A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The background of the story seems simple enough. Betty Smith drew from her own experiences in growing up in Brooklyn to create the character of a tenacious little girl, Francie Nolan. Because Smith wrote about some of the more unsavory aspects of human existence, some critics found the book unacceptable. One Boston woman even wrote a letter to Smith saying that the author of such a book should live in a stable.
For her part, Smith said that she didn't write about the Nolans for any socially significant reason, but because they were "the kind of people I know and the kind of people I like." She wrote about a young girl coming to grips with some of the horrific realities of her life in Brooklyn: death, hunger, pure human hatred, and meanness
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