech and curses are meant to be taken kindly.
Like many proprietors in Francie's neighborhood, he reluctantly takes advantage of kids in order to feed his own
Annie Laurie - Johnny & Katie's third child. She is born five months after Johnny dies, when Francie is fourteen.
She is named after a song Johnny used to sing, and will carry Mr. McShane's name.
Why do some people think that Aunt Sissy is a bad woman? (A) She sleeps with a lot of men (B) She hates Francie and Neeley (C) She can't hold down a job (D) She bosses Katie around
She sleeps with a lot of men
What does Katie whisper in Johnny's ear, just a few weeks before he dies? (A) She tells him to start rehab (B) She tells him to buy Francie roses for her graduation day (C) She tells him she is pregnant (D) She tells him Francie and Neeley are adopted
She tells him she is pregnant
Mary Frances Nolan protagonist
The daughter of second-generation Americans living in Brooklyn, New York in the early 20th century. She is named after her father's dead brother's fiancée. Francie is poor, but bright, observant, & taken by the wonders of the world. She is a combination of her hard-working, practical mother & her imaginative, dreaming father. She has a great capacity to see beauty amidst material hardship. Growing up without luxury, & sometimes without friends, she loves to read, & creates new worlds through her writing.
What is Katie's job? (A) Waitressing (B) Singing (C) Factory work (D) Janitorial work
janitorial work
Who sends Francie flowers on her graduation day? (A) Aunt Evy (B) Mary Rommely (C) Miss Gardner (D) Papa
Papa
Francie gets ready for her date with Ben, and wonders if some little girl is watching her get ready. Sure enough, ten-year-old Florry Wendy watches from a fire escape. Francie notices the tree in the yard for the last time.
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Frank - A young boy who rides the dentists' wagon and takes care of his horse. Flossie gives him more attention than he would like.
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Johnny tries to one-up Katie by trading voice lessons for Francie from the other Tynmore sister in exchange for repairing a broken sash cord. He cannot fix it, and ends up breaking their window. Katie has to work extra hours for the sisters to make up for it.
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MOTIF Fall from innocence
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MOTIFS Songs and singing
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NARRATOR Omniscient
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Point of View Omniscient
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SYMBOL The Tree of Heaven
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THEME Perseverance through hardship
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THEME Poverty and class issues
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THEME ethnic and religious identity
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THEME perseverance through hardship
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CHAPTER 45 Christmas comes and the Nolans have money with which to buy presents. The 4 of them bargain for a new hat for Mama and buy Laurie a new sweater suit. Then Francie & Neeley buy gifts for each other—spats (ornamental stirrups worn over the shoes) for Neeley & lingerie for Francie. They also buy a real, growing tree, only two feet high.
After Christmas, they will leave it on the fire escape. Katie says Francie and Neeley will collect horse manure for it, and Francie says they are rich enough to have things done for them. Francie notices she's starting to remember Papa* {Johnny}* with tenderness instead of pain. At church Christmas morning, Francie is proud of her grandfather's carvings on the alter, and in her thoughts, reaffirms her Catholic identity. They all say a prayer for the repose of Johnny's soul.
CHAPTER 47 After Christmas, the normal routine resumes. Neeley plays the piano in the ice cream shop some nights, and Francie misses having a sweetheart or friend. One day, Katie reads that Sissy's first husband—the fireman—has died; Sissy's picture is printed in the paper, since she is still his legal wife. At Sissy's house, her John is going crazy, and ultimately sticks up for himself. He insists that the family call him his real name, Steve, and then orders that Sissy, being widowed from her first husband, get a divorce from her second husband and marry Steve again.
As it turns out, the second husband already got a legal divorce. Sissy and Steve marry in the church—the only kind of wedding that Sissy will take seriously, and Steve finally feels secure and happy. Sissy eventually told Steve about the adopted baby. Steve himself had tipped Sissy on to Lucia—the woman from whom Sissy adopted her baby. Lucia had supposedly gotten into trouble with a married man. Sissy marvels that coincidentally the baby looks much like Steve. Also, Sissy is pregnant again.
Aunt Evy, Katie Nolan's sister, & Uncle Flittman are there when Francie gets home. Francie likes Aunt Evy, who's very funny & looks like Mama. Uncle Flittman plays his guitar, & then begins to deprecate himself as a failure, telling a story about how his horse Drummer urinated on him. He also says that Evy doesn't love him anymore. Evy doesn't respond but says it's time to go home.
Before bed, Neeley & Francie must abide by the house rule of reading 1 page of the Bible & 1 of Shakespeare. Since it is Saturday, Francie sleeps in the front room, & hears Johnny Nolan come home at 2 in the morning. He sings "Molly Malone" on his way up the stairs, & Katie opens the door before the end of the verse, which means that she won the little game they all play. (If he finishes the verse before his family opens the door, he wins.)
What does Mary Rommely advise Katie to do with the money she saves in her tin-can bank? (A) Pay for Francie to go to college (B) Buy her own land (C) Give Johnny money for booze (D) Pay for a nursing home for Mary
Buy her own land
What is the Nolan's religion? (A) They don't have one (B) Baptist (C) Judaism (D) Catholicism
Catholicism
What do Francie and Neeley do to make a few pennies throughout their childhood? (A) Mow lawns (B) Walk dogs (C) Collect junk and take it to Carney's (D) Collect horse manure
Collect junk and take it to Carney's
CHAPTER 4 Francie goes up to see what costume Flossie Gaddis is wearing to the dance that night. Flossie works as a turner in a glove factory, where she turns gloves right-side-out after they are sewn. She works to support her mother and brother Henny, who is 19 & dying of consumption.
Francie doesn't think he looks like he's dying, and Mrs.Gaddis instructs her to tell him he looks good. Henny is somewhat of a doomsayer about his health, and the three women eventually leave him alone to cry and cough.
CHAPTER 48 On April 6, 1917, America enters World War I. In her office, Francie anticipates this moment as a memory. Along with the front page of the newspaper, she gathers a poem, a lock of hair, and some fingerprints together in an envelope as a time capsule. One day, one of Francie's company's biggest clients is found out to be a German spy. The office gets smaller before closing altogether.
Francie finds a new job as a teletyper, working nights. Katie begins to worry about money, as Francie took a pay cut and the war has escalated prices. Francie tells her mother she will never go to high school; she knows too much about the world from reading the papers every day and she would have nothing to learn and nothing in common with the other students. Instead, she signs up for three summer school courses, with Katie's permission to take money out of her college savings. She feels sick, realizing how little education her family has had—and now she is in college.
CHAPTER 13 The Nolans like their new home-- Johnny & Katie keep up the janitorial work. As time goes on, Katie does more of the work, & Johnny does less. Katie also continues to read 1 page of the Bible & 1 of Shakespeare every night, though neither she nor the children understand it.
Francie has a hard time making friends, partly because she uses Shakespearean & Biblical jargon. She enjoys life out on the street in her neighborhood. The narrator describes all the sing-song games the children play on the streets in Brooklyn. One game called Potsy involves putting a tin-can on the trolley track & then using the metal for hopscotch.
CHAPTER 3 Johnny Nolan, Francie's father, arrives home singing his favorite ballad, "Molly Malone," as he always does coming up the stairs. Francie irons his apron, as he has a job singing and waiting tables that night. He wants her to sew the Union label on his apron, saying how much he believes in the Union, and that Katie Nolan shouldn't begrudge the wages.
Francie loves listening to him talk, & reminisces about visiting the Union Headquarters, where she saw how popular her father was, but also overheard 2 men talking about Johnny's drinking habit. Everyone loves Johnny, who is Irish and sings sweet songs. His wife had not grown bitter toward him 7 his children "didn't know that they were supposed to be ashamed of him."
Flossie works on 3 things each week: gloves, her costumes, and Frank. She has a closet filled with pieces of her dresses that she mixes and matches every week. Her costume design includes a long sleeve to cover her right arm, which was burned when she was a child when she fell into a wash boiler.
Francie loves looking in her closet, as poor people love "huge quantities of things." By the end of the chapter, however, she imagines a skull and bones coming out from the costumes, for Henny.
CHAPTER 49 Francie finds her chemistry and Restoration drama classes easy, but has more trouble with French. She befriends a boy named Ben Blake who gives her good advice about buying books. A senior in high school, Ben plans to go to college in the Midwest, then to law school. He is a class leader, and works at a law firm.
He offers to help Francie study for her final French exam, and takes her to an empty theater to study. Francie falls in love with the theater, but also learns enough French to pass the class. Ben does not have time for a girlfriend since he must take care of his mother in his free time. Francie is in love with him. With her job moved to daytime hours, her evenings are lonely.
What does the tree man think when he throws the tree at Francie and Neeley? (A) He thinks of his own kids, and thinks that it is a cruel world (B) He hates kids (C) He will throw it lightly (D) He will throw it at someone else instead
He thinks of his own kids and thinks that it is a cruel world
Which of the following is not a place Francie visits the last Saturday in the book? (A) Library (B) Cheap Charlie's (C) Her old school (D) Her father's grave
Her father's grave
What does Francie burn after talking to her English teacher? (A) Her grade "A" compositions (B) Her grade "C" compositions (C) Her report card (D) The note on the roses her father sent her
Her grade "A" compositions
Why does Aunt Evy take over her husband's (Uncle Willie's) milk route? (A) He gets too old (B) His horse kicks him in the head (C) He has left her for another woman (D) Katie convinces her to do it
His horse kicks him in the head
CHAPTER 2 Although the library is small & shabby, Francie thinks it looks beautiful. She loves to read, & wants to read all the books in the world, in alphabetical order. She is in the B's right now. She treats herself on Saturdays to a book outside of the sequence, asking the librarian for a recommendation.
In the library, Francie loves looking at the brown jug holds different greenery for different seasons; now it holds nasturtiums, signifying summertime. She dreams to one day have a brown bowl with flowers & lots of books.
The librarian hates children and recommends the same 2 books every Saturday. This time she recommends If I Were King, by McCarthy. Francie takes this & a book by Brown home. She prepares her peppermints in a bowl, & a cup of ice water and sits out on the fire escape in the middle of the trees to read.
It is a sunny afternoon, and the boy who usually plays downstairs is away. He plays a game of graveyard, where he digs holes for live insects and accompanies the ceremonies with fake sobbing. Francie is glad to find him gone. Francie loves her story & dreams of owning a real book.
CHAPTER 20 When children at the school are found to have lice, they are publicly scorned, & the objects of torment from their peers. Katie does not have time for vermin and disease, & scrubs Francie's hair every week, & combs it with kerosene every day.
It smells so bad that the other children do not want to hang around her. When a mumps epidemic breaks out, Katie ties garlic around her children's necks. Francie and Neeley never get sick nor have lice. Francie is not affected by her peers' rejection, as she is used to being lonely.
CHAPTER 24 Francie keeps track of the year by holidays, beginning with the 4th of July. She especially loves Election Day. In Brooklyn, the Oyster House is an old building where Big Chief Tammany hung around over 100 years before & where City Hall politicians used to meet in secret meetings to decide who would be elected. The children still sing a song about Tammany in the streets; the word "Tammany" is used to describe the town's political party system in general.
Johnny & Katie argue over politics, as Johnny is a staunch supporter of the Democratic party. Katie has no political allegiance, but is critical of the party. Katie says when women vote, they will kick all the crooked politicians out. Johnny says she will go to the polls with him, & vote like he wants her to.
CHAPTER 7 This chapter begins with a flashback to another summer 12 years earlier in Brooklyn, when Francie's parents, Johnny Nolan & then Katie Rommely first meet. Katie works with her best friend, Hildy O'Dair in the Castle Braid factory, and Hildy dates a boy named Johnny Nolan. One night, Johnny finds a boy for Katie, so that the four of them can go out together.
Katie didn't like him much, but is taken by Johnny when she sees Johnny dance. When he gives her a courtesy dance, she decides that looking at him and listening to him are worth slaving her entire life. This may have been a mistake, but she wants no one else. Kate & Johnny marry New Year's day, 1901, after knowing each other not even 4 months.
One day, she comes home from the house she is cleaning to make sure that Francie is home from school on time. When Francie opens the door at the bottom of the apartment building, she is attacked. Katie comes down the stairs, sees her, and goes back to get the gun. The prowler's penis touches Francie's leg, but that is all he can do before Katie shoots him in the stomach.
Katie drags Francie up the stairs, and throws the gun in the wash basin. The police come by, and find out that Johnny's gun is unregistered; he will be charged five dollars. They also say that Katie did not kill the boy, but suggest he will be executed. A careless news reporter gets the details of the story wrong, and Katie is protected from public criticism. Sergeant McShane tries to give Katie money for her good deed, but she refuses it. He thinks that he would like to marry Katie one day.
CHAPTER 51 This chapter gives snippets of many minor events & conversations. Francie enrolls in sewing & dancing classes. She studies to pass the college entrance exam. Sissy pays "endowment" insurance for her babies. Evy & Willie move to a house close to Queens on account of Willie's drumming. Mary Rommely begins to die. "Sauerkraut" changes to "Liberty Cabbage." Neeley is supposedly dating a wild girl, & also informs Francie that he overheard her sex talk with Katie years ago.
Katie finds cigarettes in Francie's purse and refuses to lecture her. Katie decides the Nolans should buy food for the Tynmore sisters for Christmas since they do not have enough to eat. Francie decides to send Ben a Christmas card. To celebrate New Year's, Francie and Neeley want café au lait instead of brandy. Katie remembers that Johnny used to put butter in his coffee if they had run out of milk.
Francie does not tell Katie about the raise, out of fear that Katie will not want her to go back to high school. Katie decides independently that Neeley will go back to high school and Francie will not. They cannot afford to have both go to school, and Neeley does not want to go, while Francie does.
Katie reasons that if Francie really wants to go to school, she will find a way to do it, while Neeley would not without her making him. This decision sparks a big fight among the three of them, especially between Katie and Francie. Francie notices that Katie "fumbles" while picking up a cracked cup, and Francie likens their family to a cup, once strong and now cracked.
CHAPTER 54 Sergeant McShane whose wife has died, pays a visit to the Nolan house. The Nolan children impress him, especially in their good health. Francie remembers that most of his fourteen children were born sickly and died. In front of the children, he asks Katie to marry him.
Katie says she will marry him, not because of his public position or wealth, but because he is a "good man." He knows that Francie and Neeley already have a father, but asks if he can adopt Laurie and she can carry his name. Everyone consents. Neeley and Francie put Laurie to bed, and muse that she will have an easy life, but will never have the fun her siblings had.
CHAPTER 12 Katie is too ashamed to live in the same neighborhood after Johnny's drinking binge. By this time, she is certain she cannot depend on Johnny to support the family. She finds a house where they can live rent-free if she keeps the building clean. The family moves, and the narrator lists the few family belongings that are packed on the ice man's wagon, and taken to their new home.
Katie takes a dollar from the tin-can bank to pay the ice man, and nails it down again in her new closet. Mary Rommely (Katie's mother) comes to sprinkle holy water as a blessing in the new house, and Katie and Mary along with the babies, fall into a laughing fit when Francie spills it all over herself. The new house is also in Brooklyn, on Lorimer Street.
Everyone sends flowers, showing how well-loved Johnny was. At the funeral, Katie tells Francie & Neeley that people think their reluctance to view the body is because Johnny was not a good father. The children look, & Francie insists to herself (along with Katie) that he was a good father. At the mass, Hildy O'Dair (Johnny's girlfriend before he met Katie) is hysterical, while Katie does not weep.
Katie thinks it is good that someone who loved Johnny is crying for him, since she is not. On the way home, Katie sends Francie to pick up Johnny's mug at the barber, and tells her she can keep it. Although she shed no tears at the funeral, once at home, Katie weeps wildly, while Sissy tells her to stop so as not to sadden her unborn child.
CHAPTER 55 Francie feels sentimental about leaving her teletyping job, but like her mother, she refuses displays of affection. Meanwhile, the family endures two more sad events: Mary Rommely dies and Willie Flittman leaves his family. Evy takes Willie's job at the factory. Francie wonders why so many sad things seem like dreams to her, and then thinks that maybe these things are real, and she is the dreamer.
Life is going well for Francie. She has passed her college entrance exams with Ben's help and is going to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Ben has chosen this college for her. Francie knows she will always belong to Brooklyn. Ben has given Francie a promise ring; he is not fickle & cruel like Lee. Still, Francie thinks again of Lee. When she leaves her office, the girls play the song that she and Lee danced to, "Till We Meet Again." Still, when she gets out of work, Ben is there to meet her, & she is happy to see him.
Francie's novel tells of a rich girl who lives in a beautiful house and bosses around her cooks. Francie daydreams a conversation in which she shows Miss Garnder the novel and the teacher is overcome with praise. But as Francie continues writing, she realizes the novel and all of her "A" compositions are written about things she knows nothing about. She burns them all, keeping only the compositions that earned her poor marks.
Lonely, Francie goes to find Katie, praying that God will not let her die, like papa. She watches Katie scrub. On the way home Katie tells Francie how much she needs her now that the baby is coming
Cheap Charlie - Owns the penny candy store in Williamsburg. He is the ultimate recipient of Carney's pennies, & lures kids in by making them think they might earn a nice prize.
Lucia - A Sicilian woman who becomes illegitimately pregnant. She is ill-treated by her father & family until Sissy offers to take her baby, & befriends and cares for her.
Thomas Rommely, Katie's hateful father, will never forgive Katie for marrying. As the Rommely's were from Austria, he only speaks German; the girls' mother refuses to let them speak anything but English at home, to avoid his cruelty.
Mary Rommely, Katie's mother, is a saint, a devout Catholic who believes in all things supernatural. She can not read or write, and believes her husband when he tells her he is the devil. Her daughters and Francie all inherited her soft, soothing voice.
CHAPTER 38 Katie's baby is due in May & she is not well enough to work as hard as usual. When she cannot pay her insurance, the agent, who has been like a friend to their family, advises her to cash in her children's policies, which earns her some money. Still she is in dire straits financially. Her sisters say that Francie must work, but Katie wants her to finish school. She prays to God and the Virgin Mary without an answer before praying to Johnny.
McGarrity, who owns the saloon Johnny frequented, has much money & misses Johnny dearly. He lived out his dreams vicariously through Johnny. He wished for a family like Johnny's & used to pretend Johnny's wife & kids were his own. His wife Mae is a saloon lady, not someone he can have meaningful conversation with. McGarrity comes over to the Nolan's house to offer Francie & Neeley after-school jobs, hoping that they will talk to him the way Johnny used to do. He ends up talking to Katie for a long time about the Johnny he knew & loved. Francie & Neeley end up working hard for McGarrity but do not talk to him the way he wishes. Katie & Francie go to visit Mary Rommely who lives with Sissy now. Sissy has grown stouter & no longer wears perfume. On the way home, Francie laughs for the first time since Johnny died.
What will Annie Laurie's last name be? (A) Nolan (B) McShane (C) McGarrity (D) Rommely
McShane
CHAPTER 39 Francie & Neeley are confirmed & Francie takes her mother's name. Francie is writing a novel to prove to her teacher she can write about beautiful things. Ever since Johnny died, she has gotten poor scores on her compositions because of their "ugly" subjects.
Miss Garnder believes Francie to be a good writer, but thinks she should write about beautiful things. By beautiful, the teacher really means positive and flowery; poverty and drunkenness are considered ugly and dull subjects. The teacher cannot use Francie's play at graduation and tells Francie to go home and burn all her "sordid" compositions.
When Johnny dies, who offers Francie and Neeley work so that their family may have enough money to survive? (A) Mr. McGarrity (B) Aunt Sissy (C) Carney (D) Sergeant McShane
Mr. McGarrity
Francie says goodbye to all her old neighborhood haunts—her school, McGarrity's saloon (which is now owned by someone else), and the library. For the first time, the bitter librarian looks up at Francie. Francie realizes that the librarian has never looked at the brown bowl with flora in it. Francie knows she will never return to her old neighborhood.
Packing her things, she comes across her diary, time capsule envelope, and four stories her teacher told her to burn. She decides that she might start writing again one day. Neeley bursts in the door, in a hurry to get to a show. Francie irons his shirt for him as they talk. Neeley calls Francie "Prima Donna" and starts to sing "Molly Malone." She asks him if he thinks she is good-looking. They say good-bye, since they will not have any more time alone before Francie leaves. He reminds her of Johnny.
genre · Bildungsroman (novel about the moral development of the main character); a coming of age novel
Setting Between 1900 and 1918 Williamsburg, Brooklyn
What happens to Francie that makes Katie think she can no longer protect her? (A) She cuts her hair (B) She feels hungry (C) She is attacked (D) She gets her heart broken
She gets her heart broken
Why does Katie originally fall in love with Johnny? (A) He has lots of money (B) She likes the way he sings and dances (C) He promises her a beautiful home (D) He wants many children
She likes the way he sings and dances
At home, Katie tells Neeley his "B" and "C's" are good before concentrating on Francie's "C-." Sissy stops Katie's scolding, and Katie, Francie, Neeley and Evy go out for ice cream. Katie floats into a reverie while they eat about her children's future; she would give anything to see them through high school, but knows it is impossible with a new baby.
She thinks also of Sergeant McShane. When the bill comes, Katie leaves a $.20 tip, so that they can all feel like they have plenty of money, just for a night.
CHAPTER 56 On a Saturday in September, the Nolans move out of their apartment. The next day, Katie will marry Mr. McShane. Katie works on the last day in their apartment, even though Mr. McShane has given her $1000 as a wedding present. She writes a check to Evy for $200, the same amount of money Evy would have collected from Uncle Willie's death insurance.
That last Saturday, Francie goes down to Cheap Charlie's, pays $.50 and asks for all the prizes on the board. Early in the novel, the author describes the scene of kids at Cheap Charlie's. Children pay a penny, & Charlie draws a number. If they like the prize that matches the number, they can have it; otherwise, they can have candy instead. No one ever draws a good prize.) Now, Francie calls Charlie on his scam—kids always keep coming back, hoping for a nice toy they will never get. Charlie tells Francie he has to worry about his own family. She asks instead to buy a 50 cent doll, and tells Charlie to let some kid win it.
As time goes by, Sissy remains condemned from the Nolan household. She wants to see Francie & Neeley so much that she comes by the schoolyard one day to take Francie for a soda. Francie is cold, and she shamefully tells Sissy she has wet her pants. Sissy tells Francie that from now on, the teacher will let her leave.
The next morning before school, Sissy threatens the teacher, telling her that she is Francie's mother & her husband is a cop, & Francie has a kidney infection that could lead to death. The teacher excuses Francie to the bathroom from that day forward. Katie is committed to keeping Sissy away from her house, but when she hears that Sissy has another stillbirth, she feels ashamed of herself, and lets Sissy return.
CHAPTER 22 Francie learns to read. She all at once sees words on the page, instead of just sounds, anddecides she will read a book a day as long as she lives. Francie also makes a game out ofarithmetic, imagining each number as a member of a family.
The numbers that are the easiest in terms of arithmetic are the nice family members. When she has a number with many digits, she imagines those family members together. In this way, Francie puts arithmetic into human terms.
CHAPTER 21 Although school is a mean place, Francie still enjoys it, especially because of 2 teachers, who each come once a week: Mr. Morton, who teaches music, & Miss Bernstone, who teaches drawing. All the teachers dress nicely the days Mr. Morton comes; he is a jolly man who made good music fun & accessible.
The teachers are all jealous of Mrs. Bernstone, who is beautiful & does not spend all her nights alone. Both these teachers love the poor, unwashed children better than the cared-for ones. The narrator says school would have been pure heaven if all teachers were like these two.
Lee is leaving the next morning to go home and spend time with his mother before going off to fight the war in France. He tells Francie he loves her and he will not marry the woman to whom he is engaged.
Then he asks if she will get a room with him for the night. He keeps telling her he is afraid he will never see her again. Francie says no, but promises to write him a letter that night, reaffirming her feelings for him. She goes home and writes out all of her love for him.
CHAPTER 53 Francie waits for a letter from Lee. Finally, two days later, she receives a letter from his new wife. They had been married in those two days. The new wife thanks Francie for entertaining Lee while he was in New York, and sends his apologies for "'[pretending] to be in love with [Francie].'" Francie is heartbroken, and calls for Katie. Katie realizes she can no longer protect her child from the hurt of the world.
Then, Francie asks her mother if she should have slept with Lee, and Katie tells her "two truths." As a mother, Katie believes Francie should not have risked ruining her life by sleeping with Lee—someone she knew for only forty-eight hours. As a woman, Katie believes it would have been a "beautiful thing" since that kind of love only happens once. Francie cries for hours, and thinks of writing Ben Blake, but does not.
Aunt Sissy - Katie's oldest sister. The first of Mary Rommely's daughters, she is the only daughter who has not learned to read & write. Her two failings are that she is a great lover & a great mother (even before she has a child of her own). Taken to an extreme, these qualities get her into trouble.
These qualities also ensure that she is constantly giving, and never taking. Her charm with men means that she can convince them to believe or do almost anything. She has a reputation as an easy woman, but everyone who knows her knows that she is a good person. Her sisters always end up forgiving her foibles. Francie absolutely adores her.
CHAPTER 52 Francie's friend, Anita, needs a favor. Anita wants Francie to entertain her beau's friend, so that she & her beau may spend some time together alone. When Francie saw the friend's charming smile, she decided she would like to help. Anita takes off with her sweetheart, leaving Lee Rynor and Francie alone together. They go out for chop suey, and Lee asks if Francie will pretend that she is his "best girl" just for the evening, even though he is engaged to be married to someone else.
They talk for hours, and at the end of the night he kisses her. The next day, Francie knows he will be waiting for her after work. They go out to eat, and then to dance, where Francie has the same thought that Katie had dancing with Johnny almost twenty years before—that she would sacrifice anything to spend her life with this man. "Till We Meet Again" plays, will be the song that always reminds Francie of Lee.
Lee Rynor - A soldier about to leave for France when Francie meets him through her friend, Anita. Passionate & sweet, he knocks Francie off her feet & in turn professes his love for her, too.
Two days later, he marries his fiancée from his hometown. He is the source of all of Francie's heartbreak.
Where will Francie go to college? (A) Smith College (B) University of Michegan (C) Columbia (D) Barnard
University of Michigan
CHAPTER 50 Katie and Evy refrain from talking about Sissy's baby with her, fearing another stillbirth, until one day Sissy announces she will give birth in a hospital, with a Jewish doctor. No Rommely woman has ever given birth in the presence of a doctor, let alone a Jewish one.
When the baby is delivered, Sissy sees its blue stillness and begins to grieve when all at once she hears a word she does not recognize: "oxygen." Dr. Aaron Arronstein gives the newborn oxygen & it lives. Sissy names the baby Stepen Aaron after the doctor & her husband, Steve . Uncle Willie Flittman tries to enlist in the army & is turned down. He begins to give up on life, quits his job, & tries to teach himself to become a one-man band. Steve gets him a job working at a munitions factory, but he still thinks himself a failure.
CHAPTER 46 The New Year arrives, and Francie is convinced that 1917 will bring more important events than any other year. At midnight, the Germans in the neighborhood drown out Auld Lang Syne with a German song. Then, the Irish parody the Germans. In the Nolan house, Katie watches nervously as she hands Neeley and Francie a drink.
Worried that they will inherit Johnny's weakness, she has neither encouraged drinking nor preached against it (in fear of their individualist rebellion). Neeley and Francie go out to the roof; Neeley refuses drunkenness because he hates vomiting, and Francie finds she gets drunk on life without drinking. Neeley starts to sing, and reminds Francie of her papa. Francie thinks that Brooklyn is like a magic city.
What does Miss Tynmore, the piano teacher, say that Francie will be when she grows up? (A) A concert pianist (B) A drunk like her father (C) A writer (D) A janitor
a writer
What happens after Lee Rynor goes home? (A) He writes Francie a love letter (B) He calls Francie on the telephone (C) He marries a woman from his hometown (D) He starts dating Francie's friend Anita
he marries a woman from his hometown
Francie Nolan is a mix of Nolan and Rommely, but is also part just herself; she has traits that come from neither family that she acquires through her own observations and reading.
...
Francie meets up with Neeley & they return home to have lunch with Mama. Coffee is a luxury in the Nolan household, & each member of the family is allowed 3 cups per day, with milk. Katie Nolan believes that Francie is entitled to throw her cups down the drain, if she wishes, saying that it's good for poor people like them to be able to waste something.
After dinner, Mama sends Francie back for bread from Losher's, where the stale loaves are sold to the poor. While Francie is waiting, she stares at an old man and is suddenly frightened by his disfigurement, especially his feet. Francie then fights the crowd, & buys her bread. Once outside, she sees a baby & imagines its foot as an old person's foot, & panics again.
Katie and her sister, Evy decide that Sissy will not be allowed at either of their houses. The Nolans move to yet another apartment in Williamsburg, on Grand Street. It is not as nice as the old one, but because the Nolans have the top room, the roof is theirs. While Katie argues with the movers (who she pays $2 out of the $8 in the tin-can bank, before re-nailing it into the new closet), Johnny & Francie go up to the roof.
Francie is taken by the view of the bridges and Manhattan. Johnny comforts her after she sees a boy on another rooftop trap a pigeon for his coop. Johnny reflects to himself that he's already been married 7 years, and that this will be his last home.
Francie's arm becomes infected & Katie scares her into not scratching it. One night, Francie cannot sleep, afraid that she will die any minute. Johnny comes home and washes her arm, soothing her fears.
He wraps it with his own undershirt. That night, Johnny resists Katie's affection in bed, and lies awake in the dark instead.
CHAPTER 32 Francie had started a diary in December, on her 13th birthday. Now, nearly a year later, she is reading it. The diary entries take up most of the chapter. Most of them tell that Papa is "sick" again—Katie's way of saying that he is drunk.
Other entries mention the "North Pole" game, which the author has explained in earlier chapters. The Nolans play this game when they do not have enough food, pretending they are explorers in the Arctic, waiting for rescue to arrive. Also, the diary tells that Flossie Gaddis and Frank are going to be married, and that Francie is curious about sex.
CHAPTER 35 Francie, now 14 years old & Neeley once again anticipate Christmastime, & tell stories of past Christmases. Johnny has been acting drunk lately, but weirdly, has not been drinking. Money is scarce, and they have oatmeal for supper. Johnny comes home hysterical and crazy, sobbing that the Waiters' Union kicked him out. He cries violently on the kitchen table & Katie comforts him, until he eventually falls asleep.
...
On Christmas Day, the family exchanges humble presents, & Francie feels hurt when Katie makes more of a fuss over Neeley's present than hers. The narrator then records the story of Francie's second lie, which took place at a Christmas charity event for poor children.
A rich girl named Mary is giving away a doll, & wishes it given to a poor girl named Mary. All of the poor Marys are too proud to speak up, & when Francie sees the gift going to waste, she lies about her name. Later, Francie learns that her full name is Mary Frances Nolan, & she feels relieved of her guilt.
Francie then follows Neeley & his friends to the baseball lot, even though they don't want her along. On the way to the field, the boys stop to harass a Jewish boy. He is ultimately amazed that they thought him mature enough to be interested in girls.
After he leaves, Neeley says that the kid is a "white Jew," although his friends don't believe such a thing exists. The boys then begin to harass another little boy selling pretzels, but his mother yells out the window.After watching the boys play for awhile, Francie walks back to the library, where the librarian should be returning from lunch.
CHAPTER 42 Graduation night comes shortly after the baby, Laurie, is born. Katie goes to Neeley's graduation since Francie decided to go to school farther away. Francie is a little hurt, but Sissy accompanies her. Girls are usually presented with flowers after the ceremony, but Francie does not tell her mother, knowing there is no money for flowers.
Although her C- in English is hurtful, Francie feels better when she sees that there are two dozen red roses on her desk. With them is a note, addressed to her, and signed "Love from Papa." Sissy explains that he wrote the card a year ago, and gave it to her with $2 to buy roses. The girls are nice to Francie when they are saying their good-byes. Francie then says good-bye to Miss Garnder, who Francie no longer hates, but feels sorry for.
CHAPTER 8 Whereas the last chapter details the personal histories of the "strong" Rommely women, this one addresses the "weak" and "talented" Nolan men. Ruthie and Mickey Nolan came to the United States from Ireland, and had four boys—Andy, Georgie, Frankie, and Johnny, who are all well-dressed, singing waiters, who all die before they turn thirty-five. Only Johnny leaves children.
Andy has consumption and never marries his fiancée, Francie Melaney, before dying on a fine pillow his brothers buy him as a luxury. The three remaining boys vow to take care of their mother, but six months later, Johnny marries Katie. The pillow is then given to Katie as a wedding present, and is used when anyone gets sick. Frankie dies in a freak drunken accident, and Georgie dies at twenty-eight.
CHAPTER 37 Katie sends her children on a walk the day after the funeral. When the children see an announcement for a "Sweet Singer" they cry out their grief for the first time. Francie says bad things about God which frighten Neeley. She ends by saying she no longer believes in Him.
At home, their mama has made them hot chocolate. Like her children, Katie has also been crying. That night, the read the Christmas story, and Katie wonders if Johnny stopped drinking because he was trying to be better for the coming child. In an unusual gesture, she kisses her children and tells them she is their mother and their father now.
CHAPTER 43 Francie begins working at a factory, where she makes tissue paper flowers all day. The other girls make fun of her, until she laughs at the serious utility boy and gains their respect. At the end of the day, Francie and Neeley meet to turn in their week's pay for brand new bills. They will present the new bills to Mama.
At the bank, the teller remembers giving his first pay to his mother, and watching as "tears stood in her eyes." When Katie sees the money, and goes into the bedroom, Francie knows she is crying. Francie suggests that they start a new tin-can bank without telling Mama.
CHAPTER 29 One day, Johnny gets a "notion" that his children should see the ocean & takes them fishing along with a neighborhood 3 year-old, Little Tilly. Little Tilly is Gussie's younger sister who is famous in the neighborhood since he refused to stop feeding from his mother's breast. Finally, his mother painted her breast black with a scary red-lipstick mouth on it, and scared her son away from breast-feeding for good.
At the beach, Johnny has a couple of drinks before getting in the boat. He misses the boat all together & falls in the water. The children try to suppress their laughter after Johnny drenches his entire tuxedo. When the 4 finally go out fishing, they don't catch anything, but get very sunburned & feel nauseated after eating a big lunch. Little Tilly falls in the water on the way back, and on the trip home, all 3 children throw up. The fish Johnny buys have rotted- Johnny feels disappointed the sea was not at all the same as it was in the songs he sang.
Little Tilly and Gussie - Children in the Nolan's neighborhood. Gussie is famous for never being able to wean from his mother's breast, stealing all of Tilly's milk. Johnny, in his pity for Tilly, takes the three-year-old on the comical fishing trip to Canarsie.
Carney - The junkie in Williamsburg, he collects scraps the children collect and gives them pennies in exchange. He likes girls better than boys.
Miss Lizzie Tynmore - Poor piano instructor who lives with her sister in the Nolan's building. She is proper & punctual, & never has quite enough to eat.
Doctor and Nurse - 2 medical workers who administer vaccinations in Brooklyn. The doctor, who went to Harvard is cruel in his assumptions about the poor in Brooklyn. The nurse grew up in Williamsburg & tries to hide her poor background.
Katie Nolan - Francie's mother. Katie comes from a family of strong women, & epitomizes this type. She is hard & detached ever since she had her 2 children & realized she could not depend on Johnny, her husband to support her family.
Ever since he was born, she has loved Neeley more than her daughter, although she strives to treat them equally. She is extremely hard-working, she saves money as best she can, and will do anything so that her children can live a better quality life than she. Extremely proud, she vows that life isn't worth living once one gives in to charity.
Eliza, (Mary and Thomas's second daughter), neither pretty nor fiery, joined a nunnery, taking the name Sister Ursula, and growing facial hair.
Evy, the third, married Willie Flittman young, and had three children. She tried hard to be refined, and wished her children to be musical like their father. She made her daughter quit studying the fiddle, when the teacher required her to take off her shoes and stockings at the lessons. Evy could mimic people very well, especially her husband.
CHAPTER 1 The story opens by describing a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, called Williamsburg. There is a certain kind of tree that grows throughout the neighborhood, called the Tree of Heaven by some, since it grows wherever its seeds land—in old lots, trash heaps, & even cement. It grows only in the tenement districts, where the poor people live.
Francie Nolan has such trees in her yard in Williamsburg. The story opens on a Saturday, which always means a trip to the junkie for 11-year-old Francie & her brother, Neeley. Carney the junkie pays the neighborhood kids pennies for the bits of tin foil & other metals that come from such junk as cigarette packs & jar lids. He likes girls better than boys, & so Francie delivers the junk for herself & her brother.
CHAPTER 26 Still tracking the year through holidays, the narrator tells about Thanksgiving in Brooklyn, when all the children dress in costume and beg for goodies at the neighborhood shops. The shops which depend on children for their sales are certain to give treats. That Thanksgiving, Francie wears a Chinaman's mask.
Francie begins to write after an incident at school. When a girl brings in a small pumpkin pie to school to symbolize the holiday, Francie's teacher asks who will take it home. Francie says she will take it to a poor family, but instead eats it herself. (It tastes terrible.) The next day, she gets carried away in her story, and the teacher knows that Francie has eaten the pie. The teacher kindly tells her she won't be punished for "having an imagination," and explains the difference between a story and a lie. At home, Katie has been fed up with Francie's whoppers. Now, Francie tells stories just like they happened, but writes down what should have happened.
Johnny Nolan - Francie's father. Johnny is a young Irish singer-waiter as talented as he is weak. He is a dreamer without the resources or abilities to make his dreams reality. He loves his children, but is an alcoholic who can not always be a good father in a conventional way.
Francie dreads his drunkenness, Johnny is loved by Francie more than Katie is. Like Katie and Mary Rommely, Johnny knows that an education will allow his children to live a better life than he has. He lives in a drunken dream world, where most of what he knows of life comes from the song lyrics he sings.
A group of gossips have gathered around Joanna & finally they start taunting her, then stoning her. One stone hits the baby & draws blood, & Joanna finally goes inside. Francie, out of pity, sacrifices her one magazine, leaving it as a gift for Joanna in the baby carriage.
Francie feels so hurt that she goes down to the cellar to recover. There, she discovers that she has had her period for the first time. Katie tells her to "remember Joanna" as she can now have babies. Francie wonders how women can be so cruel to one another.
CHAPTER 44 When the layoff comes at the factory, Francie decides she will try a different kind of job. She gets a job as a file clerk in Manhattan, after buying new clothes so that she looks sixteen. The Williamsburg Bridge is not as thrilling as Francie once thought it would be. Francie gets a job working as a reader at the clippings bureau. She reads faster than any of the women there, and receives the least pay.
Francie finds many things disappointing—the bridge, the buildings in New York, and the city itself. She worries she is growing cynical and will never find anything thrilling, even if she travels the entire country. One day, a man on the El Train gropes her, which Sissy finds thrilling, but Katie and Francie do not. One day Francie's boss offers her the city reader job, the most coveted job in the office. He will pay $20 a week.
CHAPTER 5 Katie Nolan comes home from the movies with Aunt Sissy, who Francie loves dearly, since Sissy understands little girls so well. Sissy works in a rubber factory, which produces a few toys to hide their main product—condoms. Sissy's husband works for a pulp magazine house, & Sissy brings them to Francie to read and then sell at half price.
Francie tells her mom about the old man's ugly feet--her mom dismisses her fear, saying that everyone gets old, & they should just get used to it. Then the mother & daughter plan what they will make with their stale bread all week. Sunday supper will be a wonderful meal of fried meat. The narrator also describes "pickle days" on which days Francie buys a big Jewish pickle from a Hebrew man in a neighborhood store. She always asks for a "'penny sheeny pickle'" and although the word "sheeny" makes the old Jewish man angry, Francie doesn't know she is using an insulting word.
CHAPTER 25 The narrator explains that Johnny is sentimental & gleeful when he is sober & quietly thoughtful when drunk. After his drinking binges, he feels like he needs to be a better father. Like Mary Rommely, he wants to see his children get more education than he did. Sometimes he takes them to Bushwick Avenue, the boulevard in old Brooklyn to teach them civics, geography, and sociology.
He & Francie get talking about the carriages & he explains to Francie that anyone in America can ride in a carriage—provided they have the money. Francie does not understand why it's a free country if you have to pay. Johnny explains simply that otherwise they would have Socialism. Before they leave, he also shows Francie the mayor's house. Francie remembers another time on this same avenue, when there was a parade with many roses, to celebrate Dr. Cook, a Brooklynite who'd made it all the way to the North Pole with the American flag.
Sergeant McShane - Katie's second husband, who she is about to marry when the book ends. He is a successful public figure, & so will support Katie & her children well.
He is also a good man, faithful till the end to his sickly, troubled wife. He enters the book at the Mattie Mahoney Association excursion.
Cornelius Nolan - Francie's younger brother by one year. Growing up, he & Francie experience life together and grow to be close friends. He is both a loving brother & a typical boy.
He looks just like his father, & his mother thinks of him as someone she can be like Johnny, without Johnny's faults. Indeed, he is musical, but hard-working, & does not like alcohol.
Ben Blake - A very bright, successful young man who Francie meets in summer college classes. He will attend a Midwestern college, & then law school.
He makes Francie happy, keeps her from feeling lonely and knows what he wants.
Mr. McGarrity - The saloon keeper in the bar where Johnny hangs out & gets drunk. He is a dreamer. Wishing he had a family like Johnny's, he lives vicariously through Johnny, & misses him enough to help out the family after he dies.
He represents a means by which the Nolans feel Johnny's presence after his life.
Mr. Jenson - The janitor at Francie's new school. He is loved and respected by the students and faculty even more than the principal.
He represents the kindness that pervades this school, even for poor kids.
Back at their flat, Johnny talks about his lack of a job & his family's growing up. His words make Francie alternatively happy & hurt. She agrees with her father that her mother is a very good woman, but then wonders to herself why she likes her father better. He talks to Francie about winning horse bets and going on trips, & calls her Prima Donna, a nickname he gave her when she was an infant when her crying reminded him of an opera singer's voice.
He then sends her out for a dicky and a paper collar, two pieces to go with his tuxedo. He is clean, & dressed well—like an Irish lad, but not like a man who has 2 poor children, & a wife who scrubs floors. Francie walks him to the trolley and thinks him very handsome.
Flossie Gaddis & Henny Gaddis - The girl who lives downstairs from the Nolans in their house on Grand Street. Flossie is a teenager when Francie is a young girl. She is crazy about boys, & keeps a whole closet filled with costumes for Saturday night extravaganzas.
Her favorite boy is Frank, who she ends up marrying. Henny is her younger brother who dies of consumption.
Joanna - A young unmarried woman with a baby, who is the object of the neighborhood women's cruelty. She represents one stage in Francie's fall from innocence.
Hildy O'Dair - Katie's best friend when she was a young girl. She dated Johnny before Katie and Johnny fell in love.
CHAPTER 27 Children in Brooklyn love Christmastime. One year, Francie and Neeley participate for the first time in the tree tradition. Every year, the man at the tree lot gives away trees at midnight on Christmas Eve. To receive one, a person has to catch a tree that the owner hurled at him or her, & remain standing. The man throws the largest first, & Francie pipes up, asserting that she & her brother will try to catch it.
In the split second before he throws, the tree man agonizes over his action. Neeley and Francie remain standing & proudly bring the 10-foot tree home. A long monologue of Katie's thoughts tells the reader that this event makes her all the more committed to the children's education, & figuring out a way to help them out of this cruel life.
A prostitute walks by Francie & Johnny on their walk--Johnny tells Francie that the woman is not bad, just unlucky. When Johnny sees the school, he is taken by it, & starts to sing a song right there in the street. Francie begins to worry when Johnny doesn't say anything about her going to the new school, but Johnny suggests they find a house in the neighborhood, whose address they can copy down. The schools will only let her transfer if she proves that her family lives in the neighborhood.
Johnny explains that this is a bad thing to do, but it's bad for the sake of a greater good. Katie will have nothing to do with the lie, but does not stop Johnny from writing a note to the principal that they Nolans will be moving. The new school is wonderful; the children are more protected, since their parents have been in America so long, and are aware of all their rights. Mr. Jenson, the janitor at the school, is a kind, well-respected man who is the favorite of all the students. Francie continually picks up any debris scattered around the home whose address Johnny had taken, in a gesture of gratitude. She doesn't even mind walking forty-eight blocks to and from school every day.
After accompanying her friend Maudie Donavan to Gimpy's candy store, she goes on to the five & dime, where she is privileged to touch the merchandise because she is buying, & decides on 5 cents worth of pink & white peppermints. Francie walks back home, noticing the pushcarts & smells of her neighborhood. She muses that Jewish women must have so many babies because they are hopeful that one will be the messiah, and that Irish women just looked ashamed at being pregnant.
Katie Nolan, Francie's mom, arrives home soon after her daughter, having finished her week's work scrubbing floors. She is slight, pretty, & fun. The narrator also mentions that Francie's father has a drinking problem. Francie's mother sends her out to buy bread & tongue, & at Francie's pleading, sweet buns for dessert, since it is Saturday.
CHAPTER 36 Johnny died 3 days later. McShane takes Katie to the hospital where they put Johnny after finding him unconscious in the street. After she watches him die-she tells her children the next day that they are not to cry for him. A scamming undertaker comes by the apartment, and asks Katie if she has any insurance money. When he discovers that she has $200, he charges her $175.
Katie then goes to the hospital where a priest & the doctor are making out Johnny's death certificate. The doctor includes alcoholism & pneumonia as cause of death until Katie & the priest convince him to leave it as pneumonia. Katie buys new mourning clothes for herself & her children. The undertaker comes back, asking for more money for the "deed," (the plot of land where Johnny will be buried). Katie, knowing full well she is being cheated, takes all the money out of the tin-can bank. She does not nail the bank back down, as she now owns a bit of land.
CHAPTER 33 People in Francie's neighborhood do not know how to tell their children about sex, mostly because they do not know the correct words. Katie, on the other hand, was determined to answer Francie's questions as best she could. The neighborhood parents did not shy away from telling their children about sexual violence when they heard that a prowler had killed a seven-year-old girl.
McShane investigates the case, and arrests the girl's brother, hoping to deceive the real killer into thinking he was safe to commit another crime. This time, McShane would be waiting for him. Worried the rapist could attack Francie, Johnny borrows his friend Burt's gun. Burt is a night watchman, and sometimes Johnny covers his shift for him so that Burt may run home to make sure his wife is not cheating on him. After a while, most of the neighborhood feels more secure, but Katie still keeps her guard up.
The Mattie Mahoney Association, representing the Democrats, holds an excursion especially to lure in women & children, who will 1 day be voters. At the event, Francie learns a lesson in gambling when she loses a hotdog & ride tickets to a game of marbles. A kind Sergeant McShane gives her extras & notices how pretty Katie is. Katie, likewise, notices him, and covers her chafed hands with her gloves.
McShane married a troubled pregnant girl as a kind gesture to her family, who had taken him in. After having 14 children, 10 of whom have died, the woman is in bad health. Katie tells Johnny she hopes the woman dies, so McShane can marry again. This comment makes Johnny sadly surprised. Although Mattie Mahoney's name & face is everywhere, Francie can't ever find the man himself. Although most election festivities end in November, in January, Katie splurges every year by going to the Ladies' Day at the Democratic Headquarters.
Evy & Sissy kick Francie out of the room once they arrive, leaving Francie hurt & alone. They decide not to call the midwife. When the baby is about to be born, they send Francie for food, on Katie's demand; Katie wants to spare Francie some of the agony of childbirth.
Neighbors everywhere hear Katie screaming, and the women suffer vicariously, sharing the pain that brings women together. Katie lets Francie write the birth of Annie Laurie (who is named after a song Johnny used to sing) in the family's Bible.
Miss Garnder - Francie's 8th grade English teacher. Self-righteous in her convictions, she believes that writing should only be about "beauty" not ugly things like poverty and drunkenness.
Not only does she insult Francie about her background, but she also gives her poor marks on the compositions she wrote after Johnny's death, and does not allow Francie to write the graduation play.
CHAPTER 28 Time starts to pass more quickly for Francie, which happens when people grow up. Henny's death always seemed a long way away to her, and then he dies, and the future quickly turns to the present. Growing up has still more consequences. Everyday pleasures do not seem so special.
She begins to realize how people consider her father & she no longer finds pleasure in the game her mother makes up to help ease hungry times. She finds theater plots too contrived. This last fall from innocence inspires her to finish a play that had a dissatisfying end, and she decides she will write plays.
Neeley & Francie wake up & the 4 eat together. Johnnie & Katie stay up all night talking, & Francie takes in their voices, as well as the neighborhood at night. She hears a girl bringing home a beau get caught by her father, & hears Mr. Tomony, the owner of the pawnshop come home.
She dreams of 1 day frequenting the fancy places where he spends his time on the other side of the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan. Francie basks in the last little bit of Saturday, & hears her parents reminiscing about their first meeting before she falls asleep.
Mary Rommely - Francie's maternal grandmother, who came to America from Poland. She believes in the supernatural, tells ghost & fairy tales, & is a devout Catholic. She has hope for her family because America makes dreams possible, & in this country, the education is free.
She is sure that Katie will have a better life than she did because Katie can read & write, & that Francie's life will be better than Katie's because she will go to school longer. Among other things, she advises Katie to save money so one day she can buy her own land, & read to her children every night.
Aunt Evy - Katie's older sister. Hard-working and practical, she does not understand Katie's few bursts of wastefulness.
She married Willie Flittman and works at his jobs when he no longer can. She does fantastic imitations, especially when poking fun at her husband.
CHAPTER 11 Johnny gets drunk for three days on his 21st birthday. Katie locks him in the bedroom, but finally his cries distress her so much that she calls Sissy, who has a remedy for Johnny. Sissy goes into the bedroom alone with Johnny & allows him sips of whiskey while holding him like a mother would, all night. The narrator remarks that Sissy's 2 great failings are that she is a great lover and a great mother.
She will give as much as she can to anyone, without taking anything for herself. When Sissy returns to Katie after her night with Johnny, she makes it clear that she & Johnny are not lovers, and tells Katie not to nag him. She also explains to Katie that "everybody's something" & that Johnny's drinking is the weakness in him Katie will have to overlook. Katie thinks to herself that Sissy is good to everyone she meets, even though people think her promiscuous habits bad.
Sissy, (Thomas & Mary's first child), did not go to school since Mary realized too late that education was free in America. A "highly sexed" girl, Sissy married very young to a fireman named Jim, whom Sissy always called John. When she delivered 4 dead babies, Sissy believed it was Jim's fault & married another man (who she also calls John) without getting divorced.
Sissy delivered 4 more dead babies before leaving the second John, going to work at the rubber factory, and having a succession of lovers. Her love for children grew stronger with every dead baby she delivered. Finally she married a third John who works at the magazine company.
They name Francie after Johnny's brother Andy's fiancée. Mary Rommely gives Katie all kinds of good advice: Katie must read 1 page a day to her daughter from Shakespeare & the Protestant Bible. She must allow Francie to have imagination. Katie should start a money bank, where she will save a nickel a day so that one day she may own her own land. This is how Mary Rommely's children & grandchildren will live a better life than their parents—a dream that Mary believes is possible in the new world.
Sissy visits, bringing lots of good food. She starts the bank for Katie, buys a Shakespeare collection from the library, and steals a Protestant Bible from the hotel where she's sleeping with her current lover.
CHAPTER 34 Sissy has devised a scheme to adopt a baby, since all her babies have died. Her husband does not want another man's baby, so she must do it without his knowing. Sissy finds a Sicilian family whose daughter Lucia has become illegitimately pregnant. The father keeps her starved in a locked room, hoping that she & the baby will die. Sissy shows up when the father is away, and tells the family she would like to take the baby. She then takes good care of Lucia and befriends the family, except for the father who she never meets.
Sissy's husband is confused and tormented when Sissy, who does not appear to be pregnant, keeps insisting that she is having a baby. When she brings the girl infant home, Sissy flatters her husband John until he is appeased. Only Katie, Johnny, and Francie know the secret; Johnny begins to worry that Katie has deceived him. One night Katie gets her children out of bed to prove to Johnny they are his. Seeing his own reflection in their faces, he knows. She then whispers something unknown in his ear and he leaves the apartment thoughtfully sad.
CHAPTER 6 Francie & Neeley go out to buy weekend meat, which includes a trip to Hassler's for a soup bone & Werner's for chopped meat, since Katie Nolan doesn't trust the ground meat at Hassler's. Francie's mother has given her detailed instructions about how to buy—she watch the butcher cut the round, to make sure it's fresh, have him chop an onion with it, and get a piece of fat to fry it with.
So many demands make the butcher at Werner's quite angry. She also buys vegetables for the soup. After supper Francie meets up with her friend Maudie Donavan to go to confession. Maudie lives with two aunts who make shrouds for a living, and it frightens Francie when Maudie gives her some old scraps. Maudie has fewer sins than Francie. When they depart, Francie promises to call her.
John - Sissy's third & last husband. The reader does not learn his real name (Steve) until very late in the book, since Sissy calls all of her husbands and lovers "John."
Steve, like all Sissy's men, goes along with her wishes almost all the time. By the end of the book, though, he stands up for himself.
She earns 16 cents & a "pinching penny"—the extra penny Carney gives if a girl doesn't shrink when he pinches her cheek. Neeley handles the money, taking out half for the tin-can bank; the rest they divide evenly, except that Francie always keeps the pinching penny.
The 2 children then make their way to Cheap Charlie's, the penny candy store. Francie doesn't go inside, adhering to the unwritten rule that it is a boys' store. Here the children pay a penny to draw a number for a prize. Francie has never heard of anyone getting the good prizes-roller skates or baseball mitts or dolls.
CHAPTER 14 The Nolans have to move from their house on Lorimer Street after being disgraced by a two incidents involving Sissy. First, Sissy finds a bright new tricycle on the street, and gives Francie and Neeley a ride. The tricycle belongs to a child in the neighborhood, whose mother is furious, and calls Sissy a robber. Instead of getting Sissy in trouble, the officer on duty is charmed by Sissy's sexy figure, and allows her to keep playing. All of the neighbors see the officer acting silly in his lust.
The 2nd incident happens when Sissy comes over to spend time with Francie & Neeley on her day off. She brings a cigar box & tissue paper, & the 3 of them spend all afternoon decorating the box with a tissue-paper heart. The children are upset when she has to leave. Searching for a distraction, she gives them a box, telling them it is filled with cigarettes & not to open it. The children shake the box. Knowing there are no cigarettes inside, they argue over whether the contents are worms or snakes. When they find condoms inside (which the narrator calls "balloons" at the beginning of the chapter), they tie them together and hang the string out their window.
CHAPTER 9 The chapter begins when Johnny & Katie are first married, living in Brooklyn & working as night janitors in a public school. They are very much in love & enjoy their time at night alone together. Then Katie gets pregnant & their blissful lives are tainted with worry.
The December night that Katie goes into labor, Johnny gets so worried & confused that he leaves to find comfort in his family. Falling asleep, he misses both the birth & his job. Francie is born with a caul, which supposedly indicates a child who will do great things. Johnny brings Katie 2 avocados, & begins to cry when he sees her, out of fear & angst. He does not tell her right away that he has been fired from his job for neglect. Katie feels terrible that he has to suffer so much.
CHAPTER 15 The Nolan's new apartment is made up of 4 railroad rooms—a kitchen, two bedrooms, & a front room. Francie finds things to like about it. The kitchen looks out over a small, concrete yard where the Tree of Heaven grows. The bathtub in the new house is really just 2 washtubs, with a very uncomfortable bottom.
The dingy airshaft outside of the bedrooms, which lets in only dank air, snow, and rain, reminds Francie of what Purgatory must be like. Francie loves the front room. She loves the piano that the past renter couldn't afford to move out. Johnny can play just a few chords, & sings along with them. His playing touches Francie to the point of tears. Also in the front room was the conch shell that Francie and Neeley named "Tootsy." When Francie first saw the ocean, the only remarkable thing about it was that it sounded like the conch shell.
CHAPTER 10 Francie is born a weak & sickly baby. When Katie Nolan's milk dries up when Francie is 3 months old, the midwife tells Katie a woman has cast a spell on her. Sissy alerts Katie to the truth—that Katie is pregnant again. This 2nd pregnancy makes Johnny all the more worried, & is the beginning of a long downward spiral for him.
The midwife brings an abortive, but Katie refuses it. Loyal to both of her children, Katie refuses the neighbors' comments on Francie's sickliness, and instead compares Francie to the Tree of Heaven, which keeps struggling to live.
CHAPTER 16 The narrator explains that neighborhood stores are an important part of city children's lives & then details all the stores around the new apartment in Williamsburg. Francie's favorite is the pawnshop, because she loves the 3 golden balls that hang above it. There is a bakery and Gollender's Paint Shop.
The most interesting store is an old-fashioned place owned by a cigar maker who refuses technology, & sometimes makes his cigars by candlelight. Another store sells only tea, coffee, & spices. It has a large grinder, but the Nolans grind their coffee at home. Francie especially loves the pair of scales in the tea man's shop. A Chinaman owns the store where Johnny gets his shirts cleaned. Francie thinks his self-heating iron a mystery of the Chinese race, & wishes she could be a Chinaman
When Neeley is born, Katie realizes that she loves him more than she does Francie. She also becomes harder, and so does Francie, when she feels the change in her mother.
The narrator explains that both Johnny and Katie were doomed from the beginning since they were poor, and had two young children. She says that the difference between them is that Johnny accepts his doom, and Katie does not.
CHAPTER 40 Francie takes care of Katie the days & hours before she goes into labor. The evening of the birth, Francie sends Neeley for Evy & tells tells her mama that Neeley would know better how to comfort her. Katie goes into a monologue about how men should not assist in births, that women always insist they stand beside them. .
The narrator suggests that she misses Johnny terribly, and is trying to rationalize his absence. Katie then says that she needs Francie, not Neeley. Katie suddenly feels guilty that she has not read any of Francie's compositions, and to comfort her, Francie recites Shakespeare to Katie as they wait
Francie loves all the street musicians, especially the organ grinder with the monkey. Katie, however, puts a damper on Francie's reveries, saying that the people who come with the big organ are all Sicilians who kidnap little children. She also dismisses Francie's dream of being an organ grinder and owning a monkey.
The narrator writes that although there was always music and dancing in their neighborhood, there was something sad lurking beneath it all, in the children who had to take care of themselves at such a young age, and in all the people who couldn't ever make a better life for themselves.
CHAPTER 30 At 13, Francie sees her name in print for the first time when her composition is printed in the school magazine. On her way back from buying it she sees Joanna on the street, walking her baby.
The neighborhood knows that Joanna's baby is illegitimate—they call it a bastard. She is a beautiful baby & Joanna takes good care of her. Nonetheless, when Joanna smiles at Francie, Francie does not smile back, feeling like she should not be friendly to girls like Joanna.
CHAPTER 19 Francie has great expectations for school, but coming home with a bloody nose the first day is not a good start. She also realizes she will never be teacher's pet, since Miss Briggs likes all the rich children, & consigns the others to the back of the room. The narrator remarks that one would expect unwanted children to band together against a common evil, but instead, the poor children tend to turn against each other.
The school is a brutalizing place, with three times as many children as the facilities can hold. The students are punished brutally. Almost all the teachers are cruel, as the nicer ones get married, or are driven out by the mean ones. During recess, the bullies will not let anyone into the bathroom, and the teachers will not excuse the kids from class. Half of the kids learn to hold it, and half became pants-wetters.
CHAPTER 41 McGarrity needs Francie and Neeley to stay on even after the birth, though he had planned to let them go. His saloon is busy now that the world is changing. The chapter provides snippets from many anonymous conversations at the "poor man's club," the corner saloon.
They talk of the dawn of prohibition, the possibility of the woman's vote, whether or not President Wilson will keep them out of war, whether or not they will go if there is a war, and new technologies.
CHAPTER 23 Francie goes out walking one fall day & ends up in a beautiful neighborhood with no tenements. She reaches a school, made of old brick, with grass & a field across from it. She decides that this is the school she wants to go to, and waits for her father to get home to ask him about it. He promises to go with her to see it the next day.
This unfamiliar neighborhood is filled with families who have lived in America for 5 and 6 generations, unlike Francie's neighborhood, in which few people can say that they themselves were born in the United States. Francie's teacher at one point asked the children their lineage. Francie impressed the whole class, as she was the only 1 whose parents were not born in another country.
CHAPTER 17 Katie agrees to trade Miss Lizzie Tynmore, a neighbor in their building, an hour of housecleaning for an hour of piano lessons. Katie instructs her children to listen quietly during the lesson, although Katie is officially the student. Francie is fascinated both by Miss Tynmore's hat, which has a red bird pierced by hat pins, and the metronome. At the end of the lesson, Miss Tynmore lets Katie know that she is teaching three for the price of one, but still allows it.
When Miss Tynmore does not leave, Katie finds out she expects tea. With no tea to offer, Katie goes to fix her coffee & a sweet roll. The narrator explains that Miss Tynmore needs the tea women serve her after lessons, since she does not have much money for food herself. In the meantime, Miss Tynmore asks Francie what she thinks about when she is sitting on the curb for hours. Francie answers that she tells herself stories, and Miss Tynmore commands that she will be a writer one day.
CHAPTER 18 Francie eagerly anticipates school, but before any child can go to school, he or she must be vaccinated. This ritual brings much consternation to the foreign & uneducated families in Brooklyn. Katie does not go with Neeley & Francie to get their vaccination mostly because she cannot stand the thought of it. Neeley is frightened, and Francie tries to cheer him up by making mud pies with him.
When the children show up for the vaccination, their arms are caked in mud. The doctor makes a series of comments to the nurse about how filthy poor families are, and the nurse, a Williamsburg girl now grown up, plays along, not wanting the doctor to know her background. Francie, keen and observant, hears it all & feels ashamed. She expects the nurse to act motherly & defend Francie. The narrator comments that the person who makes it out of the slums "via the boot-strap route" has two choices: to forget his past, or "keep compassion in his heart for those he left behind." This nurse forgot. Aware of the cruelty of his comments, Francie tells the doctor not to say the same things to Neeley. The doctor is taken aback that Francie understood his comments.
CHAPTER 31 Uncle Willie Flittman's horse, Drummer, hates Uncle Willie & often urinates on Willie while he's washing the horse. The horse loves Aunt Evy Katie's sister & Uncle Willie's wife. One day, the horse kicks Willie in the head, knocking him unconscious.
While Willie is in the hospital, Evy teaches herself to drive the horse so she can take over Willie's milk delivery route. Evy is the first woman to deliver milk on the route; the men love her. She gives Drummer all kinds of treats. When Willie comes back, they give him a new horse, and give an effeminate young man Drummer. Even so, Drummer must visit Evy every day.
Uncle Willie Flittman & Drummer - Uncle Willie is Evy's husband & Drummer is his horse. They have a mutual hatred for each other.
Willie feels he is a failure & often is the subject of Evy's best imitations and jokes.
