Yumarlin Rodriguez
Professor Luke Vasileou
ENG103
2 December 2010
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Mirror Image of New York in the 1900’s”
Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the life of 11 year old Francie Nolan, a young girl aspiring to become more than the life she's been born into as she grows up in poverty stricken Brooklyn, New York. Francie's story tells us about the simplicity of living and dying, of surviving, and of her family. Although Betty Smith's film and novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn revolve around Francie Nolan and the Nolan family's struggles, little do we know that Francie's tale portrays the realistic life of the early twentieth-century itself and the intricacies of living in Brooklyn. It is about childhood, about growing up, about suffering and managing and sticking together during the entire time period; ranging from the broader subjects of War World 1, immigration, and politics to a family's meals and their struggles with work. All in all, it is a commentary on life in the early 1900s.
Being poor meant that the characters in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn were constantly thinking of being poor; how they would buy their next loaf of bread, or how one's status and place of living looked like compared to another. Smith not only implies that poverty affected material things like the absence of food, heat, or comfort, but also how poverty resulted in psychological and figurative aspects of the characters in her story. Poverty ultimately results in the death and worthlessness of Francie's father, causes her Uncle Flittman to run away, and meant that Francie could not attend high school and instead had to obtain a job in order to work and support her family. Every activity, game, or action in Francie's family and life were planned around a limited source of income or resources (The small jar filled with pennies Francie's mother keeps for emergencies or how the family would store even the smallest portions of food) (Elia). In addition to the Nolan's life, Smith presents an entirely poor community, and shows the close connection between poverty and exploitation in the neighborhood; store proprietors taking advantage of children's innocence to lure money out of them (overpricing candy that is either stale or no longer edible and selling it to naive children) and piano teachers begging for tea from their students (Elia). Smith's sympathetic treatment of her characters show that poverty itself at the time was the true evil, not the people; and that people were just putting their own families and children first at any expense.
Although Betty Smith's story is fiction based, it is not to be said that A Tree Grows in Brooklyn cannot be told from a realist point of view. Nearly every scene, actor, and set in the film represents or addresses the problem of poverty in early twentieth-century New York. While the story is set at the turn of the century (1902-1919) and contains many historical elements that may feel out of the ordinary to the modern reader, the message that is subtly portrayed in the story is one that we can all identify; poverty resulting from post war immigration. After the depression of the 1890s immigrants hoping to escape religious, racial, and political persecution or seeking relief from lack of economic opportunity or famine were driven to the United States. Immigration jumped from a low percentage of 3.5 million to a high standard of 9 million in the first decade of the new century (Eye Witness to History). The newcomers who arrived came with promises of work, and even though most lacked the ability to communicate in the English language they were able to find solace in the ethnic neighborhoods populated by the fellow countrymen who had arrived previously (Today known as places like: Little Italy, China Town, The Lower East Side, etc). Here they could converse in their native languages, practice their religion, and take part in cultural celebrations that helped ease the hardships of leaving their homelands. Although the United States was perceived as a land of prosperity to the incoming foreigners, they were completely unaware of the social, economic, and political reality of the city at the time.
In fact, working conditions didn’t get any better with immigrants doing the low wage jobs and leaving American’s with the more prestigious jobs like many would have expected; in actuality, it did the total opposite, making life extremely difficult for those who already resided in New York. Most industries offered hazardous conditions and very low wages, and because of the desperate need of a job, immigrants were willing to settle for any opportunity that was thrown at them—this further lowered the standards of job occupations for the less educated and poor Americans so that they were incapable of ever branching out from their poverty drought lives. Urban housing was also overcrowded and unsanitary because of the surplus of people, and many died from causes of illness and bacteria. An old Italian saying summed up the disillusionment felt by many: "I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, found out three things: First, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them" (Eye Witness to History). In spite of the difficulties, few gave up and returned home. These migrant increases in employment had a drastic surplus in the 1990’s and are predicted to continue increasing over the years in the table below:
Aside from the fact that immigration levels were increasing, the chances of getting a good education were only growing slimmer. During the 1900s, most American children attended schools for no more than a few years, and from their limited education they and their parents were often content if they acquired only the basic math and reading skills; what was sufficient enough to earn an average job. It wasn’t often that parents would bother enrolling their children into schools at all with such little possibility of having them attend: 27% of children were enrolled in school and 73% weren’t enrolled (“Census 1990”). During this time public education suffered from the fact that more than two-thirds of the nation's schools were overpopulated, and if not overpopulated were prejudice of those with low income. No education meant no good paying job in the 1900’s, and with the price of a simple pleasure as small as what would be considered today’s five cent candy bar costing nine cents back in those days when every cent was worth dying for. (Olver)
Prejudice beliefs against the Irish, which Francie and her family’s origin resided from, were most especially notable among the immigrants who moved to the United States. Many Americans considered the Irish as a dirty, stupid, and lazy race, who were always too drunk to amount to anything. It wasn’t too often that cartoonist in newspapers would contribute to images and drawings of Irish men, or the derogatory term for the Irish: “Paddys”, with resemblances of monkeys or Neanderthals; as depicted by Professor Mary Baba: “Irishmen [were drawn] as looking like apes with a jutting jaw and sloping forehead.” Irish immigrants were also blamed for causing economic problems, were Americans felt that the great numbers of Irish adding to the immigrants that were already here—the Irish consisted of one fifth of all foreign born in the originally homogenous region (“Think Quest”), were taking the most percentages of available work. Consequently, it became acceptable to discriminate against the Irish. Many job posters and newspaper ads bore the words “No Irish Need Apply.”, and hotels and restaurants had signs stating “No Irish Permitted in this Establishment.” The hatred towards the Irish extended as far as 50 years in advance, in the 1850s. Railroad contractors in New York advertised for workers and promised good pay, but when mostly Irish applied, the pay was lowered to fifty-five cents a day. When the workers protested, the militia was called in to force the men to accept. (Baba)
By the first decade of the twentieth century immigrants took up about sixty-six percent of the total of people living in New York, giving America its official reputation as the melting pot of the world. Consequently this rise in immigration resulted in the rise of Nativism; the already existing hate of Americans towards immigrants amplified by the thousands. Nativism was in fact so powerful that it was used as the stepping stone even before the 1990s of Nativist laws like the Chinese Exclusion of 1882 (Nativist law that banned Chinese immigration after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.) As a result of acts like these, tales of spying and sabotage were spread and made Nativism so strong that little things such as diarrhea epidemics were blamed on the immigrants. (McNab)
It is no wonder that the fictional character Francie Nolan spends the vast majority of the film being beaten down and depressed by her unfortunate circumstances. From a young age Francie spends her years struggling with poverty, and because of the pressure of not being able to support his family from unavailability of jobs due to the surplus of immigrants who occupy them, her father, Johnny Nolan results to alcohol and ultimately dies of alcohol abuse. Her mother and grandmother stress the fact that education is the only way to beat poverty and make Francie and her brother Neeley read a page from Shakesphere and from the Bible every night. With thoughts of progressing through education, Francie’s parents then send her to school, where she is the object of ridicule and is treated badly because she is poor. She has her Dad lie and tell the principal that she is moving in order to get her into a better school which isn’t as judgmental as her last. Here she strives for good grades and becomes the class’s best writer, but just when Francie feels at home, things have a turn for the worst; A few months before Neeley and Francie's graduation, their father dies. Francie is heartbroken and her writing begins to reflect her depression. Her teacher speaks to her about it, but Francie decides not to complete the English work for the remainder of the year, barely passing and disappointing her mother. Because of her below average grades, her mother decides to attend her brother's graduation instead of Francie's. Short after, Francie's little sister Laurie is born and her mother Katie tell the children they cannot afford to keep both Francie and Neeley in school. Katie decides that Neeley must go back to school because he would not go unless forced. Assuring Francie she will find a way to return to school eventually, Katie has Francie work for the conclusion of the film.
Elia Kazan's 1945 film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn suggests and displays all of the hardships the lower class living in the 1900's had to withstand through Francie Nolan's life; her struggles to provide for her family and make her dreams of an education come true. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn's theme of perseverance through hardship relates to the lifestyle of the 1900s and the symbol of the tree, which blossomed out of the pavements; "it grew in boarded-up lots out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement." (Smith) The symbolism of the tree growing out of cement and continuing to grow despite its bad living conditions in the ghetto of Brooklyn describes just how the people living at the time had to cope with the struggles of poverty, nativism, and loss of jobs. This motif can also be thought about in the terms of comparing old world ways to life in New York City during the time period it was made to represent.
Works Cited
Baba, Mary. "Irish Immigrant Families in Mid-Late 19th Century America." Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute (2010): n. pag. Web. 1 Dec 2010.
Elia, Kazan, Dir. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Dir. Elia Kazan." Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation: 1945, Film.
""Immigration in the early 1900s,"." EyeWitness to History. Ibis Communications, Inc., (2000). Web. 1 Dec 2010.
Immigration: The Irish." Think Quest . Think Quest Org, 2010. Web. 1 Dec 2010.
Olver, Lynne. "Food Timeline." The Food Timeline--historic food prices. N.p., 2/10/2010. Web. 1 Dec 2010.
McNab, Jamie. "The Supreme Court’s Response to Nativism in the 1920’s." Davidson.edu. Davidson, 2003. Web. 1 Dec 2010.
"School Enrollment For The Population 3 Years And Over." Census 1990 n. pag. Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau . Web. 1 Dec 2010.
Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. First Perrenial Edition. NY: Harper Perrenial Publishers, 1968. Print.
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