This book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, illustrates a young girls adolescent life through many hardships that came upon this Irish family. In the early 1900’s, Brooklyn was a beautifully, mangled mess of people from all walks of life. I loved how Smith was able to obtain such a perspective, not only from the young girl Francie Nolan, but from her family, classmates, instructors, and the musicians that waltzed and played down the street that held a three story,brick apartment building that Nolans called home. Even though Francie is malnourished, she maintains a lively perspective and her eleven year old mind produces childish thoughts. Smith maintains this point of view with her youthful analogies and adjectives that compliment her strong sentence structure and usage of words. Readers who want to know about what life was like in the past as a young girl who, by no fault of her own, was an outcast simply because of heritage will enjoy this story.

As the son of immigrants,this book is closely related to the struggles that our family went through when they came to the US and there after. Although not as successful as Francie but we definitely manage to make our lives meaningfull. Eventough the time this book was written is well past us, we come to see that very little has changed as to the difficult times one must endur to live,love, and pursuit self happiness. A defenate self look to a humand life that opens ones eyes to value ones roots.