Literary Qualities
Smith uses a third-person omniscient narrator to relate her story. Thus, although Francie is the book’s central character, Smith develops other characters, even the minor […]
Month: August 2008
Social Sensitivity
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn remains popular because of its optimism, its feminism, and its philosophical ties to more recent novels for young readers. Women […]
Topics for Discussion
1. What is the meaning of the novel’s title? How does the tree function as a symbol throughout the novel? 2. Who seems stronger in […]
Ideas for Reports and Papers
1. Betty Smith has said that she began writing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn after she read Thomas Wolfe’s Of Time and the River. Read […]
Related Titles and Adaptations
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn began as a play entitled Francie Nolan and a short story, “Death of a Singing Waiter.” Smith eventually transformed the […]
About The Author
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on England’s southern coast. John Dickens, Charles’s father, was a respectable, middle-class naval pay […]
Themes And Characters
Just before writing A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens acted the leading role in a play called The Frozen Deep written by his friend Wilkie […]
Literary Qualities
A Tale of Two Cities, though not typical of Dickens’s writing in many ways, is a very strong novel. First, its remarkable use of language […]