The Concept of American Dream in Betty Smith's Novel

In the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith, education shows an example of the American Dream. It explains what the Nolan family grew up in, along with the children going to school. The American Dream is summed up to doing better than your parents and grandparents. There are three reasons, I think education is one example of the American Dream.

The first reason is that going to school helped Francie start writing. She had such a vivid imagination; she would get the truth and her stories mixed up.

Francie saw some of the incidents and she would tell her teacher how she would want it happen, instead of how it happened. Teacher never punished her for having an active imagination, but did tell Francie, “Tell the truth and write the story” (199). This inspired Francie, and so she would write about incidents the way she would have done it and she found enjoyment in writing.

The second reason is that school helped Francie go farther than their grandma Mary Rommely.

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Mary was the first Rommely to immigrate to America and had little to no education because she worked on land, with family. The three Rommely children (Sissy, Katie, and Evy) had little to no schooling because they went to work as soon as they were old enough. Since Mary Rommely grew up working on land, she had hardly had any education and couldn't really teach the Rommely girls much. For example Mary says; “That may be my fault. I knew not how to teach my daughters because I have nothing behind me excepting that for hundreds of years, my family has worked on the land of some overlord” (82).

The third reason is Francie gets a job reading newspapers at the Press Clipping Bureau. When she started there she was reading 180-200 newspapers a day, and made $10.00 , whereas the top reader was only reading 100-110 newspapers a day and making $25.00 a week. When Miss Armstrong left, Francie took her place and went up to making twenty dollars a week. This illustrates how Francie can read like a college graduate even though shes only in high school. Overall, these three reasons explain the American Dream because it is showing how Francie is doing better than their family. Francie has potential in writing books. Francie is furthering their education where everyone else has a little education. Francie is able to get a better job then her mom and dad.