In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird, the authors’ usage of characterization can be used to compare the personality traits of Francie and Scout. Francie and Scout are both determined, observant, intelligent, and dynamic characters. Francie’s determination is best shown through her ambitions and goal. As a young girl, Francie set a goal to read every book in the world after falling in love with reading. She very methodically read through every book in alphabetical order, reading one full book each day. She was also determined to assist her family in any way possible. Although she was a naturally shy girl, she fought her way to get bread, yelling “’I want six loaves and a pie, not too crushed,’ she screamed out. Impressed by
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The settings of both books are crucial to their respective stories. Francie and Scout both grew up in difficult time periods. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is set between 1900 and 1918 in Brooklyn, New York, in the midst of industrial growth and immigration. Francie grew up around many other poor families who had to survive on little food and resources while working long hours in factories. Francie is forced to grow up fast, seen when she says “’Remember, Neeley, when we used to go out, selling junk?’ ‘That was a long time ago.’ ‘Yeah,’ agreed Francie. It was, in fact, two weeks since they had dragged their last haul to Carney’s” (Smith 352). Due to difficult circumstances, Francie and Neeley were forced to grow up very quickly, outgrowing a “children’s” activity in mere weeks, getting jobs, and maturing. Scout also grew up in a very sensitive time period. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Racism had been growing in the South during the time period, and the tensions had only been exacerbated by the trial of Tom Robinson in the small Alabama town. The prejudiced and racist jury convicted an innocent man, but Scout learns many lessons from Atticus, her accepting father who happens to be the lawyer for Tom Robinson, but, too, is forced to grow up quickly and …show more content…
In the time period and society that Francie was raised in, gender was a basis for bias and prejudice. Men were thought to be smarter and more suited to handling problems, but the Rommely women, Francie’s mother, aunts, and grandmother, knew better. Each woman had married a weak man, and learned true hardship in trying to stay afloat financially while raising the children in a world where women were thoroughly underappreciated. To Mary Rommely, the matriarch of the family, to be born a woman was something of a curse, as explained by the narrator “She [Mary] wept when they gave birth to daughters, knowing that to be born a woman meant a life of humble hardship.” (Smith 69). The quote exemplifies the paradox of gender inequality in the novel: The women are seen as weak while men do all of the work, yet when the men are weak, the women deal with their hardships “humbly”. This was not the extent of the inequality, though. The women are judged for their lifestyle choices, and yet men who made the same choices are accepted immediately. Sissy is seen as a bad person because of her promiscuity and her multiple marriages, so much so that Katie feels the need to move neighborhoods to escape her sister’s shame, yet none of the men Sissy had married were
The settings of both books are crucial to their respective stories. Francie and Scout both grew up in difficult time periods. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is set between 1900 and 1918 in Brooklyn, New York, in the midst of industrial growth and immigration. Francie grew up around many other poor families who had to survive on little food and resources while working long hours in factories. Francie is forced to grow up fast, seen when she says “’Remember, Neeley, when we used to go out, selling junk?’ ‘That was a long time ago.’ ‘Yeah,’ agreed Francie. It was, in fact, two weeks since they had dragged their last haul to Carney’s” (Smith 352). Due to difficult circumstances, Francie and Neeley were forced to grow up very quickly, outgrowing a “children’s” activity in mere weeks, getting jobs, and maturing. Scout also grew up in a very sensitive time period. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Racism had been growing in the South during the time period, and the tensions had only been exacerbated by the trial of Tom Robinson in the small Alabama town. The prejudiced and racist jury convicted an innocent man, but Scout learns many lessons from Atticus, her accepting father who happens to be the lawyer for Tom Robinson, but, too, is forced to grow up quickly and …show more content…
In the time period and society that Francie was raised in, gender was a basis for bias and prejudice. Men were thought to be smarter and more suited to handling problems, but the Rommely women, Francie’s mother, aunts, and grandmother, knew better. Each woman had married a weak man, and learned true hardship in trying to stay afloat financially while raising the children in a world where women were thoroughly underappreciated. To Mary Rommely, the matriarch of the family, to be born a woman was something of a curse, as explained by the narrator “She [Mary] wept when they gave birth to daughters, knowing that to be born a woman meant a life of humble hardship.” (Smith 69). The quote exemplifies the paradox of gender inequality in the novel: The women are seen as weak while men do all of the work, yet when the men are weak, the women deal with their hardships “humbly”. This was not the extent of the inequality, though. The women are judged for their lifestyle choices, and yet men who made the same choices are accepted immediately. Sissy is seen as a bad person because of her promiscuity and her multiple marriages, so much so that Katie feels the need to move neighborhoods to escape her sister’s shame, yet none of the men Sissy had married were