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A handsome, well-dressed nineteen-year-old and paramour of Francie’s. Ben befriends Francie in the college bookstore when he advises her on how to save money on books. He is very ambitious, serving as the editor of his high school magazine, president of his class, and the half-back on the school’s football team. He also spends his afternoons working for a law firm, and plans to go to law school before eventually becoming a politician. While in college, he enrolls in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. He gives Francie his high school ring, with the promise that, in five years, he will be in a position to marry and she will be “old enough to know her own mind.” Francie acknowledges that she likes Ben “an awful lot,” but she is not sure that she loves him, due to her sense that he is always very sure of himself and is unlikely to need her.
Ben Blake Quotes in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The A Tree Grows in Brooklyn quotes below are all either spoken by Ben Blake or refer to Ben Blake. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 56
Quotes
She liked Ben. She liked him an awful lot. She wished that she could love him. If only he wasn't so sure of himself all the time. If only he’d stumble just
once. If only he needed her. Ah, well. She had five years to think it over.
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She looked towards the window. Yes, across two yards she saw a little
girl sitting on a fire escape with a book in her lap and a bag of candy at hand. The girl was peering through the bars at Francie […] She was a slender little thing of ten, and her name was Florry Wendy […] She looked down into the yard. The tree whose leaf umbrellas had curled around, under and over her fire escape had been cut down because the housewives complained that wash on the lines got entangled in its branches […] But the tree hadn't died […] A new tree had grown from the stump and its trunk had grown along the ground until it reached a place where there were no wash lines above it. Then it had started to grow towards the sky again. Annie, the fir tree, that the Nolans had cherished with waterings and manurings, had long since sickened and died. But this tree in the yard—this tree that men chopped down … this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up its stump—this tree lived! It lived! And nothing could destroy it.
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Get the entire A Tree Grows in Brooklyn LitChart as a printable PDF.
Ben Blake Quotes in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The A Tree Grows in Brooklyn quotes below are all either spoken by Ben Blake or refer to Ben Blake. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 56
Quotes
She liked Ben. She liked him an awful lot. She wished that she could love him. If only he wasn't so sure of himself all the time. If only he’d stumble just
once. If only he needed her. Ah, well. She had five years to think it over.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
She looked towards the window. Yes, across two yards she saw a little
girl sitting on a fire escape with a book in her lap and a bag of candy at hand. The girl was peering through the bars at Francie […] She was a slender little thing of ten, and her name was Florry Wendy […] She looked down into the yard. The tree whose leaf umbrellas had curled around, under and over her fire escape had been cut down because the housewives complained that wash on the lines got entangled in its branches […] But the tree hadn't died […] A new tree had grown from the stump and its trunk had grown along the ground until it reached a place where there were no wash lines above it. Then it had started to grow towards the sky again. Annie, the fir tree, that the Nolans had cherished with waterings and manurings, had long since sickened and died. But this tree in the yard—this tree that men chopped down … this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up its stump—this tree lived! It lived! And nothing could destroy it.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
