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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Chapter 10 and 11
People look at the baby, Francie, with pity because she looks unhealthy and skinny. As soon as Katie forces herself to make sure that her baby will have a better life than she does, she discovers that she is pregnant again. Johnny accepts this news as defeat and gets drunk. The baby's name is Cornelius, after a noble stage actor, and soon becomes known as Neeley. Katie's love is not shared equally.
"I must watch myself very carefully...I am going to love this boy more than the girl but I mustn't ever let her know. It is wrong to love one child more than the other but this is something that I cannot help." Chapter 10, pg. 94
Katie starts to become independent and stoic, while Johnny drinks more and goes downhill. She is only eighteen and he is only twenty.
Chapter 11
Johnny celebrates his 21st birthday by drinking too much. Katie locks him in the bedroom to sober him up, but he only screams and throws a massive tantrum that gets the family thrown out of the apartment and neighborhood. Sissy comes over with whiskey between her breasts. She knows tenderness and more alcohol will soothe him. He falls asleep on her naked breast, like a baby with his mother. He is the child that she never had. Katie argues with Sissy about how she treats him like both a lover and a child. However, Sissy can never appear wrong in an argument, so Katie lets her continue to help Johnny.
