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Burt
A “thin and undersized” man whom Francie encounters near the cellar of her building. The predator has already killed a seven-year-old girl from Francie’s neighborhood. He wears “a shabby dark suit” and has “thick bushy hair,” “a beaked nose,” and a mouth that looks like “a thin crooked line.” When he comes toward Francie with “his lower garments opened,” Katie shoots him with the gun that Johnny got from Burt. The child molester survives the shooting and is sent to prison.
The Child Molester Quotes in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The A Tree Grows in Brooklyn quotes below are all either spoken by The Child Molester or refer to The Child Molester. 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 33
Quotes
If normal sex was a great mystery in the neighborhood, criminal sex was
an open book. In all poor and congested city areas, the prowling sex fiend
is a nightmarish horror that haunts parents. There seems to be one in every neighborhood. There was one in Williamsburg in that year when Francie turned fourteen. For a long time, he had been molesting little girls, and although the police were on a continual lookout for him, he was never caught. One of the reasons was that when a little girl was attacked, the parents kept it secret so that no one would know and discriminate against the child and look on her as a thing apart and make it impossible for her to resume a normal childhood with her playmates.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Tree Grows in Brooklyn LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Child Molester Quotes in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The A Tree Grows in Brooklyn quotes below are all either spoken by The Child Molester or refer to The Child Molester. 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 33
Quotes
If normal sex was a great mystery in the neighborhood, criminal sex was
an open book. In all poor and congested city areas, the prowling sex fiend
is a nightmarish horror that haunts parents. There seems to be one in every neighborhood. There was one in Williamsburg in that year when Francie turned fourteen. For a long time, he had been molesting little girls, and although the police were on a continual lookout for him, he was never caught. One of the reasons was that when a little girl was attacked, the parents kept it secret so that no one would know and discriminate against the child and look on her as a thing apart and make it impossible for her to resume a normal childhood with her playmates.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
