The book a tree grows in Brooklyn captures a certain dark part about New York City in the way it shows poverty. Practically every main character's life revolves around having an unfortunate financial status. In the New York of the early 1900's there was no WIC, no food stamps, it was making due with what you have. Betty Smith shows how being poor in New York city branches off into unforeseen unfortunate consequences and causes people to base their whole lives around conserving. A tree grows in Brooklyn is a depressing story, but it is one that is important for its genuine realism on New York City poverty and all the unexpected turns involved with it.

When Johnny, the father or "provider" of the Nolan family dies, it causes a chain of events that sets the family into a black hole of misery. With Johnny's absence, the Nolan's...