History Literature / ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn

* IncurableCoughofDeath: Andy Nolan dies of tuberculosis. His brothers got him a nice pillow to keep him comfortable, which they give to Johnny and Katie as a wedding present.

* CoolLoser: Francie is a loner and doesn't have any girlfriends. 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.

** Sissy names her son Stephen Aaron in honor of her husband and the hospital doctor who supervised the delivery, resulting in the first live birth of her life.

* NotActuallyHisChild: Sissy tries to pass off her adopted daughter Sarah off as her husband's, by faking a pregnancy. She reveals the truth to Katie. But she also reveals that Sissy might be Steve's child, as he was the one who told her about Lucia.

* ParentalAbandonment: Willie Flittman, Evy's husband. In the final chapter, he abandons his wife and three kids to travel as a one-man-band. When Katie gets $1,000 from Mr. [=McShane=] as a wedding present, she gives Evy $200, the value of Willie's life insurance.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Three months after Francie's birth, Katie finds that she has no milk left to nurse...because she is now pregnant with Neeley. Neeley is "leeching" the nourishment that Francie needed -- especially since she is a weak, sickly child. The infant Francie just has to toughen up and cope, setting up a pattern that continues as the children grow up. Neeley receives the lion's share of the limited affection and opportunity that their mother gives them, even when Francie logically deserves it more.

* ItsAllJunk: Francie's school compositions, which all earned A's because she imitated the books she'd read and wrote PurpleProse about beautiful subjects, none of which she had ever experienced firsthand. After Johnny's death, she begins writing grittier, more realistic, but still compassionate things about him, which her teacher criticizes as "ugly." Rejecting this idea, Francie realizes that her old essays were shallow and meaningless, and she [[KillItWithFire burns them in the stove]].

* NotActuallyHisChild: Sissy tries to pass off her adopted daughter Little Sarah off as her husband's, by faking a pregnancy. She reveals the truth to Katie. But she also reveals that Sissy might be Steve's child, as he was the one who told her about Lucia.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Almost everyone, except Mary and Thomas Rommely and Evy's children Paul Jones and Blossom. Neeley's real name is Cornelius, after a character from ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' but everyone calls him Neeley (he shares this nickname with Cornelius Vanderbilt), Francie (Mary Frances), Katie (Katherine), Johnny (John), Evy (Eva), and probably Sissy and Eliza, though we never learn what their full names are, Sissy's son Stevie (Stephen) and adopted daughter Little Sissy (Sarah) and Ruthie (Ruth).

%% * OutlivingOnesOffspring: Ruthie Nolan. Only Johnny married and had children.

** Aunt Sissy turned fifteen the day her first child was born.

* DarkReprise: The last verse of "Molly Malone." Johnny sings the song when he comes home late at night, and someone always tries to get the apartment door open before he can reach this verse. One night, he sings the last verse for the first time. It's the last time Francie ever hears him sing.

** At one point, Johnny is badly shaken by the news that Katie is pregnant with the couple's third child and goes out. She pleads, "Please don't come home...[drunk]" but trails off before the last word. He promises her he won't, and from then on he stops drinking altogether. A few weeks later, [[spoiler:he doesn't come home at all and ends up dying of pneumonia in the hospital.]]

* LawOfInverseFertility: 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, [[ImplausibleDeniability insisting to everyone that she was pregnant and gave birth naturally]]. Soon afterward, she has a healthy child of her own.

* ParentalFavoritism: Katie with Neeley. In an inversion of the trope, Francie prefers her father over her mother.

* ThreeSuccessfulGenerations: The Rommely's become this by the end.
* TeenPregnancy: Katie was 17 when Francie was born.

* ShesGotLegs: Francie observes that her boss' mistress has very nice legs and concludes that this is the reason he finds her attractive.

55 * ParentsAsPeople: This is a multi-generational story.

* ShareTheMalePain: Female, rather. As Katie gives birth to Annie, every woman in the apartment building cringes as she screams, knowing what she's enduring. Even two old women who never married--one of them outright tells the other that ''that's'' why she didn't marry the man she loved, because she was so terrified experiencing that.

* OfficerOHara: Sergeant [=McShane=].

* OopsIForgotIWasMarried: Sissy. ''Twice''.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Ruthie Nolan. Only Johnny married and had children.
* ParentsAsPeople: This is a multi-generational story.

* RagsToRiches: The entire story, although it takes a while.
** Sissy also inherits her first husband's pension after he dies.
* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Francie has to lie about her age to get her first job, and also when she starts dating Ben and has to confess about it (he's 19 when she's 15). However, being a NiceGuy, he doesn't mind and lets her know he's willing to [[TheJailBaitWait wait until she grows a little older.]]

* SaloonOwner: [=McGarrity=].
* SerialSpouse: Sissy.

* SilkHidingSteel: ''All'' the Rommely women.

* StockingFiller: Sissy, which suits her role as a GoodBadGirl.
* TheStoryteller: Francie, by way of Johnny.
** Evy is pretty good at storytelling as well.
* StigmaticPregnancyEuphemism

* TooMuchAlike: Katie and Francie.

* AWorldHalfFull
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI: The United States enters the war late in the novel, when Francie is a teenager.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Starts on the first page, though this is zigzagged as some of the math is right.

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: In contrast, Mary's eldest daughters (sans [[NunTooHoly Eliza]]), especially her eldest Sissy, have children very young. See TeenPregnancy below.

* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: Katie and Johnny are far better parents than their father and mother respectively.
* BreakTheCutie: Francie goes through more emotional trauma in her childhood than some adults do in their entire lives.

* NewTransferStudent: Francie, after she switches schools to a better one in a different neighborhood.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Almost everyone, except Mary and Thomas Rommely and Evy's children Paul Jones and Blossom. Neeley's real name is Cornelius, after a character from ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' but everyone calls him Neeley, Francie (Mary Frances), Katie (Katherine), Johnny (John), Evy (Eva), and probably Sissy and Eliza, though we never learn what their full names are, Sissy's son Stevie (Stephen) and adopted daughter Little Sissy (Sarah) and Ruthie (Ruth).

* PracticallyDifferentGenerations: Francie and Neeley's younger sister Laurie is born shortly before Francie graduates primary school (when they are 14 and 13 respectively). [[spoiler: Francie recognizes this near the end of the novel after Officer [=McShane=] proposes to Katie when Laurie identifies [=McShane=] as her father rather than Johnny.]]

** The narration implies that Sissy was much older than her siblings, their mother didn't discover that school was compulsory until the rest were old enough and as Sissy was "too old to start school" she stayed home. But when giving her age in the latter half, Sissy is only about four years older than Katie, though see WritersCannotDoMath as a possible explanation.

* RefugeInAudacity: Ben suggests that Francie take this approach in order to pass her summer French course, in which she's been struggling badly. He has her memorize an excerpt from ''Tartuffe'' by Moliere, along with its English translation, then warns her that one of the questions on the final will completely stump her. She should say at the outset that she doesn't know the answer, but is ready to write and translate the excerpt she's been primed with instead. It works, and she just barely passes the course.
* RichLanguagePoorLanguage: Francie and others in her family and neighborhood versus those who are more affluent and/or educated.
* SadistTeacher: Nearly all of them, including the principal who apparently [[ATasteOfTheLash likes to whip little boys.]] There are a few {{Cool Teacher}}s though, and they have a big impact on Francie. To the point that she transfers to a different school several blocks away in order to have a chance at some better teachers.

** Katie and her sisters (sans Sissy, who never even went to school), and Johnny and his brothers only finished school through 6th grade.

* Rich LanguagePoor Language: Francie and others in her family and neighborhood versus those who are more affluent and/or educated.

* SaloonOwner: McGarrity.
* ScienceMarchesOn: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_altissima eponymous tree]] is now widely considered annoying, invasive, and stinky, as well as a sign of abandonment and urban decay.

* ThreeSuccesfulGenerations: The Rommely's become this by the end.

* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Francie has several jobs within a year of her starting to work because the company laid off its workers or shut down.

* AttemptedRape: Just before Francie turns 14, she is assaulted by a child molester who has already raped and killed several little girls in the neighborhood. [[spoiler: Katie rescues her by shooting the attacker.]]

* DisappearedDad: Willie Flittman leaves his family in order to perform as a one-man band. After learning that Katie is pregnant for the third time, Johnny abandons the family [[spoiler:for what turns out to be the last three days of his life]].

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Almost everyone, except Mary and Thomas Rommely. Neeley's real name is Cornelius, after a character from ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' but everyone calls him Neeley, Francie (Mary Frances), Katie (Katherine), Johnny (John), Evy (Eva), and probably Sissy and Eliza, though we never learn what their full names are, Sissy's son Stevie (Stephen) and adopted daughter Little Sissy (Sarah).
** The only exception seems to be Evy's children Paul Jones and Blossom.

* EducationMama: 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 Literature/TheBible and the complete works of Creator/WilliamShakespeare. Katie tries her best, and it does have an effect.

* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: After he discovers her pregnancy, Lucia's abusive father locks her up and tries to slowly starve her on a bread and water diet, hoping she'll suffer DeathByChildbirth as a result.

* OfficeRomance: The boss of the newspaper Francie works for marries the Head Reader which is how Francie gets the job.

** Evy is implied to also have married young though her exact age is uncertain

* ChekhovsGunman: [=McShane=], who is first introduced about halfway through the book. He starts being important about 10 pages from the end.
** The film version does a better job of making him important, having him be the neighborhood cop, and doing things such as investigating when Sissy steals a neighbor's skates for Francie, taking Johnny home when he's drunk, helping the children with the Christmas tree (and bringing by candy canes later), and standing silently behind everyone at [[spoiler: Johnny's funeral]]. We also see his feelings for Katie take on a form of CourtlyLove, which he doesn't do anything about until after [[spoiler: both his wife and Johnny have died]].

* "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Francie, whose full name is Mary Frances, is named for her maternal grandmother and her deceased uncle Andy's then fiancee who would have been Francie Nolan had they married
** Sissy's son, Stephen Aaron is name for his father, and the doctor who attended her in the hospital, making him the first of her biological children to survive birth

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Almost everyone, except Mary and Thomas Rommely. Neeley's real name is Cornelius, after a character from ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' but everyone calls him Neeley, Francie (Mary Frances), Katie (Katherine), Johnny (John), Evy (Eva), and probably Sissy and Eliza, though we never learn what their full names are, Sissy's son Stevie (Stephen) and daughter Little Sissy (Sarah).

* ParentalAbandonment: Willie Flittman, Evy's husband. In the final chapter, he abandons his wife and three kids to travel as a one-man-band. When Katie gets $1000 from Mr. [=McShane=] as a wedding present, she gives Evy $200, what his life insurance was worth.

* UnwinnableByDesign: Cheap Charlie's prize/candy draw game. The kid pays a penny, draws a number from 1 to 50 at random, then takes either that prize from the display board or a penny's worth of candy. There are a couple of decent prizes, like a doll or a pair of roller skates, but Francie starts to suspect early on that Charlie has rigged the drawing to give out only the junk items. Her suspicions are confirmed near the end of the book when she tries to pay 50 cents and take all the prizes on the board, but Charlie defends himself by saying that he always gives full value to any kid who turns down the prize they drew.

* AnachronicOrder: The story is split into five "books," which hop back and forth in the Nolans' lives.
** Book One: Set in 1912 (Francie is 11).
** Book Two: Opens in 1900 (Johnny and Katie meet); ends in 1908 (Francie is nearly seven).
** Book Three: Opens in 1908; ends in 1916 (Francie, 15, graduates from grade school).
** Books Four and Five: Run from 1916 to 1918 (Francie, now almost 17, prepares to start college).

* AttemptedRape: When Francie is a preteen, a serial rapist (who had raped and killed little girls in the neighborhood) tries to rape her. [[spoiler: Katie rescues her by shooting the attacker.]]

* DisappearedDad: Johnny and Willie Flitman.

* HatesEveryoneEqually: Thomas Rommely

* LiceEpisode: Because the kids at Francie's first school are so prone to catching head lice, she and all the other girls have to have their heads inspected every week. The minute Katie hears of this, she starts washing Francie's hair once a week with the same soap she uses to scrub floors, and also brushes it with ''kerosene'' every day. Francie stinks up the whole classroom and can't sit near any lit gas jets for fear of igniting her hair, but she never once gets lice.

** The only exception seems to be Evy's children Paul nJones and Blossom

* ParentalAbandonment: Willy Flittman, Evy's husband. In the final chapter, he abandons his wife and three kids to travel as a one-man-band. When Katie gets $1000 from Mr. [=McShane=] as a wedding present, she gives Evy $200, what his life insurance was worth.

* PracticallyDifferentGenerations: Francie and Neely's younger sister Laurie is born shortly before they graduate primary school (when they are 14 and 13 respectively). [[spoiler: Francie recognizes this near the end of the novel after Officer [=McShane=] proposes to Katie when Laurie identifies [=McShane=] as her father rather than Johnny.]]

** The only exception seems to be Evy's children Tom Jones and Blossom

* AbsurdlyElderlyMother: Mary Rommely. Katie mentions in passing that her mother was 50 (roughly the time menopause starts) when she was born.

* DeadManWriting: On her graduation day, Francie is startled to find flowers from her father, [[spoiler: who died several months earlier]]. Sissy explains that Johnny had given her the card and the money to purchase the flowers should he die before this special day.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Almost everyone, except Mary and Thomas Rommely. Neeley's real name is Cornelius, after a character from ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' but everyone calls him Neeley, Francie (Mary Frances), Katie (Katherine), Johnny (John), Evy (Eva), and probably Sissy, though we never learn what her full name is.