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A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN Discussion Questions, Reading Quizzes, and Reading Schedule

    Betty Smith finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1943 and produced one of the most teachable novels in the American canon. Francie Nolan’s Brooklyn gives students something to argue about on every page: the nature of poverty, the meaning of family loyalty, the cost of a parent’s weakness, and the question of what it actually takes to escape the circumstances you are born into. These discussion questions cover all 56 chapters across six reading sections.

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions: Table of Contents

    1. Reading 1: Chapters 1–6 (Book 1)
    2. Reading 2: Chapters 7–14 (Book 2)
    3. Reading 3: Chapters 15–31 (Book 3A)
    4. Reading 4: Chapters 32–42 (Book 3B)
    5. Reading 5: Chapters 43–48 (Book 4A)
    6. Reading 6: Chapters 49–56 (Book 4B and Book 5)
    7. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Reading Quizzes

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions: Reading 1 (Chapters 1–6)

    These questions cover Book 1: Saturday in Williamsburg, the junk-selling ritual, Francie’s love of the library, Johnny’s Saturday evening preparations, the portrait of the Gaddis family, Sissy’s introduction, and the weekend meat-buying errand.

    1. Francie deliberately wastes her coffee each day even though the family has almost nothing. Her mother defends this practice by saying it gives the children “the feeling of how it would be to have lots of money.” What does this ritual reveal about Katie Nolan’s philosophy of parenting? Do you agree with her approach?
    2. The tree that grows in Francie’s yard “liked poor people” — it thrives in neglected lots and out of cement where nothing else can grow. How does Smith use the tree as a symbol in the opening chapters? What does it suggest about the people who live around it?
    3. Francie is reading every book in the library in alphabetical order and refuses to skip even the dry ones. What does this project reveal about her character? What does it cost her and what does it give her?
    4. Henny Gaddis is dying of consumption with clear pink cheeks and burning eyes. He tells Francie, “You were born to lick this rotten life.” What does Henny see in Francie that other people around her cannot? Why does Smith include this scene so early in the novel?
    5. Aunt Sissy has been married three times, has lost ten babies, and carries on with a cheerful recklessness that shocks the neighbors and delights her family. Smith describes her as “healthily hungry” about men while Flossie Gaddis, who chases Frank the horse-washer, is “starved.” What distinction does Smith draw between these two women? What does it reveal about her values?

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions: Reading 2 (Chapters 7–14)

    These questions cover Book 2: how Johnny and Katie met and married, the Rommely family history, the Nolan family history, Johnny and Katie’s early marriage as school janitors, Francie’s birth, and the family’s circumstances before the novel’s present-day action.

    1. Katie sees Johnny dancing and decides in that moment that he is worth slaving for all her life, even knowing she would have to do the slaving. Smith writes, “Maybe that decision was her great mistake.” Do you think it was a mistake? What would Katie’s life have looked like if she had waited for a man who felt that way about her?
    2. Mary Rommely cannot read or write her own name, yet Smith describes her as having a wisdom that educated people lack. She understands sin, grief, weakness, and cruelty — and she condones weakness in others while remaining inflexibly rigid herself. What does Smith argue through Mary’s character about the relationship between formal education and genuine wisdom?
    3. The Nolan boys (Andy, Georgie, Frankie, and Johnny) are all beautiful, talented, and doomed. They die young of violence, recklessness, or alcohol. Smith writes that they “ran to weak and talented men.” Johnny is the only one to survive past thirty and the only one to leave children. What does Smith argue through the Nolan men about the relationship between charm and survival?
    4. Johnny spends the night of Francie’s birth drinking with his brother while Katie labors alone for nearly twenty-four hours. When he finally arrives with avocados, Katie comforts him. Why does Katie comfort Johnny rather than blaming him? What does this moment reveal about the dynamic of their marriage and about Katie’s character?
    5. Smith writes that Francie “was of all the Rommelys and all the Nolans” — that she carried the violence, passion, mysticism, cruelty, sentimentality, and love of beauty of both families. But she also had “something different” that came from God or whatever is its equivalent. What do you think Smith means by this? Is Francie fundamentally shaped by her family or by something she was born with?

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions: Reading 3 (Chapters 15–31)

    These questions cover Book 3A: the Nolans’ new flat and its remarkable piano, the neighborhood stores and their role in Francie’s world, Francie’s school experiences and the cruel teacher, Neeley’s school experiences with the more nurturing teacher, Johnny’s lesson on Democracy and Bushwick Avenue, the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie lie and Francie’s discovery of writing, Christmas Eve and the Christmas tree competition, and the end of year family life.

    1. The abandoned piano sitting in the Nolans’ new flat costs nothing and yet transforms the room entirely. Francie tries to wrap her arms around it and cannot. Katie sees it and immediately hatches a plan to exploit it for piano lessons. What does each family member’s response to the piano reveal about their character? What does the piano itself represent in the novel?
    2. Francie’s teacher humiliates her in front of the class for writing compositions about beauty and poetry rather than gritty neighborhood reality, insisting she write “the truth.” A second teacher is warm and encouraging. What does the contrast between these two teachers reveal about Smith’s argument regarding the role educators play in the lives of poor children? Which teacher is right about what Francie needs?
    3. The Christmas tree vendor throws the largest tree in the neighborhood at Francie and Neeley rather than give it away freely because he decides they need to “get used to” a world that takes rather than gives. Yet he also feels agonized by the decision. What does this scene argue about the relationship between individual kindness and the economic logic that overrides it?
    4. When Francie lies about the pumpkin pie and gets caught, her teacher explains the difference between a lie and a story: a lie comes from cowardice or meanness, a story comes from imagining how things should have been. How does this distinction shape Francie’s development as a writer? Is the teacher’s distinction a sound one, or is it a way of letting Francie off the hook?
    5. Standing on the fire escape watching the Christmas tree haul, Katie thinks through her children’s futures in precise detail. She knows Francie will grow away from her, that Neeley will never leave, that she loves the boy more, and that education rather than money is what will save them. Why does Smith give this meditation to Katie in this moment? What does it reveal about the cost of being the strong parent?

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions: Reading 4 (Chapters 32–42)

    These questions cover Book 3B: Francie’s diary entries at thirteen, the neighborhood sex predator and Katie shooting him, Francie’s adolescent curiosity about sex and Katie’s frank explanations, Francie’s final year of school and her composition writing, and the summer of 1914 leading into the approach of war.

    1. Francie’s diary records Johnny’s deterioration in clipped, factual entries: “Papa sick today.” “Two men brought papa home today.” “Papa hasn’t worked for over a month.” Katie reads the diary and makes Francie replace every instance of “drunk” with “sick.” What does this small act of editorial censorship reveal about Katie? Is she protecting Johnny’s dignity, protecting the children, or protecting herself?
    2. When the sex predator corners Francie in the hallway, she freezes completely — her hands grip the banister and she cannot move. Katie shoots the man without hesitation and with a steady hand, then throws the gun into the washtub and goes to her daughter. What does this scene reveal about the difference between Francie and Katie? What does Smith argue about the kind of strength required to survive in poverty?
    3. Katie explains sex to Francie plainly and bluntly, using words she has no other words for, because no one ever told Katie what she needed to know. Smith writes that Francie was “luckier than most children of the neighborhood” because of this conversation. What does Smith argue through this scene about the duty of parents to their daughters?
    4. As Francie approaches fourteen, she notices that the boys in the neighborhood are disappearing into factories and errand jobs, and that the girls are moving toward marriage and domestic labor. She watches these patterns with a mixture of dread and determination. What does she fear most about the future that she sees around her? What separates her from the girls who accept that path without question?
    5. Johnny Nolan knows he is dying before the reader does. In Chapter 40, he walks Francie to her new school (a school in a better neighborhood) and tells her she belongs there. He has stopped drinking. He looks at the school and says quietly, “I never had a chance.” What does Johnny understand about his own life in this scene, and what does Francie understand that she cannot yet articulate?

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions: Reading 5 (Chapters 43–48)

    These questions cover Book 4A: Francie’s first job at the artificial flower factory and her initiation by the older workers, Neeley’s first job as an errand boy, the ceremony of bringing home their first pay in new bills, Francie’s second job at the press clipping bureau in New York, summer school and the college courses, and the figure of Ben Blake.

    1. On Francie’s first day at the artificial flower factory, the older workers torment her systematically all morning. Everything changes the moment she laughs. What does Smith argue through this initiation scene about how working-class communities absorb and test newcomers? What would have happened if Francie had cried or gotten angry instead?
    2. At the press clipping bureau, Francie becomes the fastest reader in the office but the lowest paid. She never finds out how underpaid she is because she isn’t friendly enough with the other readers to be taken into their confidence. What does this detail reveal about the cost of Francie’s isolation? Is her isolation a strength or a weakness in this context?
    3. Ben Blake is nineteen, brilliant, and has his entire life planned in a straight unswerving line: law school, country practice, state legislature, governor. Smith writes that everyone who knows him is certain he will do exactly what he plans. What does Ben represent in the novel? Why does Francie like him enormously without being able to love him?
    4. Francie rides the great Williamsburg Bridge over to New York for the first time and finds it disappointing — just tracks and traffic like any Brooklyn street. New York itself disappoints her too. She decides that “there is nothing new in the world” and grieves like Alexander the Great. What does Smith argue through Francie’s disappointment? Is this a crisis of vision, a consequence of poverty, or simply what growing up feels like?
    5. Francie takes three college courses in summer school and nearly fails French until Ben crams her for the final. She passes with the lowest possible mark and tells herself “passing is passing.” At the end of the summer she fails the college entrance examinations in everything but chemistry. Yet she tells her mother confidently, “I’ll pass next year. It can be done and I’ll do it.” What keeps Francie moving forward against repeated failure and disappointment?

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions: Reading 6 (Chapters 49–56, Book 4B and Book 5)

    These questions cover the final section: Francie’s enrollment in more college courses, her relationship with Ben Blake, her one extraordinary evening with Lee Rhynor before he ships to France, Sissy’s miracle baby, Uncle Willie’s disappearance as a one-man band, Mary Rommely’s death, Katie’s engagement to McShane, Neeley and Francie’s last evening together before she leaves for Michigan, and Francie’s farewell to Brooklyn.

    1. Lee Rhynor spends one evening with Francie and then disappears into the war. He is engaged to a woman in Pennsylvania whom he never mentions. Francie knows she will likely never see him again and cannot find out if he lives or dies. What does this brief encounter accomplish in the novel? Why does Smith include it rather than giving Francie a more conventional romance?
    2. On her last night at work, Francie stands at the window overlooking the East River and thinks: “The last time of anything has the poignancy of death itself.” She thinks about her father, the hallway attacker, Lee Rhynor, and the coming move to Michigan and wonders whether Brooklyn itself was a dream or whether she is the dreamer. What does Smith argue about memory and identity through Francie’s meditation on leavings?
    3. Francie visits Cheap Charlie’s on her last Saturday and pays fifty cents to put a real doll on the prize board so that one child will win something. Charlie is outraged. Francie says, “Let somebody win something just once!” What does this scene argue about Francie’s development? How does she differ from the Francie who watched Neeley buy picks as a child?
    4. Neeley says goodbye to Francie privately before the wedding because the wedding day will be too crowded for a real farewell. He kisses her cheek, calls her “mushy” when she cries, and then his voice goes “ragged as though he, too, was going to cry.” Standing in the dark at the foot of the stairs, he waves and is gone. Smith writes: “So like papa… so like papa, she thought. But he had more strength in his face than papa had had.” What does the comparison between Neeley and Johnny mean at this moment in the novel?
    5. Francie’s last act before leaving Brooklyn is to look out the window and see a little girl sitting on a fire escape with a book and a bag of candy — exactly as Francie had once sat. She calls out “Hello, Francie,” and the child corrects her. Francie closes the window. What does Smith argue through this final image? What has changed and what remains the same? Does the ending offer hope, resignation, or something else entirely?

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Reading Quizzes

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn does not lend itself easily to reading accountability through discussion alone. Students who have not done the reading can follow a discussion far enough to coast. The reading quizzes below ensure that students arrive at discussion with the text fresh. Each quiz has 10 multiple choice questions designed with tricky distractors: students who rely on memory, movie versions, or cross-referencing other questions will often guess wrong. Students who read carefully will score well.

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Quiz Options

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    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Reading Schedule

    • Quiz 1: Chapters 1–6 (Book 1)
    • Quiz 2: Chapters 7–14 (Book 2)
    • Quiz 3: Chapters 15–31 (Book 3A)
    • Quiz 4: Chapters 32–42 (Book 3B)
    • Quiz 5: Chapters 43–48 (Book 4A)
    • Quiz 6: Chapters 49–56 (Book 4B and Book 5)

    Alternative Reading Schedule: 4 Readings

    For classes covering the novel in four readings rather than six, the quizzes combine as follows:

    • Quiz 1: Chapters 1–14 (Books 1 and 2) — 15 questions
    • Quiz 2: Chapters 15–31 (Book 3A) — 15 questions
    • Quiz 3: Chapters 32–42 (Book 3B) — 15 questions
    • Quiz 4: Chapters 43–56 (Books 4 and 5) — 15 questions

    Using These A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Discussion Questions and Quizzes

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn rewards the kind of discussion that stays close to the text. The six discussion questions per section generate genuine argument: there are no obvious right answers, and Smith gives evidence for multiple positions on almost every question. The reading quizzes keep students accountable so those discussions can actually happen. Run the quiz at the start of class, score it quickly, then move directly into discussion while the reading is fresh.

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