Atlas Obscura is highlighting trees all this week in what they call, appropriately,
Tree Week.
Among posts about living trees and historical trees, they also pay
tribute to trees in fiction. It’s only natural, as literature has been
dependent on trees for a thousand years. They bypassed the most obvious
choices (The Giving Tree) and introduce us to some literary trees you
might not have thought of, like the Tree of Heaven from the book
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
The
so-called Tree of Heaven grows outside the window of Francie Nolan, a
second-generation Irish-American girl coming of age in Brooklyn at the
turn of the century. Just as Francie and her family struggle against the
odds to make a life for themselves, the tree too manages to prosper
without water, light, or care. Francie grows from a girl to young woman
under the harsh conditions of tenement life, enduring poverty, assault,
loneliness, and betrayal. Through it all, she maintains a deep and
abiding inner strength. Like Francie, the tree that grows out of the
cement in Brooklyn is tough, tenacious, and blossoming against all odds.
It’s the kind of tree you root for.
Read about six other
literary trees at Atlas Obscura.
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