What happens in Book Two of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?
Book Two begins by looking back at the origins of Katie and Johnny Nolan before Francie and Neeley come into the picture. We are introduced to Mary Rommely, Katie's immigrant mother, who arrives from Austria-Hungary and settles in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There, she raises her daughters—Katie, Evy, Sissy, and Eliza—in harsh poverty. This chapter centers on the Rommely women's legacy: their beauty, their stubbornness, and the heavy burden of being both female and poor in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. Mary teaches Katie a quiet but strong survival philosophy—that a woman must be tougher than a man to face the same world. We then follow young Katie as she develops into a capable, observant girl who manages the family's limited resources. The chapter concludes with Katie's first meeting with Johnny Nolan, a charming and handsome singer whose lightness starkly contrasts with her own seriousness. Their courtship is brief but intense; Katie, despite knowing better, chooses to marry him. Betty Smith tells this backstory with the simplicity of a folk tale, anchoring the novel's present struggle in a lineage of women who survived by making that choice.
Analysis
Smith's choice to intersperse Francie's story with her parents' backgrounds serves a clear purpose: she emphasizes that understanding a child requires recognizing the history that precedes her. Book Two almost feels like a standalone novella, marked by an immediate tonal shift. The lyrical, child-centered present tense transforms into a more straightforward, chronicle-like voice reminiscent of oral history.
Mary Rommely stands as the novel's ethical foundation. Her advice to Katie — that every child should learn to read, and that a tree and a Bible should be central in each home — provides context for the opening image of the ailanthus tree and Francie's Saturday library visits. Smith establishes cause before effect throughout the narrative, demonstrating a structural patience that rewards careful readers.
The romance between Katie and Johnny is portrayed with intentional irony: while Katie’s practical nature sees through Johnny’s irresponsibility, she still chooses him. Smith avoids romanticizing or condemning this decision, instead presenting it as a rare moment of unrestrained desire in an otherwise disciplined life. This choice creates the novel's central tension between beauty and survival.
The theme of female resilience permeates every scene. The Rommely sisters are distinguished not by fortune but by their strategies: Sissy's warmth, Evy's humor, and Katie's resolve. Smith employs these differences to suggest that while poverty influences character, it does not define it — a subtly radical stance for American fiction in 1943.
Key quotes from Book Two
“A woman must be harder than a man to endure the same world.”
Mary Rommely delivers this as near-commandment to Katie, establishing the generational philosophy of endurance that shapes every female character in the novel.
“She knew he was no good and she loved him with all her heart.”
Smith's narrator summarises Katie's decision to marry Johnny in a single sentence, holding clear-eyed judgment and genuine feeling in deliberate, unresolved tension.
“It was the Rommely women who kept things going.”
A choral, almost biblical declaration that anchors the chapter's argument: survival in Williamsburg is a female inheritance, passed down not through wealth but through will.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Book Two
- tintype
- An old-fashioned photograph made on a thin sheet of iron coated with a dark lacquer; common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an inexpensive portrait format.
- singing waiter
- A waiter in a saloon or banquet hall who was also hired to entertain guests by singing; this was Johnny Nolan's occupation and the source of both his charm and his irregular income.
- Tammany
- The Democratic Party political machine that controlled New York City politics through patronage, favors, and ward bosses; characters in the novel navigate its influence when seeking jobs or assistance.
- ward heeler
- A low-level political operative who does errands and favors for a party machine boss in exchange for votes; a figure of petty local power in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of the novel.
- lace-curtain
- A phrase describing Irish-Americans who had risen slightly above poverty and were anxious to appear respectable; used in the novel to mark social distinctions within the immigrant community.
- greenhorn
- A newly arrived immigrant who is unfamiliar with American customs and is easily cheated or mocked; used in the novel to describe the vulnerability of recent arrivals to Brooklyn.