Summary Of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Although on the front page of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn claims to be written by Betty Smith, it is simply a pseudonym for Elizabeth Lillian Weher. Elizabeth Weher has written
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Tomorrow Will Be Better, Maggie-Now, and Joy In the Morning. Betty Smith, née Elizabeth Lillian Weher was born on December 15th, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York. “Smith needed a copy of her birth certificate to get a passport, she was surprised to discover her name listed as "Sophia." Her mother told her: "A midwife officiated and she could speak little English. When she went to report [the] birth, the official kept shouting "name?" at her and the befuddled woman thought he meant her name so she said,`Sophie.'" Betty Smith went to high school on and off again, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She never completed her high school education, but she was accepted
into University of Michigan, and studied journalism, writing, drama and literature. She wrote many plays and other works in Ann Arbor, and was recognized for some of her more refined works. She moved back to the East Coast to attend Yale School of Drama, and flourished under the watchful eye of George Pierce Baker. Studying under him helped her immensely, and she continued to write and produce her plays.
Thomas and Marera Hummel, immigrants from Germany, were Betty’s grandparents. They came from Germany when Marera was 15, and Thomas was 30. They had four children, named Marera, Lotty, Annie, and Katey. Katey married John Casper Wehner, and had Elizabeth (Betty), William, and Regina. Betty was not very close to her mother, but absolutely adored her father like Francie Nolan, in her book.
Betty Smith grew up in a tenement in Brooklyn, New York, not unlike the one that Francie grew up in. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is rather reminiscent of her own childhood, with working, and alcoholic father, love of books and a lack of money. Betty Smith’s background helped contribute to her writing of the book by the book being a literal representation of her childhood.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, being about Betty’s childhood, gives the book the aire of being a fond story told by grandma at Thanksgiving.
Betty is passionate about helping out the poor, to help them grow up in a better place than her. Betty wrote about her life as a child in Brooklyn with her children watching and reading along side her. She had been married to George Smith, who she divorced after having two children, Nancy and Mary. Nancy and Mary loved to hear their mother’s stories, and read them while eating lunch. Nancy writes in a letter “Since "the novel" was so much a family affair and so much a part of our lives, my sister and I read it, discussed it, and made suggestions. As children, we too, had lived in Brooklyn, and the scenes were familiar to us. When we came home for lunch, the first thing we'd ask for were the new pages of the novel.” Betty then decided to marry Joe Jones, a private in the US army. Following the pattern of divorce, she did divorce Joe, but married her longtime beau, Bob Finch. Betty was drawn to write about this topic because it was what she knew and loved, her beloved Brooklyn
childhood.
Betty Smith is a very interestingly complex person. She was not afraid to be herself, and as a women in the early 1900s, that was a very hard thing to do. Her background of being second generation American really helped shape her into a patriot, but her grandparent’s German lifestyle helped make her who she was. Betty Smith’s book faced a bit of controversy, as it talks a bit rudely about Catholics, and labels things as ‘Jew’, like ‘Jew pickles’. She has a bit of bias, yes, but only as much as that time period had and considered common. This bit of bias does not at all hurt the book, but instead helps paint a picture of what life was like in the early 1900s Brooklyn.