A Tree Grows in Brooklyn :: essays papers

A Tree Grows in BrooklynFrancie Nolan, A Questing HeroIn the fictional novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith tells the life experiences of one girl growing up in Brooklyn, New York. The main character of the book, Francie, fulfills the pattern of a questing hero. Smith leads the reader by dint of the high points of Francies life as well as the low. One learns of all the obstacles Francie accomplished and while reading, begins to savor and appreciate the girl.The reader is first introduced to Francie when she is at the season of eleven. Francie is an average, normal girl growing up in Brooklyn in the year 1912. She doesnt have many friends and her family doesnt have much money, however she enjoys reading and is constantly finding ways to amuse herself. Being as young and innocent as she is, life seems nearly perfect for Francie. Eventually though, Francie realizes that this isnt the case and, in a sense, looses a bit of her innocence.On her thirteenth birthday, Franci e starts to write in a journal. She begins by writing, Today I am a woman. In just similarly short years, Francie grew, learned, and changed immensely. She is a completely different person than the one who existed two years earlier, both physically and mentally. Francie learned the serious and nearly devastating watchword that her father is a drunk, and she begins writing entries in her journal such as Jan 10 Papa sick today. In her journal, Francie also wrote about her curiosity with sex. By this point in the book, Francie is no retentiveer the girl that the reader first met, but she is now a young woman.Although under a fake identity, Francie begins tending school and finds that she truly enjoys it. However, on her way home from school one day, at age fourteen, Francie experiences a horrific moment, one that can never be forgotten. She was molested and nearly raped by a neighborhood sex fiend. As if not traumatizing enough, Francie also watched her mother shoot the man i n her defense. Not long after this, an even greater event takes place in Francies life. She is informed of her fathers death, that she is told had been caused of pneumonia.Coping with her fathers death is a struggle, yet Francie begins to live life again with the love of her family and by keeping herself preoccupied with other tasks.