Francie Growing Up

In Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie Nolan and her family struggle with many economical and emotional hardships in Brooklyn in the early 1900's. Her mother, Katie, and her father, Johnny, marry and have children at an extremely young age, causing their family's fate to be doomed right from the start. Francie, the older of the two children, has her mother's hard-work ethic, and her father's sentimentality and imagination. Through Francie's fear, humiliation, compassion, sorrow, pride, and disillusionment throughout the novel, she becomes the strong, intelligent woman she is. Francie is a sum of her family's suffering and experiences. With every incident, she loses some of her innocence.

Katie Nolan, Francie’s mother, is the main reason that Francie is able to survive her arduous childhood and succeed in life. Food, heat and protection are always available to the Nolan children even if it means that Katie has to work multiple jobs or even sacrifice some of her own needs. Katie gives all she can to provide for her children and Francie truly values her mother’s hard work. Francie appreciates her mother’s thougtful acts, but still, Francie develops

How did Francie mature as time progressed throughout the early years of her life? When Francie grew up and had to help support and keep the family together, she gained an early peek of maturity and womanhood. She then gained the privilege to be independent and earn the title of assistance. Meanwhile, as time passed she lost her father, Johnny Nolan, and had to earn income to keep the family afloat to continue to progress despite the hardship and heartbreaking sacrifices that lies ahead. From a little girl to a young woman, Francie learned to do things a lot earlier to help support and keep her family together with the power of gaining and losing at the same time.

c. Yet, while female characters like Katie and Francie grow from overcoming the hardships brought on by poverty, Francie’s father Johnny Nolan is defeated by it and ends up dying of alcoholism. In the 1900’s, gender roles and social expectations of men and women were more rigid than today, and both sexes were supposed to stay within gender boundaries

Moreover, the unknown narrator’s acknowledgment of the manuscript to the audience shows the self reflexivity of the novel. In effect, Cather is breaking the fourth wall of the story to fracture the audience’s relation with the narration and allow them to form their own meaning from Jim’s story. This is also repeated when Jim returns to Black Hawk and seeks to learn Antonia’s story from the Widow, Mrs Harling declares that ‘the Widow Steavens is a good talker, and she has a remarkable memory.’(Cather 899). This is a clear signal to the audience that the widow is a ficelle and is purposefully presented as a source of information for Jim, thus we will be seeing Antonia through the Widows eyes and with her prejudices. The Widow’s recount of events form a scene of analepsis (Genette 162) which further fragments the timeline of the narrative as Jim learns of Antonia’s actions long after the event has passed. This can be seen as modernist because realist writers would have attempted to disguise their ficelles. Therefore, Cather’s narrative style is modernist as it defies the traditions of the classic realist novel.

Events in the story help establish he change helps Bernice and how it hurts her. Prior to following the advice of her cousin, Marjorie, Bernice is described as, “…no fun on a party.” And that her poor reputation of: “…not being frequently cut in on makes her position at a dance unfortunate.” This implies that Bernice is not will liked by others and that people tended to stay away from her. Once Bernice starts taking Marjorie’s advice to heart, at the next party, she is: “…cut in on several times in the past five minutes.” This means that several people were going out of their way to dance with her. Another advantage to this change was that Bernice is now described as being, “…pretty, distinctly pretty; and to-night her face seemed really vivacious.” People are starting to have a more positive outlook on her. However, changing herself to please others would unfortunately lead to Bernice’s

We see that, much like Stanley, the narrator Claudia and her sister Frieda are in a constant search for the truth. This is observed in their younger selves ; when they can't understand their mother's conversation, they “look for truth in timbre”, showing that before all what matters to them isn't the beauty of the whate is said or the poetry in it but if it is truthful, relevant to their quest of the complete and pure reality. In the older Claudia, the one that narrates the story, this quest is shown in the prologue, in which it is explicitely said that she “must take refuse in how”, meaning that the only way for her to find peace after all these years is to know the truth, which is once again the factual complete reality of what happened. To these characters, truth, knowing the facts rather than understanding the “why”, is what can set them free. Finding it and revealing it becomes their main motivation. For The Bluest Eye, it is even the reason for which the narrator writes the story.

In the beginning of the book, Francie is eleven years old and goes on adventures with her brother and her friends. Francie and her brother Neeley gather up some of their “junk” and sell it to a local junkie for pennies. She is the one who speaks to Carney and retrieves the money for her and Neeley. Her actions in the first couple of chapters show that she is shy and just goes with the flow of things, but is also a leader. Francie is a very smart and observant girl. She keeps to her own and watches the people and things around her. She knows that Neeley is the favored child in her mother’s

2) It says that in a flash she saw which way the wind blew that she can tell when something is wrong with Francie.

This journey began with a tragedy that Annelle had to confront and overcome in order to survive. The personality of Annelle is something that the filmmakers and writers were very delicate and skillful with, as it was a strong way to communicate the dichotomy between that of her humility and meekness, in contrast with that of many of the strong women that she was going to become a part of. In fact, it was this which was the main directing tool, which had Annelle, disclose that she was only in town due to the disaster of her having to evade the authorities and move to that part of Louisiana. Annelle was confronted by one of the more feisty and grumpy women of the group. By having Annelle disclose her secret and struggle to another women, the writers and filmmakers were skillfully exhibiting the amount of independent fortitude that women had to face on their own.

Flash-forwards from an unnamed character create suspense, allow the reader to see what life is like for one of the sister’s five decades after World War II, and provide the reader with information that can be used while reading the rest of the book. The narrator is not named until the end of the novel, leaving the reader in suspense. When the narrator attends an event that honors the work of people involved in the resistance movement, it is revealed that she is Vianne Mauriac. She gives a speech about her sister that begins, “My sister, Isabelle, was a woman of great passions” (Hannah 558). The narrator shares with the reader what her life is like now: she is battling cancer and with her son’s help preparing to move into a retirement home. In the first flashback, the reader learns that the narrator has a son before it is mentioned

Betty Smith writes so much about the topics of money, education, gender, perseverance, and family, but for my theme the main things she mentions mostly has to do with family, education, and perseverance. Over Francie’s life she deals with so many hardships. She has to drop out of school and not go to highschool to support her family and get a job to help financially. Eventually Francie goes to college and gets the life she deserves. Then, within chapter 55 Ben, who is Francie’s lover gives Francie a promise ring and she thinks back to her first romance with Lee but is happy with Ben.

The first-person point of view in the story draws the reader in by directing his or her attention to how the narrator is treated and turned against by everyone in the family. The point of view in this story helps to emphasize how the family, as a whole, turns on the narrator and discriminates against anything she says or does. The first person point of view also helps to emphasize how well Stella-Rondo manipulates people to maximize the inevitable success of her falsities. Throughout the story, Stella-Rondo turns the entire family against the narrator and creates a sense of hatred towards the narrator. Even though the narrator is older than Stella-Rondo, her words are still not listened too as much due to her staying at home and Stella-Rondo

Fransisco's life compared to my life are very different. However, our life can also be found similar. When Fransisco was younger and his family went to work , Fransisco had to take care of his younger brother Trampita. As for I, didn't take care of my younger siblings, but took care of my younger cousins when my aunt went to work. The difference was that Fransisco had to take care of his brother, but when I babysat, it was more like a job because I would get paid for it. Another thing we have in common is that families important to us. Fransisco's family worked long hard hours to earn just enough money to get by. My parents also have to go to work so they can pay for all the bills and extra things we need. In contrast, Fransisco's family

Julie had a rough childhood. Her father left when she was young and her mom had nasty, abusive men in and out of their house. When Julie was sixteen, she finally moved out and was living on the streets. She always kept to herself and stayed out of trouble. One day she was in a coffee shop and she met a guy named Jem. They talked for an hour or two and Jem told her if she came back the next morning, he would take her to Swansboro, North Carolina, a small town in which he lived in. He promised to get her a job and a place to stay. The next morning she came, of course, and he did as he promised. In Swansboro, Jem got her a job at his Aunt Mabel’s hair salon. They soon started dating and eventually got married.