Semestral Project- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Essay Example

Idealy as a woman Smith thought of encouraging the society through her novel. The theme of idealism and pragmatism has been the central themes in this book. Incidences of poverty, alcoholism, and lying are some of the challenges that most women face in marriage and in the society. Women are the light of the society and they play a big role in educating the next generation. For this reason, Betty states that women must start in believing in things that are not of this world. Betty means that things sometimes get ugly in the society and therefore women should adapt to these challenges.

Betty mentions children who represents the next generation. That is why Betty suggest that it is only by having the courage to go beyond these challenges will the children survive to the next generation. Smith belives in education and emphasizes on books. She reminds the society that reading textbooks, bible, and works from Shakespere have a role in shaping and changing the children in the society as a way of enlightenment. The three generations reminds us about the gender roles in the society.

Betty has been able to make a revision about the traditional gender roles about women in the society. She has not forgotten to explain how poverty changes the roles and traditions of the gender in the society. The tree manages to grow in Brooklyn because of the women. These women in this book have changed their roles and have turned into the breadwinners signifying the change of gender roles. These women have struggled with poverty and are providing their children with education enabling them to be better important in the society.

Ironically, Katie’s hands is growing rough every day a she engages in a lot f physical activities while Johnny’s hand are becoming more smooth and he is wearing expensive clothing. This is the painful reality that Betty reminds all the women in the society to accept. She enlightens the women in the society to accept the fact that the world is always unfair and those who work harder become poorer while those who work less earn more. Immigrant children are most disadvantaged by poverty; recent studies show that for children whose parents are undocumented, their performance in school is poor due to their economic situation.

This is because, the parents earn low wages since they have low education levels and thus can only manage low-paying, dangerous and heavy jobs, their children have no medical insurance and are unable to get the basic amenities required for good education, for example textbooks, thus are forced to work with what they have (Betty Smith). Many immigrants are usually forced to leave school and work to help their family, Francie is no exception and after graduating from grad school, they look for work.

Being wise Francie is able to save up some of her earnings and decides to send her brother back to school. This is a big sacrifice she has made believes that she will go to school when she saves more. After working a number of jobs Francie takes a summer College school, Katie remarries, this time to a wealthy businessman and politician, luck is changing for the family and Francie’s dreams are coming true, she later quits her teletyping job to start classes at the University of Michigan. When Francie visits her