ATGiBsummaries

President Woodrow Wilson Asks Congress to Declare War on Germany - War is Declared on April 6, 1917

The book starts off in the summer of 1912, focusing on the character, Francie Nolan. At this time, Francie is eleven years old and lives in Williamsburg, New York with her mother, Katie, father, Johnny, and brother, Neeley. She is bright, curious, and allows the good in her life to overshadow the bad. This section chronicles the present life of Francie. Everyday, Francie and her Neeley collect trash in order to earn 16 pennies. Half of it is saved in a money jar in their closet, while the remaining is divided among themselves. Then, Francie goes to the library and picks a book to read everyday. She mostly stays by herself in her house. At the end of the chapter, Johnny comes into the house, excited about getting a job for the evening. Francie helps him get ready for it and admires her father deeply.
 * 4/6/11: Pages 1-35**

Francie and Johnny walk to the trolley, and Francie sees him off to work. Francie goes to confession with her friend, Maudie. Francie was in there longer, for she had a more complicated life than Maudie. When Johnny comes home, he talks to Katie about the past and his previous girlfriend, Hildy O’Dair.
 * 4/13/11: Pages 36-165**

The Past Katie, at age seventeen, works with her best friend, Hildy at the Castle Braid Factory. At the time, Hildy is dating Johnny. Yet, Katie also falls for the nineteen year old Johnny, and steals him away from Hildy. Four months later, Katie and Johnny get married. Then, the novel goes on into the family history of Katie and Johnny.
 * Katie has a father who is angry and very judgmental of everybody and everything. Yet, his mother is the total opposite of him. She is a wise, compassionate, and religious mother, who never went to schooling. The couple only had daughters: Sissy, Eliza, Evy, and Katie. Sissy is the oldest, who never went to school. She loves a lot and has many men chasing after her for her beauty. She gave birth to ten children, with all of them dying. Therefore, she treats Francie and Neeley as if they were her own children. Eliza is a nun, so she has committed her whole life to God. Evy is skilled at mimicking, is married to Willie Flittman, and has three children. Katie married young and now has two children.
 * Johnny also has three siblings. Yet, unlike Katie, all of his siblings have died. They are Andy, Georgie, and Frankie; and all of them died young. Johnny is the only one of his siblings to live beyond the age of thirty. Ruthie, Johnny's mother, hates Katie because she believes that she took away Johnny in her time of need.

Katie becomes pregnant, and the birth of Francie makes Johnny go over the edge. When he comes home the next day, Katie comforts him, telling him that everything will be fine. Mary, Katie’s mother tells her how to successfully raise her children. She says that her children should have imagination, read from the works of Shakespeare and the Protestant Bible, and save money for future usage. Katie follows her instructions, and still continues the practices with her children. In the marriage, Katie sees the differences between her and Johnny. Katie is a realist with ambition, whereas Johnny is a dreamer with no future planned out. The Nolans lived in numerous houses, with them moving to different neighborhoods within Brooklyn. A prime example of this is Sissy’s antics. Sissy, Francie’s aunt, is known as her pretty aunt. Sissy treats her niece and nephew as if they were her own children. So, Sissy gives them a tricycle that she picked up from the street. The woman and a police officer come over to fix the dispute, but Sissy’s sweet talk and looks makes the officer allow Sissy to “borrow” the tricycle for some time. Then, Sissy gives them a box, entitled the “American Dream” that contains adult material. In their new home, the one in Williamsburg, Francie learns to toughen up. Across the school wall, a girl with the whiteboard erasers spits in Francie’s face for no reason.

Francie loves the piano that was in their home, but did not know how to play it. So, Katie brought Francie and Neeley to piano lessons in exchange for cleaning. Not to be upstaged, Johnny, also wanted singing lessons for his children. Yet, Johnny broke the whole window instead of fixing the broken sash cord. This was just another failure committed by Johnny, with Katie having to pick up the pieces. In preparation for school, Neeley and Francie needs to get a vaccination from a doctor. In the doctor's office, Francie overhears the doctor and nurse's critical comments about her. They judge her character and intelligence based on where she is from and her appearance. At school, Francie quickly learns that her teacher gives special privileges towards the clean and rich children, and she avoids the dirty and poor ones. Also, Francie feels lonely at school by her mother's extreme practices. In order for her children to not get lice, Katie placed kerosine oil and scrubwoman's soap into their hair. When the mumps came about, Katie used the hair treatment and placed garlic around their necks. These practices, led to her children never being sick in all of their school years. At school, Francie loves two teachers: Mr. Morton and Miss Bernstone. They are the only ones who make Francie happy at school.

Francie changes schools. Enjoys writing and is awarded for her writing. She starts to grow up and starts becoming a woman. Christmas passes and Katie decides that even thought she doesn't love Francie as much she still wants her to be the one to get an education. Johnny's drinking problem starts to become more severe and ha falls into a depression and even stop s drinking. A sexual molester is around the neighborhood that is preying on young little girl including on that he eventually killed. Francie has an encounter with the molester and narrowly escapes by because of her mother was lucky enough to see the man and able to get their gun to shoot him and make him let go of Francie. Sissy is able to get a baby from a friend that she made a deal with. Everyone doubts that is really hers but they don't bother ruining it. Johnny later dies of pneumonia and Katie sets up the funeral arrangements and attends the funeral with Francie and Neeley who are mourning their father very much. While at the service Katie sees Johnny's ex-girlfriend and gets jealous and says that she never loved Johnny. When they come back there is food and the house is clean and they all sit down at the table. Katie starts crying and Evy says aloud that the stress is not good for her new baby coming.
 * 4/20/11: Pages 166-295**

In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn the Nolan family is facing the aftermath of Johnny's death. They're forced to face the loss of income, comfort, and understanding that Johnny brought to the family. At the beginning of the reading Francie and Neeley are finally crying over their father's death and Francie is so angry that she defies God and tells Neeley that she does not believe in him. This ends up scaring Neeley, but they never mention it again. Katie then tries to make everything go back to normal by starting their reading again and giving them small treasures such as hot chocolate. Katie is strong for both Francie and Neeley, even though she must face the addition of a new child without Johnny. Katie then begins to worry about the money and ends up cashing in the children's life insurance just to get by for a while. She is having difficulties with money because the pregnancy is making everything harder. Katie prays for a solution and ends up with one in the form of Mr. McGarrity who misses Johnny's talk of his great family. He gives both Neeley and Francie jobs to tide them by, but they refuse any money he tries to throw at them. They only take what they have earned. The days go by a little smoother with the added money and Francie visits with Sissy's new child. And in doing do Francie realizes the change in Sissy. Francie and Neeley go through confirmation and Francie then begins to have trouble in English. She is writing compositions based on the pain brought on by Johnny's death and her teacher doesn't like it. Without realizing it, the teacher insults Francie and ultimately ruins her writing and desire to write. Her play is not chosen for the composition either and Francie is upset. Francie begins to understand her mother's attitude towards her. Katie goes in to labor, but when she actually begins to have the child she sends Francie out to spare her the pain of listening and facing childbirth. Katie hopes for a boy but instead gives birth to a dark haired and eyed girl named Annie Laurie Nolan after a song Johnny used to sing. Francie and Neeley continue to work at the Saloon while Katie cares for Laurie. Francie graduates and discovers she had more friends then she realized. And she receives flowers that her father had purchased months ago for her. Francie longs to go to high school. Francie then gets asked out on her first date by a boy named Albie at the graduation celebration. During the summer Francie gets a job at a fake flower factory and is teased till she laughs at the delivery boy Mark. She is immediately introduced into the circle of women there, but when they were laid off Francie went looking for a new kind of job. Neeley worked across the bridge as a errand boy in New York for a brokerage firm. The money brought in helped a lot for the family. Francie got a new job at the Press Clipping Bureau and stated out at 10 dollars a week. Then she was offered a higher position for 20 dollars, but she wanted to refuse in order to go to high school. However, Katie refused and instead told Neeley he had to start high school. Francie hated her for it, but in the end felt pity for her mother and acquiesced. Christmas was wonderful with the additional money and Francie becomes more of a woman. The new year begins off right and wrong. Some angry words are said between neighbors but the Nolans make a night of it. Francie begins to feel a longing for love and contemplates what it would be like to find love. Francie and Neeley discuss how they're not the type to be drunk and how Katie fears they'll turn out just like their father. More of Johnny shows in Neeley in the form of music. While war seems to be so close. Sissy's first husband, the firefighter died. Sissy's John is mad and he claims they're living in adultery and begins to make demands of the Nolan family and Sissy. He is now called Steve and there is finally a man in the family. Sissy and Steve got remarried just to make sure it was legal this time. Sissy was in love. Sissy and Katie begin to wonder how Steve knew about Lucia being in trouble with a married man, how the child looked so much like him, and how he said he would never have another man's child but accepted Lucia's as his own. War was declared and a German spy was found in Francie's work place. Her boss became skittish and refused to take on new accounts and finally sold the business. Francie applied for the Communications Corporation and was given the job.
 * 4/27/11: Pages 296 - 425 **

Francie does not want to go to high school anymore. Instead, she wants to go to college. So, she takes college summer classes at the Brooklyn Heights. There, she meets a boy named Ben Blake, who she instantly adores. Around this time, Sissy was going to give birth to her eleventh child. So, she goes to a hospital and does not want a midwife, which surprises her family. At the hospital, the doctor performs a miracle and revives Sissy’s baby. She named him Stephen. Then, Francie meets Lee Rhynor through a friend. Lee is a soldier, who will go to France to fight in World War I. He is also engaged to a girl from his hometown in Pennsylvania. Francie and Lee pretend to be together, but it becomes something more. Francie becomes infatuated with him, and Francie promises to wait for him. A couple of days later, Francie receives a letter written by Mrs. Rhynor (Lee’s new wife), that basically says her relationship with him is over. Francie is heartbroken and she is always reminded of him. The next week, Mc Shane proposes to Katie. Then, Evy’s husband Willie, leaves her and their children. Now, the family considers him as if he were dead. Francie is going to go to the University of Michigan. At this time, Francie is dating Ben. Ben gives her a promise ring, which means that he will marry her in five years. Francie says goodbye to Neeley, signifying their first time being separated from each other. At the end, Francie says goodbye to her former self, telling the readers that she has grown up.
 * 5/4/11: Pages 426-493**