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Chapter 21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Poverty and Perseverance
Education and the American Dream
Gender, Sexuality, and Vulnerability
Romanticism vs. Pragmatism
Class and Snobbery
Summary
Analysis
Francie learns to read! Books become her immediate friends. She has one for every mood and vows to read one book per day for as long as she lives. She also learns sums and numbers by thinking of them as family members and friends. She takes the game along into algebra, where she thinks of the variables x and y as sweethearts who complicate family life. As a result, mathematics becomes “a warm and human thing to Francie.”
The world opens up for Francie when she learns to read. She develops a personal relationship with books and this is followed by her ability to relate numbers to her life. This skill in personalizing education makes learning more fun and less tedious for her. In regard to math, this trick makes the numbers less abstract.
Themes
