A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

      More Letters From Paradise
       A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I just read a most interesting book "When Books Went to War" by Molly Nuptial Manning. It tells how paperback books were printed small-size for U.S. servicemen during the war. I have written about this earlier on my blog. What really interested me most was why "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,"by Betty Smith, was the most popular sought after book.  I had seen the hard cover edition many times, but never read it. I just finished the book in a new paper limited edition. And, I think I now know why it was so popular.

The book details life as it was lived in the tenements of Brooklyn just before World War I. The characters you get to know are very poor Irish immigrants. They were often hungry.  When the servicemen read this, many of them were living the the depths of the Great Depression . They too had known hunger.

The characters in the book realized that the way up and out of the tenements was to get an education. The service men during WWII were as a whole, poorly educated. Many never graduated from the eighth grade, much less high school or college.  There was such a strong desire to become better educated by the characters in the book. Those G.I.s could identify. They had been prevented from advancing their education for the very same reasons, poverty and opportunity.

After the war many G.I.s eagerly embraced the first G.I. Bill of Rights, which made it possible for them to go to school at government expense. I know this as a fact,  because my father was one of those men, and he earned a college degree. Also, two G.Is who rented two rooms in our house, were also attending college.

The buildings of the college in our small town had burned sometime during the war. But no matter, as classes were conducted in military barracks. I always thought how ironic it was for these men who had lived in barracks, to now attending classes in similar barracks. My mother was proud to have been one of the teachers.

I think the theme of the book could be "Hope through education." It worked for the heroine in the book, it worked for the G.I.s then, and for those of Korea and Vietnam. It also worked for my MA degree. And it continues to do so with current veterans.

      Aloha
      Grant