A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Character Analysis

Stanislavsky, the founding father of modern acting, stated that acting should be based on real life. It should do more than just simply speak, feel, or gesture an action or word, but instead do truthfully by bringing a character in a film or play to life. He believed that in order to do so, a character must have objectives, obstacles, and motivations to perform actions to achieve what he or she wants (Olivieri, lesson 1, 1:42-9:33). In the film, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, directed by Elia Kazan; the main actress, Peggy Ann Garner, displays outstanding acting that fits Stanislavsky’s definition by demonstrating her character’s objectives, obstacles, and motivations to perform her character’s actions. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, narrates a story …show more content…
For example, in the scene when Francie and Neeley discuss the selling of their rags to retrieve the money, Garner’s acting displays her understanding of Francie’s and Neeley’s subjective relationship. Their objective relationship, their factual relationship, is that of brother and sister; however, in this scene, Neeley is shown to be lecturing Francie as if she was a little kid while he was an adult, their subjective relationship (Olivieri and Telford 68; vol 1). This type of relationship is seen again when Francie was shown walking her father to a tram to get to work. In this scene, the father is shown throwing rocks, being talkative, not caring that his train had arrived while Garner’s expression is that of a mature adult and mother-like. It is obvious that their subjective relationship shows that Francie acts like a mother, while her father, a kid. The actress demonstrates this subjective relationship by fixing her father’s clothing and constantly nagging him about the arrival of his train and rushing him to get to work. These actions allowed Garner to use both the objective relationship and subjective relationship to bring more depth into the character Francie, and make her more realistic to the audience. In addition, Garner demonstrates marvelously her character’s emotional and psychological choices, mental qualities that a character exhibits that would define who they are as a person (Olivieri and Telford 52; vol 1). Near the ending of the film, Francie’s mother is shown to be sickly as she was undergoing childbirth. In this scene, Garner employs the psychological and emotional traits of forgiving, despair, and caring. Although Francie is angry at her mother for asking her to quit school, she was able to put aside her anger and pride in order to accept her mother’s apology. The audience can see the true despair through Garner’s