A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is an appropriate name for the book. It’s about 7 years of Frances Nolan’s life. The book’s title is highly symbolical and took me several passes through it before I understood it completely. In the beginning of the book the author talks about the “Tree of Heaven”. “No matter where the seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky”, is an excerpt from the …showed first 75 words of 473 total…

…showed last 75 words of 473 total…as she grew up, her dad dying, no food, her mom working so hard even with a new fetus, Francie skipping high school to make money, etc. But like the tree, Francie gets back up, tallies the losses and keeps going. She eventually makes it to college and that’s where the story ends. At the very end of the book she says “Goodbye Francie”, which means she’s beyond her past and moving on.