I always wondered what humans would show aliens if they came down to earth. Maybe some people would show their smartphones or computers to pride themselves on the technological progress humans made. Maybe some would show the great works of Van Gogh or Mozart to demonstrate artistic integrity. I would show a book, but what book? Maybe Ready Player One to show that we aren’t ready for them yet, or maybe Harry Potter to show that our worlds colliding may not be a bad thing after all? 

If aliens came down from the sky today and asked me to show them one book that captured human life, I would read to them A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is not the most action-packed, interesting, or even sophisticated book I’ve ever read. It’s a book I would recommend to everyone, but not everyone. Those that love the thrill and chase in Hunger Games and Maze Runner may fall asleep reading this book. Those that are used to interpreting literary classics like Odessey may find A Tree Grows in Brooklyn subpar with its simple dialect. However, those readers will have missed the point. The beauty of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn doesn’t come from its sophisticated diction, metaphorical imagery, or even the plot. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a sensitive piece of fiction representative of the turmoil a child faces transitioning into adulthood. 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Betty Smith about a fictional girl named Francie Nolan. The novel follows Francie from age of 11 to 16. While there are no true “events” or “turning point” in the book, the long-standing conflict for Francie and her family is dealing with living in poverty in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 

The reader learns alongside Francie how the world works and how it is changing with her. 

From the start, Francie has always had a tense relationship with her mother. When Francie and her mother start to fight, she thinks to herself ”We’re too much alike to understand each other because we don’t even understand ourselves (4.43).” 

Francie has to come to terms that she is growing into her mother and that the people that bring you into this world will be the ones that shape you. 

Disconnect and apathy come easily to children that have only felt the lecture of their parents. Francie has only seen her mother as the realist that spoils her dreamlike view of the world. But here, Francie has realigned herself as her mother’s daughter. 

Francie’s mother sees her younger self in Francie and this frustration building between them. She doesn’t know how to parent Francie and make her “grow up” without removing all the color in the world.

Francie now sees they are both lost: Francie in understanding the world and Francie’s mother in parenting a dreamer.

When Francie lets go of her first love, her mother says to her, “Oh, you’ll be happy again, never fear. But you won’t forget. Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man reminds you of him.” Here, Betty Smith introduces the purpose of lost love and why it’s necessary for one’s journey. This bittersweet farewell is a lesson that all will experience in life.

The title A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is referenced multiple times in the novel, the most significant times at the beginning and end. While the tree can be interpreted as Francie’s “lighthouse” and perseverance, the tree grows as its own character further in the book. In the end, the tree metaphor lets the reader know that Francie will now be continuing her adventure alone, but not lonely. She has finally outgrown us the readers and ready to take on the world with the lessons that we’ve watched her learn. Just as we were learning within the nest about Francie’s family and neighbors, she was learning how to fly out the nest with the possibilities outside of her Williamsburg tenement. 

I was once Francie Nolan, and I still am Francie Nolan. I’m on the tightrope age of 18 where I’m too young to leave the nest but too old to stay for long.

Some books feel time-sensitive and that there’s a perfect moment where you should read them. As if there’s a time where you can directly empathize with the book to its fullest. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a timeless read that I’m both thankful and bittersweet to have read this week. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.