A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Laurie is “a good baby” who sleeps a lot but takes up all of Katie’s spare time, so much so that Katie’s other children hardly see her (345). While working at McGarrity’s, Francie eavesdrops on conversations about the impending war, the rise of the automobile and the airplane, women’s suffrage, and the current craze for dancing.

Katie goes to Neeley’s graduation and Sissy goes to Francie’s. This upsets Francie a little, but she knows if her father were alive, then he would have come to see her. Francie listens with hope to the principal’s speech, cries through the play she didn’t get to write, and then shuffles off to her classroom to pick up her report card and her desk items. She braces herself for the experience, because traditionally every girl graduate gets flowers on her desk, but Francie knows her desk will be empty since her family is so poor. She is pleasantly surprised to find flowers and a note from her father on her desk. She thinks this means her father is still alive, but Sissy explains her father had made the arrangements prior to his death. She then says goodbye to all her teachers, the principal, and the janitor.