How innocent is a baby, just born, only guilty of crying, while the grandfather of that baby is sitting in the room, holding the tiny newborn, and everyone around can see that distinct difference between them. Not in their looks, but in something beyond that, the look of innocnce versus the look of experience. This old man still isn't completely experienced, but is nearing the end of the road, with only death left in his way. Moving from innocence to experience doesn't just happen in an hour, a day, a week, or even a year; but takes a lifetime to complete.
Francie, at the beginning of the novel, is a very innocent girl, quietly reading a book on the fire escape, thinking about the little golden-brown pottery jug at the library with the summer blooming nasturtiums in it. Once Johnny dies, and Laurie is born, Francie has to take over a bigger role in her household, which includes getting a job and giving up something she desperately wants -- the opportunity to go to high school. As the conclusion of the novel grows near, Francie realizes she is growing up. When Francie finally leaves home and goes to college, her mother’s decision to not send her back to high school has paid off with her earning money for college.
As an innocent person, the world looks wonderful, with small flaws and nothing more, while an experienced person, sees the world as a cold, lonely place filled with hatred and cruelty. As a small innocent child we remember rainbows and clear blue skies, but as move to experience we start to remember the loud and frightening thunder storms, but the innocence still in us loves to see the sun come out and a beautiful rainbow appear in the sky. As the experience grows inside of us, and the innocence diminishes, the world changes just as the people in the world change. Just like Francie, everyone has to take a bigger role in the world when something dramatic happens in their life, such as a death, like Johnny, or a birth, like Laurie.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is not a book about a tree growing in a suburb of New York but about one family’s struggle with life and their journey from innocence to experience. Now, nearly 100 years from the time that Francie was growing up, we can relate to what she was thinking, feeling, how she was acting and as time passes, technology improves and minds become great tools to exploring and uncovering the future, people have only changed in the clothes that they wear and the tools that they use to get through their day.
