Literature Circles Meeting 5

Today in our discussion we talked about chapters 20-29 of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I believe I contributed thoroughly as a discussion member today adding my own point of view to different topics and helping others understand what they had questions about. First, I helped Alyssa to understand Francie's school situation. I explained that, because in the book children must go to the school of the district they live in, Johnny lies and says Francie will be living in a house by the school she wants to go to.

My next major contributions were my questions. First, I asked why Katie would rather risk Francie's head getting lit on fire, with the kerosene she puts in it, than Francie getting lice. Alyssa explained to me that Katie is more concerned about not having to deal with lice and doesn't think too deeply about the consequences of the kerosene. This led to discussion about how Johnny is a better parent towards Francie than Katie. Because Francie and Johnny have both been sort of rejected by Katie because of her strong adoration for Neeley, they have created their own "team" in the family.

My next question was about why Katie is so against the Democratic Party. Andrew explained that she is more against Johnny's idolization of the Democratic Party rather than the actual political party. She wants to convince Johnny that it is not as perfect and giving as he thinks.

My last question was about what was being referred to as and "eye-opener" and a "night cap." After a bit of discussion we concluded as a group that it was either referring to drugs/alcohol or something sexual, but it is still unclear to us.

Later on in the discussion i contributed to comments on Francie's growing knowledge and how it is making her less happy with her life the way it is. Francie talks about how the theatre no longer amazes her, and even bothers her because it does not reflect real life; in real life, heros do not always come at just the right second to save the day. We decided that Francie growing up is a theme in the book and that as Francie grows and learns, she finds many things less fascinating. Francie also realized in this reading that her mother's hunger games are pointless and don't bring them to an accomplished goal or help them finish an amazing task.

Literature Circles Meeting 4

I think I participated strongly in the last group meeting. I am good at helping others with their questions about the novel because i retain the little details of the reading. One example of this is when i help Alyssa to understand why Katie doesn't acknowledge what a smart and mature kid Francie is. I explained that it is because she loves Neeley for having the traits she loves about Johnny and also because she wants to make Neeley become what Johnny couldn't become. In the last discussion I also contributed topics of discussion such as why the nurse at Francie's vaccination would look down at Francie even though she was once in Francie's shoes, and why Katie, who is normally responsible and slightly stingy as far as money goes, would give more than is asked of her to the piano teacher.

Literature Circles Meeting 3

Today in the literature circle we discussed chapters one through three. I made strong contributions as a discussion member by bringing up topics that spark discussion as well as helping other discussion members when they were confused about the reading.

The first question I asked was: Why does Francie follow Neely when he goes to play baseball with his three friends if she isn't wanted and she doesn't even play? Through discussion, I learned that other details in the book show that is might be because she doesn't have friends of her own to hang out with. We came to this conclusion as a group because Francie spends so much time reading and it hasn't been mentioned that she ever plays with other kids. Also, no friends of Francie's have been mentioned yet besides Maudie who is only Francie's friend sometimes.

My second confusion about the reading was: On page 29 when Frank says, "do I have to break a couple of your asses?" This confused me because up until that point, and even right after, he seems to be a peaceful guy who wouldn't want to hurt anyone. Ariel explained that he probably said this solely to get rid of the boys; he wouldn't actually harm the boys.

Lastly, i wondered why Johnny Nolan would buy paper collars, which can only be used once, instead of one reusable celluloid collar, especially if he is so poor. Andrew related this to earlier in the book when Francie likes to be able to waste coffee. Both these incidents were confusing. We came ot the conclusion that both actions make Johnny and Francie feel better about themselves. Johnny likes to look his best for work, and Francie likes the feeling of being wealthy enough to be able to waste something.

I was so glad to be further informed about the reading because of the contributions of the other discussion members, and also glad to help them better understand the novel.

Alyssa was confused about the junkyard and what exactly the pinching pennies were. I explained to her that the old man who works at the junkyard, where Francie and Neely go to get a few extra pennies, likes to pinch girls' cheeks so he give little girls extra pennies when they let him pinch their cheeks.

As a group, we inferred that Francie will be abused in some way or another during the course of the book. One clue that suggests this is her alcoholic father; Johnny Nolan could home any night extremely drunk and attack his wife and/or kids. Another unsettling man is the one who owns the penny shop that girls are accepted at, due to the fact that he is suggested to have raped a little girl. Lastly, the man from the junk yard seems slightly creepy to all of us, especially because he pays little girls to pinch their cheeks.

An inference i came to on my own is that the attraction to Johnny Nolan will not last long. Although he is a charming, young, singing man now, it doesn't seem like it will last. Firstly, already some of his fellow waiters are beginning to speak poorly of him. Also, on page 34 the books says, "His wife and children had not turned bitter against him and his children did not know that they were supposed to be ashamed of him." This implies that those two things will happen in the future.

Literature Circles Meeting 2

In class on Friday we discussed chapters 4-9. At the beginning of class it was just Andrew and me. First, Andrew brought mentioned that there are many un-settling men in the book. This relates to our first meeting because our group discussed the possibility of something bad happening to Francie because of all the creepy men we had already seen in her life. The man Andrew mentioned was the fiddle teacher who has his female students take off their shoes so he can look at their feet. I agreed with the fact that this man is creepy. I also thought this was a really weird way to be creepy. Next, Andrew mentioned that Francie makes a really big deal about getting meat on page forty-seven, and thought this was confusing. I was confused by Francie's process too, so we went back to take a closer look at the text. We realized that Francie does all these things to sort of trick the butcher into giving her the best possible quality for the money she has. Andrew's last question was about the rubber item's bought in whispers, and I explained to him that those were condoms.

After we had discussed all of Andrew's questions, we moved on to my questions. First, I asked why Johnny Nolan isn't in awe at his new baby. I was confused, because most parents think their new children are the most beautiful things in the world no matter what they look like. Looking back at the text as far as how Johnny reacts when he found out he was going to have a child. He is sad that his fun life with Katie will end. Johnny also said in our first reading that he never wanted to have a family. These all helped me to understand Johnny's reaction to his new baby girl. Another question I had was why Henny remains gloomy when Francie comes to visit if Mrs. Gaddis says on page thirty-nine that company keeps Henny's mind off himself. Andrew didn't know the answer to this either. Lastly, I did not know what Sissy means when she says that Francie is "all of her ten children." Andrew explained that, since all of Sissy's children were born dead, Francie was like the daughter she never got to have. Sissy treats Francie like her own child.

After discussing our questions, we went on to share the passages we selected. Andrew selected the fourth paragraph on page seventy-two. His passage describes how Francie is made up of different traits from all the different members of her family. Andrew mentions that we haven't really seen the cruel will that she supposedly inherited from her grandfather. The paragraph relates to the rest of the book because it foreshadows the later chapters in which different back-stories are told about each of the family members that show their traits. Francie sort of symbolizes the family as a whole since she is a part of everyone, and also has her own traits.

My passage is from page eighty-eigtht, and it is the second paragraph. My passage is from Johnny's point of view and it shows a new perspective on good and bad with Sissy as an example.

Ariel arrived to class towards the end of our discussion, but when she did get to class she shared her passage with us. Her passage is the last paragraph on page 41. In this passage, Francie thinks she sees the Grim Reaper coming for Henny in Flossie's closet. Ariel thought this might be a sign that adds further evidence to our thoughts from the last discussion, we thought Francie might be abused. I, however, thought what Francie sees is just a symbol to show Henny's death is coming soon.

Day 1 of ATGIB: Getting Situated

On the first day in our literature group, we decided how many pages we are going to read for each D day. I thought it would make sense to divide to the total number of pages in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by the number of days we have to read it. We used this as a guideline to decide how many pages we will read for each D day and made sure we always ended at the end of a chapter. I think i contributed successfully in the first meeting of out literature groups because in the end we did use my suggestion as a guideline.