A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 布鲁克林有棵树
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A Tree Grows in BrooklynI read the A Tree Grows in Brooklyn written by Betty Smith several days ago.After reading it,I learn about that an impoverished but aspirational third-generation Irish- American adolescent girl Francie Nolan and her family in Williamsburg,Brooklyn,New York City during the first two decades of the 20th century.The novel begins when Francie is 11 years old.Her family in constant poverty throughout most of the novel. Francie traces her individual desires, affections, and hostilities while growing up in an aggressive, individualistic, romantic, and ethnic family and neighborhood; more universally it represents the hopes of immigrants in the early twentieth century to rise above poverty through their children, whom they hope will receive "education" and take their place among true Americans. Francie is symbolized by the "Tree of Heaven" that flourishes under the most unlikely urban circumstances.Her father Johnny Nolan is a singing waiter. He has a beautiful voice,a talent that is greatly admired but that is largely wasted because of his reputation as an alcoholic. Though everyone hates him,in the end everyone was moved by him :when Francie's commencement he sent a congratulation card.Her mother Katie is a hardworking, practical woman whose youthful romanticism has been replaced by a frigid realism that often prevents her from sympathizing with those who love her most.She runs her home in such a way that her children are able to enjoy their childhood despite their extreme poverty. Because Johnny is an alcoholic and can rarely hold down a job, Katie becomes the family breadwinner by cleaning apartment buildings. Johnny, however, is more attuned to Francie's hopes of graduating from high school and becoming a writer. As Francie matures and develops an inclination toward academia, Katie realizes she is more devoted to Neeley than to Francie.Francie's little brother is Neeley . He is a year younger than Francie and is favored by his mother, Katie. Neeley is a normal child who is more widely accepted by the neighborhood children than Francie. He shows more emotion when his father die s than Francie, who reacts to the loss by becoming even more determined to get an education and rise above her mother's limited vision. Neeley refuses to follow the tradition of Nolan men and determines to never become an alcoholic. Like Francie, he feels that their childhood was pleasant despite their poverty.The novel is split into five "books," each covering a different period in the characters' lives. Book One opens in 1912 and introduces 11-year-old Francie Nolan, who lives in the Williamsburg tenement neighborhood of Brooklyn with her 10-year-old brother Neeley and their parents, Johnny and Katie. Francie relies on her imagination and her loveof reading to provide a temporary escape from the poverty that defines her daily existence. The family subsists on Katie's wages from cleaning apartment buildings, pennies from the children's junk-selling and odd jobs, and Johnny's irregular earnings as a singing waiter. His alcoholism has made it difficult for him to hold a steady job, and he sees himself as a disappointment to his family as a result. Francie admires him because he is handsome, talented, emotional and sentimental, like her. Francie's mother, Katie, has very little time for sentiment, since she is the breadwinner of the family who has forsaken fantasies and dreams for survival.Book Two jumps back to 1900, with the meeting of Johnny and Katie, the teenage children of immigrants from Ireland and Austria, respectively. Although Johnny panics when Katie becomes pregnant with first Francie and then Neeley, and begins drinking heavily, Katie resolves to give her children a better life than she has known, which her mother, Mary, embodies in the word and idea, "education." Kate also resents baby Francie because she is constantly ill, while Neeley is more robust. Kate makes a promise to herself that her daughter must never learn of her preference for Neeley. During the first seven years of their marriage, the Nolans are forced to move twice within Williamsburg, due to public disgrace brought about first by Johnny's drunkenness and subsequent delirium tremens on his "voting birthday" and then by the children's Aunt Sissy's misguided efforts at babysitting them, both of which set neighbors' tongues to talking. They arrive at the apartment introduced in Book One.In Book Three, the Nolans settle into their new home and the children begin to attend the squalid, overcrowded public school next door. Francie enjoys learning even in these dismal surroundings, and with her father's support, she gets herself transferred to a better school in a different neighborhood. Johnny's attempts to improve the children's minds fail, but Katie helps Francie grow as a person and saves her life by shooting a child-rapist/murderer who tries to attack her daughter shortly before she turns 14. When Johnny learns that Katie is pregnant once again, he falls into a depression that leads to his death from alcoholism-induced pneumonia on Christmas Day 1915. Money from the family's life insurance policies and the children's after-school jobs keeps the Nolans afloat in 1916 until the new baby, Annie Laurie , is born in May and Francie graduates from grade school in June. Graduation allows her to finally come to terms with the reality of her father's death.At the start of Book Four, Francie and Neeley take jobs since there is no money to send them to high school. Francie works first in an artificial-flower factory, then in a press clipping office. Although she wants to use her salary to start high school in the fall, Katie decides to send Neeley instead, reasoning that he will only continue learning if he is forced into it while Francie will find a way to do it on her own.Once the United States enters World War I in 1917, the clipping office rapidly declines and closes, leaving Francie out of a job. After she finds work as a teletype operator, she makes a new plan for her education, choosing to skip high school and take summer college-level courses. She passes with the help of Ben Blake, a friendly and determined high school student, but fails the college's entrance exams. A brief encounter with Lee Rhynor, a soldier about to ship out to France, leads to heartbreak after he pretends to be in love with Francie when he is in fact about to get married. In 1918, Katie accepts a marriage proposal from Michael McShane, a pipe-smoking retired police officer who has long admired Katie, and has meanwhile become a wealthy businessman and politician.As Book Five begins in the fall of this same year, Francie, now almost 17, quits her teletype job. She is about to start classes at the University of Michigan, having passed the entrance exams with Ben's help, and is considering the possibility of a future relationship with him. The Nolans prepare for Katie's wedding and the move from their Brooklyn apartment to McShane's home, and Francie pays one last visit to some of her favorite childhood places and reflects on all the people who have come and gone in her life. She is struck by how much of Johnny's character lives on in Neeley, who has become a talented jazz/ragtime piano player. Before she leaves the apartment, she notices the Tree of Heaven that has grown and re-sprouted in the building's yard despite all efforts to destroy it, seeing in it a metaphor for her family's ability to overcome adversity and thrive. In the habits of a neighborhood girl, Florrie, she sees a version of her young self, sitting on the fire escape with a book and watching the young ladies of the neighborhood prepare for their dates. Francie says, "Hello, Francie" to Florrie, and then, "Goodbye, Francie" softly, as she closes the window.From this book we could learn that the determination to face difficult circumstances,which is of wealthy for every people's grows.Only we are positive to everything even like poverty,humble and pitiful,can we make our life more colorful and enjoy it. Francie sets a great example to us,we should learn from her.。
