Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Betty Smith published A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1943, but it still holds great significance for many readers. What about the novel still rings true today, 80 years later? What topics or themes have changed or evolved over time?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider introducing students to the text’s main themes of Class, Feminism, and Antisemitism. You might consider helping the class brainstorm a list of contemporary events, people, or literature that grapples with similar topics.

• This article from the Hudson Review by Joyce Zonana reflects on the strong and lasting impact Betty Smith’s novel has had on readers, specifically women.
• This 1999 retrospective from The New York Times, “The Tree Still Grows in Brooklyn,” reflects on how the novel remains present and contemporary, even a century removed from Francie Nolan’s Brooklyn.

2. A major part of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn centers around life in the tenements in the borough of Brooklyn, which itself is almost a character in the novel. What is our working understanding of the city and the lived experiences of those within it? How does this working understanding help us anticipate aspects of the novel?