Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

In Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith focuses on Francie Nolan, a young child suffering the hardships of poverty in the streets of Brooklyn. In the exposition, Francie lives with her mother, Katie, brother, Neeley, and father, Johnny, in a small tenement. Johnny earns money for the family waiting tables and singing at restaurants, but he is an alcoholic, which makes it difficult to provide a steady income. Katie is forced to work as a janitor to pay off rent, while the children collect pennies by selling junk. The narrative hook occurs as Francie visits the library. There, it is revealed that she has been “reading a book a day in alphabetical order and not skipping the dry ones” and plans to read every book in the entire library (Smith 22). This illustrates Francie’s desire to learn and demonstrates the importance of education in the Nolan family. Education is a core value that repeats throughout the novel, influencing the entire Nolan family. The rising action begins when both Francie and Neeley begin to go to public school. This is a drastic change from their earlier years of private schooling, for at school, Francie learns the difficulty of making friends while also experiencing the difficulties of education. Francie’s first encounter with a sex offender occurs soon after, and she is left with the image of her mother shooting the criminal. When Johnny, overcome with the effects of alcoholism, is found “huddled in a doorway…unconscious,” he dies from pneumonia.…

into someone He is not because of their misunderstanding of who He is; however, they misinterpret the role of Christ differently. Franny has the opposite problem as the Gutres family. Rather than being illiterate, she has such an expansive knowledge of Eastern religions because she was “intellectually abused” by her older brothers. This “abuse” has led to her confusion in distinguishing between the religious figures. For example, Franny apostatized when she was ten years old because she…

Nick and Franny’s DC Spy Tour Nick and Franny have been looking forward to their visit for some months. Franny has had a very hard year physically including her final surgery which has left her with limit vision in her left eye. This has affected her vision and balance. Nick is using this trip to help Franny relax from the year of surgeries and doctors. He has a developed a Spy Tour of DC to help during her recovery. They both share a love of David Baldacci novels and this visit is the…

I was enrolled in preschool on time and education has always been the first priority in my family, so my mother and father have tried to put my siblings and I in the best schools as possible. Like Francie my mother used to read to me and when I learned to read on my own we would read together until we fell asleep. Unlike back in the days not many children drop out of school because it is hard to get any job in this economy without a high school degree let alone a college degree. In 2015 18…

The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel because of its complexity and characters that reveal certain facets of the antagonist Holden Caulfield’s character. Students should read this novel for an example of a seemingly simple book with many examples of symbolism throughout the novel. Also, The Catcher in the Rye is set in post-WW II America, a very important time in America’s history because of its vast economic growth and advances. This book should be read by high school students, as it does…

Weissenburg and, soon after, married Sylvia Welter. He brought her to the United States in April 1946, but the marriage fell apart after eight months and Sylvia returned to Germany. Jerome was married three times; once to Sylvia Welter (1945-1947), once to Clair Douglas (1955-1965). and then finally o Colleen O’Neil whom he stayed married to. Jerome has two kids, Margaret and Matt (born February 13, 1960) who is now an American film actor; both children of his second wife Clair Douglas.…