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Excerpt from 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith: A Timeless Classic

Excerpt from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: A Timeless Classic

The classic novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith, depicts the realities of early 20th century immigrant life. Its honest portrayal of life's hardships inspired a corresponding Broadway musical and movie in 1945. Here's an excerpt from the first chapter:

"Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer of 1912. Somber, as a word, was better. But it did not apply to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Prairie was lovely and Shenandoah had a beautiful sound, but you couldn't fit those words into Brooklyn. Serene was the only word for it; especially on a Saturday afternoon in summer.

Late in the afternoon the sun slanted down into the mossy yard belonging to Francie Nolan's house, and warmed the worn wooden fence. Looking at the shafted sun, Francie had that same fine feeling that came when she recalled the poem they recited in school.

The one tree in Francie's yard was neither a pine nor a hemlock. It had pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenements districts."

MORE BY BETTY SMITH

Tomorrow Will Be Better 
Maggie Now
Joy in the Morning


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