A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Essay

In the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith and in the memoir All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein, the topic of survival is notably evident. Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Gerda Weissmann Klein in All But My Life survived conditions beyond what typical children in current society can imagine. The responsibilities that they had were far greater than the ones teenagers today have to face. Francie Nolan and her family had to survive poverty during the 1900s. Gerda Klein had to leave her family and survive terrible conditions on her own during the Holocaust. The two girls' situations were incomparably different, however, they had very similar mentalities and a common perseverance. Their maturity and understanding of
Her family had to work hard in order to survive on a extremely low income. Her mother, Katie, had to clean on her hands and knees in order to pay for rent for their tiny home. Their father, Johnny, was a singing-waiter and he did not bring in much income since his line of work was not very steady, but he managed to contribute some money. On Saturdays, Francie and her brother, Neeley, sold junk that they collected throughout the week for a few pennies. By saving their money and spending it wisely, they managed to get by every year. Even though they didn't have much money, they liked to enjoy some luxuries occasionally. Katie Nolan always poured Francie coffee even though she never drank it and it always ended up going down the drain anyways. Every time her sisters gave her a lecture about wasting things, Katie always explained why she still poured Francie coffee. ““I think it's good that people like us can waste something once in a while and get the feeling of how it would be to have lots of money and not have to worry about scrounging”” (Smith 12). Even though Francie grew up living a hard life, she had a lot of fun. In a conversation between Francie and Neeley, they expressed how much fun they had despite the hard