A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Chapter 24 Summary & Analysis

Francie counts the days according to the year’s holidays. Election Day seems to be the greatest holiday of all because it belongs to the whole neighborhood. Johnny shows Francie the Oyster House on Scholes Street where the powerful members of City Hall meet and decide on who will be elected and who will be destroyed. Francie, like most children her age, doesn’t understand politics but listens interestedly in the debates between her father and Katie. Johnny is a fervent Democrat, but Katie is both critical of the party’s corruption and indifferent to politics. Johnny insists that Democrats fix people up with jobs, while Katie says that Tammany Hall gives to the people but takes double.

Though women cannot vote, local politicians know that women wield a great deal of influence over their husbands’ choices. They also make a point to woo children, for these are future voters. Therefore, the Mattie Mahoney Association sponsors a boat excursion for children and their parents every summer. Francie is ten years old at the time and as excited as everyone else her age to go on a boat. Despite her contempt for politicians, Katie sees no reason not to take advantage of the good time.

It is a hot, sweltering day and kids run up and down the deck of the boat, which sails along the Hudson River. It decks after noon at a wooded glen upstate. Each child spends a strip of ten tickets that they were given the week before for rides, food, and treats. Francie is tempted to gamble her tickets in a marble game for the possibility of winning fifty strips. However, Francie is a poor marble player and loses her tickets. Neeley has three left and Francie asks for one. Katie, instead, uses the occasion to lecture Francie about gambling. A policeman standing nearby gives Francie three tickets. He points to Katie and asks if she is Francie’s mother. He notes how pretty Katie is. Francie confirms that she is. She also points out Johnny sitting beside her and waits for him to say something about how handsome her father is, but he says nothing.

When Francie goes back to her family, Katie asks what the cop said to her. She repeats the conversation and Katie looks at her worn hands. She says that she works so hard that she sometimes forgets that she is a woman. Francie wonders why her mother is so ashamed of her hands and also notes that this is the closest thing to a complaint that she has ever heard from Katie. When Francie walks away, Katie asks a woman next to her who the man is. She says that his name is Sergeant Michael McShane. The woman is surprised that Katie doesn’t recognize him; he works at her local precinct.

A beer keg is next set up. It is “free to all good Democrats.” Mattie Mahoney’s band then plays songs that champion what a great man Mahoney is. Late in the afternoon, Francie gets the idea to find him and thank him for giving her such a wonderful day. She searches but never finds him. A man tells her that he might not exist at all. It might simply be the name they give to whoever becomes the head of the local Democratic Party. On the way home, it is dusk. Neeley falls asleep in Katie’s lap.

Katie asks Johnny if he knows about Sergeant McShane. Johnny says that he is nicknamed the Honest Cop. He also notes that it is possible that McShane could run for assemblyman. Johnny explains that his wife is dying of tuberculosis and does not have much longer to live. Katie insists that her type hangs on. Johnny is startled by her remark,  but Katie insists that she should have taken her medicine when a decent man married her. Katie then hopes that she dies so that Sergeant McShane can marry again soon and have healthy children. Instinctively, Francie gets up and goes to her father. She takes his hand. Johnny pulls the child toward him and holds her tightly, marveling at how “the moon walks on the water.”

Soon after the excursion and picnic, the Democratic organization prepares for Election Day by making shiny white buttons with Mattie Mahoney’s face on them. They distribute the buttons to the neighborhood children. The children play games with the buttons. Francie sees Mattie’s face everywhere but has yet to see the actual man. On Election Day, a man knocks on the door and hands Johnny a cigar, compliments of the Democratic Party. He also confirms that Johnny should be at the polls at 11:00 AM. Katie thinks that they want to keep tabs on who is going to the polls, and “God help” any man who isn’t voting for Mattie. Johnny dismisses her suspicion and says that women don’t know anything about politics.

On Election night, Francie and Neeley participate in the neighborhood bonfire, contributing the wood they have collected. By the end of the night, a Democratic president is elected, as well as a Democratic governor of New York, but all Francie knows is that Mattie Mahoney has kept his seat in office.