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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Difference between revisions
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Notable adaptations: the 1945 [[Film of the Book]] directed by Elia Kazan with Oscar-winning performances by James Dunn as Johnny and Peggy Ann Garner as Francie; and a 1951 Broadway musical, which Betty Smith helped George Abbott adapt from her book, unsuccessful despite very good songs by Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields and Shirley Booth's show-stealing portrayal of Cissy (as Sissy's name was spelled in this version).
{{tropelist}}
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Thomas Rommely (who "never forgave" any of his children for marrying and greeted them with "''Gott verdammte!''" [basically the German equivalent of "God damn you!"]); Johnny's mother (possessive, yet not affectionate) and whose reaction to the birth of her grandchild is to wail "Now she's got you good. You'll never come back to me." Katie kind of counts too, for her favoritism of Neely, which Francie picks up on.
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* [[Betty and Veronica]]: For Johnny, choosing between Katie (Veronica) and Hildy (Betty).
* [[Big Applesauce]]
* [[Black Bra and Panties]]: Francie buys a set of black lace underwear, hoping her mother will disapprove. [[Open
* [[Book Dumb]]: Nearly all the adult characters, who haven't had the benefit of much education (or any, in the case of Sissy and Mary, who [[Never Learned to Read]]).
* [[Book Ends]]: By the end of the book, Francie is moving away from her old neighborhood, but many details from its introduction are mentioned, down to a girl who sits on the fire escape reading, like Francie used to.
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* [[Cool Loser]]: Francie is a loner, and doesn't have any girl-friends. She's shocked when the other girls in her grade write fond things in her yearbook and ask her to come to the same high school as them on graduation day.
* [[Cool Teacher]]: Francie has a few to make up for the [[Stern Teacher|Stern Teachers]] she has otherwise.
* [[
* [[Dark Reprise]]: The last verse of "Molly Malone." Johnny sings it when he comes home late at night, and Francie always tries to get the apartment door open before he can reach this verse.
* [[Dastardly Whiplash]]: The plays Francie goes to see have villains of this variety. As she grows up she finds it harder to enjoy them because of the lack of realism, and even thinks it would be smarter of the typical [[Distressed Damsel]] heroine to just marry the villain as he wants, because he's at least nearby and willing, whereas her supposed true love apparently has better things to do and only returns in time to perform the heroic rescue.
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* [[Education Mama]]: Mary Rommely tells Katie that if she wants her children to rise in the world, one of the things she must do is read them one page a night from [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]] and the complete works of [[William Shakespeare]]. Katie tries her best, and it does have an effect.
* [[Embarrassing First Name]]: Neeley's real name is Cornelius, after a character from ''[[Julius Caesar]]''. [[Do Not Call Me Paul|He hates being called by it]] and insists on going by Neeley.
* [[Four Girl Ensemble]]: "The Rommely women": Katie is practical and hard-working, Evy is a bit of a [[Deadpan Snarker]] and aspires to a "refined" lifestyle, and Sissy is a tender [[Good Bad Girl]]. Their sister Eliza is described as having been rather dull, having joined a convent, and is barely mentioned, so the fourth corner is really filled by first [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Mary, their saintlike mother]], and later Francie herself.
* [[Frothy Mugs of Water]]: In-universe -- when Katie reads Francie's diary, she insists that Francie sanitize all of the (frequent) references to her father's drinking by replacing the word "drunk" with "sick."
* [[Generation Xerox]]: Francie and Neeley essentially grow up to be like the parent of their respective genders.
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* [[I Am Not Pretty]]: Francie believes this about herself, but this turns out to be untrue, based on the number of men who seem interested in her when she grows up.
* [[Immigrant Parents]]: Or grandparents, to be accurate. Francie stands out in that she's the only student in her class whose parents were actually born in America.
* [[
* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]: Sissy reminisces at one point about how nice her figure was when she was younger. Note that she apparently still is a looker, since men still seem to want her as much as ever (and that's after she's had ''ten'' children, mind).
* [[Law of Inverse Fertility]]: Sissy wants nothing more than to be a mother, but she has one stillbirth after another. Finally she gives up and adopts the illegitimate baby of an Italian girl, [[Implausible Deniability|insisting to everyone that she was pregnant and gave birth naturally]]. Soon afterwards, she has a healthy child of her own.
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* [[Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone]]: Francie has to shoo Neely out of the room so Katie and McShane can have a tender moment.
* [[Love Martyr]]: Katie to Johnny. The narration notes that if she'd married a man who felt this way about ''her'', the family would have been a lot better off.
* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: Sissy tells Katie that the illegitimate baby she adopted (see above) actually looks remarkably like her husband. Katie insists that's just her imagination, but then asks her if she ever did find out who the baby's father was. Sissy admits that she didn't, but recalls that her husband was the one who told her about the pregnant girl in the first place. Then she muses that her husband always did say he'd never be willing to adopt another man's child....
* [[Mama Bear]]: Katie when the pedophile comes after Francie. Getting the gun in the first place was a [[Papa Wolf]] move on Johnny's part.
* [[Marital Rape License]]: Discussed. See [[Sour Prudes]].
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* [[No Periods Period]]: Averted (albeit euphemistically) -- Francie gets her period for the first time in the middle of a [[Heroic BSOD]] triggered by seeing the women stone Joanna, and she thinks her heart has literally broken and she's bleeding to death.
* [[Officer O Hara]]: Sergeant McShane.
* [[Oh, and X Dies]]: Johnny.
{{quote| They were the pride of Shantytown, the tall, blond, good-looking Nolan lads. They had quick feet in shoes that were kept highly polished. Their trousers hung just so and their hats set jauntily on their heads. But they were all dead before they were thirty-five -- all dead, and of the four, only Johnny left children.}}
* [[Older Than They Look]]: Both Francie and Neeley, which gets them jobs when they're really too young to be working, but need to for the money. Francie [[Back to School|goes to college]] and has a boyfriend when she's only fourteen.
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