Chapter 1: The first chapter of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn takes place in 1912. The setting is an area of Brooklyn called Williamsburg. The area is one of poverty, filled with recent immigrant families who are impoverished. There is a tree growing in the area that survives no matter how poor the soil or water. The tree is called the Tree of Heaven by some of the residents, since the tree grows only in the neighborhoods where the poorest people live.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the coming-of-age story of Francie Nolan, who is eleven years old when the story begins. It is a Saturday, and Francie and her younger brother, Neeley, spend part of the morning collecting metal scraps to sell to Carney, the junk man. The children keep only half the money they earn; the other half will be placed in the tin can bank back home. As Francie walks home, she admires the neighborhood where she lives and notices the pregnant Jewish women, whom Francie thinks must have so many babies because they hope that one will be the messiah. In contrast to the Jewish women, Francie thinks that Irish women look ashamed to be pregnant.
Francie's mother, Katie, works as a janitor cleaning three buildings. The extra money that the children earned and saved is given to Katie to be placed in the tin can. Katie sends Francie to buy stale bread at the store. After she takes the bread home, Francie wants to tag along with Neeley and some other boys, but they do not want her company. She watches as they harass a couple of other boys, including a Jewish boy, and then she walks to the library.
